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Soy sauce supply for
the troops, c. 1937.
pre-modern Japan showed a considerable regional variation. By the eighteenth
century the best-quality soy sauce was produced by commercial
brewers clustered in large cities, in particular Edo, while the rural population
relied overwhelmingly on home-made soybean paste (miso) for
flavouring. 83 The use of soy sauce by most farm households, which were
largely self-sufficient in food, was restricted to special occasions such as
festivals and weddings. They purchased soy sauce from local brewers,
since only wealthy farmers could afford to brew soy sauce at home. The
situation was different in central Japan (Aichi, Mie and Gifu prefectures),
where so-called tamari shōyu – much less complex in manufacture and
different in taste from the conventional soy sauce consumed in cities – was
brewed in most households. 84
Throughout the twentieth century, owing to urbanization, rising
standards of living and a shift towards industrialized mass manufacture,
not only did soy sauce become the dominant flavouring for the ever
increasing number of Japanese, but its taste was becoming increasingly
standardized. This was due to the modernization of production, which
came to rely more and more on chemical knowledge and machinery rather
than centuries-old know-how and experience among regional brewers.
Moreover, the market share of major manufacturers steadily increased and
hundreds of local varieties were gradually replaced by national brands. 85
In 1937 the five largest firms were responsible for a quarter of Japanese soy
sauce production. 86 The soy sauce case illustrates perfectly the increasingly
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