Tsuru Bishio from Shodoshima
$34.00
Sale price
$34.00
Regular price
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Tsuru Bishio from Shodoshima
$34.00
Sale price
$34.00
Regular price
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There is one bottle in your pantry that changes how you think about seasoning. This is it.
Tsuru Bishio is Yamaroku's flagship soy sauce — double-brewed using the saishikomi method, aged for four years in cedar kioke barrels that have been alive for over 150 years. The result is something closer to aged balsamic than anything you have poured from a supermarket bottle: dark, velvety, layered, and made from nothing but soybeans, wheat, and salt.
Highlights
- Double-brewed saishikomi method: completed soy sauce returned to the barrel, fresh ingredients added, then aged for four more years — twice the raw materials, twice the time, one bottle.
- Brewed by fifth-generation brewmaster Yasuo Yamamoto on Shodoshima Island — one of fewer than 1% of Japanese producers still using traditional kioke wood barrels.
- Three ingredients only — soybeans, wheat, and salt. No additives, no shortcuts. The same recipe since the Meiji era.
- Shipped directly from Yamaroku's brewery on Shodoshima — not from a US warehouse.
Best for: sashimi, chilled tofu, rice, steak, and finishing dishes.
Read the full story in Soy Sauce and the Inland Sea.
Read the full story in A Journey to Shodoshima.
For the hottest evenings, a few drops finish cold tofu in our Hiyayakko — The Dinner You Don't Cook.
A note on shipping: bottles travel by weight, so a second bottle adds only about $6 to U.S. shipping (one bottle ~$44 · two ~$50).
Details
- Common Product Name: Saishikomi Soy Sauce（再仕込み醤油・鶴醤） See our guide to Japanese soy sauce types.
- Volume: 500ml
- Ingredients: Soybeans (domestic "Enrei"), Wheat (Hokkaido "Haruyutaka" / "Yumechikara" / "Haruyokoi"), Salt (Mexican sun-dried) — no additives
- Allergens: Contains soy and wheat
- Best Before: Approx. 3 years from production date (unopened)
- Storage: Cool, dark place. Refrigerate after opening. See our full storage guide.
- Origin: Shodoshima Island, Kagawa
- Producer: Yamaroku Shoyu Co., Ltd.（ヤマロク醤油株式会社, 5th generation）
Producer's Story
On Shodoshima Island in Japan's Seto Inland Sea, fifth-generation brewmaster Yasuo Yamamoto tends cedar kioke barrels that have been fermenting soy sauce for over 150 years. His brewery — built in the Meiji era and designated a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan — is home to more than 100 strains of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria living in its wooden beams and earthen walls. At a time when over 99% of Japanese soy sauce is produced in stainless steel tanks, Yamamoto-san chose to restore the near-extinct craft of kioke brewing. Tsuru Bishio is his most confident expression of that commitment: double-brewed, aged for a minimum of four years, made from nothing but soybeans, wheat, and salt.
Tasting Profile
Dark as mahogany and velvety in texture. The nose opens with caramel and roasted grain, followed by deep, layered umami that lingers without sharpness. Less salty than standard soy sauce — more rounded, more complex. The finish is long and warm. A drop on the tongue tells you immediately that this is something different.
Cooking Ideas
The classic introduction is one drop over sashimi or cold tofu — the depth of four years of fermentation needs nothing added. A drizzle over grilled fish or steak at the moment it comes off the heat brings an umami richness that transforms the dish in a way other condiments cannot. For those drawn to the fermentation and gut-health movement, this is the real thing — live cultures, no additives, aged slowly in living wood for four years. For something that will surprise every guest: a few drops on vanilla ice cream produce a caramel-like depth that is hard to explain and impossible to forget. Those who keep both Tsuru Bishio and Kiku Bishio — Yamaroku's lighter everyday soy sauce — find they reach for different bottles at different moments, and rarely go back to one alone.
Shipping from Japan
Glass bottles travel best together — add two or three to one box and the cost per bottle drops. Example U.S. shipping: 1 bottle ~$44 · 2 ~$50 · 3–5 ~$69. (Rates vary slightly with the exchange rate.) Shipped directly from Yamaroku’s brewery on Shodoshima.
Complete the table
Tsuru Bishio is the soy at the center. A few simple things set the whole table around it:
- Gokujo Kontobi Nori — Tsukiji’s prized blue-green nori, crisp for wrapping.
- Tamaruya Wasabi Paste — real Shizuoka hon-wasabi for sashimi and hand-rolls.
- Chidori-su Rice Vinegar — Kyoto’s two-century rice vinegar, for the sushi rice.
Or begin with all three of Yamaroku’s barrel-brewed sauces at once — the Yamaroku Tasting Set brings Tsuru, Kiku, and their sudachi-yuzu ponzu together in one box.
Or taste it the way we do at home — Tokyo Corn Rice, sweet summer corn folded into donabe rice and finished with a few drops of Tsuru Bishio.
Or, if you’re new here, see both ways we recommend starting — one bottle, or a complete first dinner — on our Start Here page.
Ships from Japan · Order more, pay less per item