Yuasa Birthplace of Soy Sauce

 

Yuasa is a small town and port on the coast of Wakayama and once a resting point on the Kiiji Route of the Kumano Kodo, which was the reason I was visiting.

Enough of the old town and its architecture remain so that Yuasa was registered as an Historic Preservation Distrist, the only one in the whole prefecture.

Some of the preservation districts are big tourist spots, like Gion, or Kurashiki, and they are filled with cafes and souvenir shops, but Yuasa is more the kind I prefer, somewhat run-down and with few outsiders....

More recently, Yuasa was registered as  a Japan Heritage Site, and so the increased funding and exposure has brought more visitors and some gentrification.

The reason is that Yuasa has a claim to be the birthplace of soy sauce.

According to the story, a Buddhist monk settled in Yuasa in the 13th century after returning from his studies in Chima.

He brought back a style of miso-making called kinzanji in Japanese. This produced a small amount of liquid that proved to be delicious as seasoning, so the local miso makers created a production method that increased the amount of this liquid, and so soy sauce was born.

Soy sauce production grew in the town with about 90 companies operating here in the Edo Period.

Only a handful remain, with Yuasa Soy Sauce Company being the biggest.

The tone hosts what it called the Seiro Museum. Seiro are wooden trays used in the production of soy sauce.

They are used as a frame to make displays of things related to everyday life in Yuasa.

They can be found throughout the historic district.

Since I visited there are now various ways to delve more deeply into the history of Soy in Yuasa, including factory tours.

Also, like Shodoshima and other locations in Japan, soy sauce-flavoured ice cream is on sale.

The first photo of the post, and the last couple, show the Kadocho Soy Sauce Brewery.

The previous post in this series on walking the Saigoku Pilgrimage and Kumano Kodo was on Jinsenji Temple in Yuasa.

Shointei Garden Tsuwano

 

Saronoki is a comoex of buildings in the old castle town of Tsuwano, known as a "Little Kyoto".

Mostly a souvenir store Saranoki also has a fast food restaurant with ice cream, and a more traditional restaurant and coffee shop with views of a traditional garden known as Shointei.

The property is inside what was the samurai quarter of the town, and this site was the residence of the highest-ranking retainer of the local lord.

The owner of the establishment was kind enough to take around some of the private, family areas of the complex and so we were able to viewthe garden from many other angles.

 

It is claimed that the garden has some kind of national recognition,though as a scenic spot or what I don't know,

In fact none of the sources I use for traditional garden information has any info at all.

The previous post in this series on Tsuwano was on the Morijuku Museum and its gardens,,,

Historic Streets of Tomonoura

 

Tomonoura is a historic port town that still exudes an atmosphere of a time gone by without looking like a fake, Disneyfied version of history.

Tomonoura flourished as a port on the busy Inland Sea, in many ways the most important transportation route in Japan.

When I first visited more than 20 years ago I was very impressed with the town, and that was before I learnt about the Historic Preservation District status. I have since sought out as many of these districts bas I can, but Tomonoura remains one of my favourites.

Hayao Miyazaki, the famed Ghibli animator, spent a few months here back in 2005 and many believe that Ponyo, his 2008 hit movie, was inspired by Tomonoura.

More recently the 2013 Marvel movie, Wolverine, was also partially filmed here.

As well as these movies, history buffs visit to explore the links Ryoma Sakamoto had with the town.

There are a scattering of small museums and properties open to the public, as well as sake breweries and numerous cafes and eateries...

Worth mentioning is Homeishu, a local medicinal liquor made with 16 different medicinal herbs. It is surprisingly tasty and well worth a try. Created by a local doctor in the mid 17th century, for a time it was the major economic product of the town.

On this visit, I was more interested in the town's temples, so I did not visit many of the sites.

I was on my way to my last stop in the town, a temple right in the middle of the town....

So I just snapped these shots walking through the stone-paved shopping streets and narrow alleys between warehouses...

Tomonoura has been accorded Japan Heritage status.

In total there are more than 280 buildings dating back to the Edo Period.

Tomonoura and Fukuyama are well worth a visit and is not, right now at least, suffering from the issues of overtourism that Hiroshima City is...

Needing to catch a local bus to get to is probably part of the reason.....

The previous post in this series was on the second part of my walk through Tomonoura Termachi.

These huge stones at the local shrine are chikaraishi, weighing between 120 to 230 kilograms, they were used in weightlifting demonstrations by "longshoremen".