Kojiya Ise Tamari (糀屋 伊勢たまり)

The story behind it

Tamari (little or no wheat) is a special kind of shoyu (soy sauce) that survives only in the Tokai region. It began as the liquid that seeped to the bottom of barrels of miso. Because it is brewed mainly from soybeans, it is thicker and more syrupy than ordinary shoyu, with a deeper savoriness.

Kojiya was founded in 1816 on Kamiji-dori, the approach in front of the Outer Shrine of Ise Jingu, and has been making this tamari for more than 200 years. It exhibited at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915, and its tamari is offered at the Outer Shrine at the time of the shrine's periodic rebuilding. This is a maker that represents Ise.

The base of the dark, heavy sauce on Ise udon, the specialty eaten by pilgrims to Ise, is this tamari. The flavor of the temple-town approach, brought straight to your table.