Short Fascinating Film Shows How Japanese Soy Sauce Has Been Made for the Past 750 years

A few years back, we vis­it­ed Hōshi, a hotel locat­ed in Komat­su, Japan, which holds the dis­tinc­tion of being the 2nd old­est hotel in the world, and “the old­est still run­ning fam­i­ly busi­ness in the world.” Built in 718 AD, Hōshi has been oper­at­ed by the same fam­i­ly for 46 con­sec­u­tive gen­er­a­tions.

It’s hard to imag­ine. But it’s true. Once estab­lished, Hōshi would have to wait anoth­er 500 years before soy sauce came to Japan and could be served to its guests. Accord­ing to the Nation­al Geo­graph­ic video above, a bud­dhist monk trav­eled from Chi­na to Yuasa, Japan in the 13th cen­tu­ry. And there he began pro­duc­ing soy sauce, fer­ment­ing soy beans, wheat, salt and water. That tra­di­tion con­tin­ues to this day. This fas­ci­nat­ing short film by Mile Nagao­ka gives you a good glimpse into this time­less process.

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

Hōshi: A Short Film on the 1300-Year-Old Hotel Run by the Same Japan­ese Fam­i­ly for 46 Gen­er­a­tions

Ear­ly Japan­ese Ani­ma­tions: The Ori­gins of Ani­me (1917–1931)

Hand-Col­ored Pho­tographs of 19th Cen­tu­ry Japan

A Hyp­not­ic Look at How Japan­ese Samu­rai Swords Are Made

Female Samu­rai War­riors Immor­tal­ized in 19th Cen­tu­ry Japan­ese Pho­tos

Hand-Col­ored 1860s Pho­tographs Reveal the Last Days of Samu­rai Japan

Leg­endary Japan­ese Author Yukio Mishi­ma Mus­es About the Samu­rai Code (Which Inspired His Hap­less 1970 Coup Attempt)