Soy Sauce Kingdom, Food store and museum in Hidaka, Japan.

Soy Sauce Kingdom is a food store and museum in Hidaka that showcases how traditional soy sauce is made. The facility explains the fermentation process through hands-on examples and displays the raw materials and steps leading to the finished product.

Yugeda Shoyu was founded in 1923 in present-day Sakado when its first head, Shigesada Yugeda, brought equipment and a master brewer from a soy sauce brewery in Iruma. The company traces its roots back over 200 years through that earlier brewery. The Hidaka facility, Soy Sauce Kingdom, is its museum and sales site.

The name Soy Sauce Kingdom plays on the Japanese word for soy sauce, shōyu. The site is run by Yūgeta Shōyu, a brewery founded in 1923 in what is now Sakado; its first head of household, Yūgeta Sasada, brought equipment and a master brewer from a brewery in present-day Iruma. Visitors can squeeze fresh raw soy sauce themselves on a press used in production.

The location is easy to reach and offers a clear overview of the entire production process that is explained even to visitors with no background knowledge. It makes sense to allow time to explore different areas and understand the details of fermentation work.

The facility lets visitors operate a real soy-sauce press and take home the raw soy sauce they squeeze themselves. Yageta Shōyu, which runs it, traces its founding to 1923 in present-day Sakado, when the first head of the family, Yageta Sashige, moved equipment and a master brewer from a soy-sauce brewery in Iruma.