山からボトルへ
HOW OUR
SOY SAUCE
IS MADE
The journey from the mountains of Japan to the finished DOJO bottle — ingredients, koji, cedar barrels, and above all, time.
01 · BORN IN THE MOUNTAINS 山生まれ
BORN IN THE
MOUNTAINS.
Our soy sauce begins with Japan-grown soybeans and wheat, sea salt, and mountain spring water from the surrounding Japanese mountains.
Mountains, water, farmland, and a family brewery at the foot of it all. Mami is the heart of that brewery, and you can taste her care in every bottle of DOJO.
Nothing here is industrial: the craftspeople work between large wooden barrels the way this family has for five generations.
02 · PREPARING THE INGREDIENTS 下ごしらえ
PREPARING THE
INGREDIENTS.
The soybeans are prepared and the wheat is roasted before they are brought together to begin the brewing process.
It stays simple on purpose. Steamed soybeans, roasted wheat — the raw material for everything that follows.
03 · KOJI 麹
KOJI BEGINS THE
TRANSFORMATION.
The prepared soybeans and wheat are introduced to koji, the culture at the heart of traditional Japanese fermentation.
Over several days, the koji begins breaking the ingredients down and building the foundation for the flavor that will eventually become soy sauce.
04 · INTO THE CEDAR BARRELS 木桶
INTO THE
CEDAR BARRELS.
The koji is combined with salt and mountain spring water to create moromi, the fermenting mash that eventually becomes soy sauce.
The moromi is transferred into large traditional cedar barrels, where time and fermentation take over. Brewers work between the giant barrels — stirring, checking, waiting.
05 · TIME DOES THE WORK 熟成
TWO YEARS.
EVERY SEASON, TWICE.
The moromi slowly ferments and matures through the changing Japanese seasons, developing its aroma, color, depth, and savory umami. For DOJO, this process takes around two years.
06 · PRESSED 搾り
PRESSED INTO
SOY SAUCE.
Once the moromi has matured, it is slowly pressed to separate the liquid soy sauce from the fermented solids.
Layer by layer of cloth, under slow and steady pressure, the dark soy sauce finally emerges — everything that developed inside the barrel becomes the sauce we drink and cook with.
07 · BOTTLED 瓶詰め
FINISHED +
BOTTLED.
The freshly pressed soy sauce is carefully finished and prepared for bottling, preserving the deep umami, aroma, and balanced flavor created during fermentation.
Then it begins its journey from the mountains of Japan to DOJO.
08 · TIME IS AN INGREDIENT 時間
AROUND TWO YEARS TO MAKE.
MONTHS TO CROSS THE OCEAN.
SECONDS FOR YOU TO ENJOY.
DOJO isn't made quickly. The flavor comes from ingredients, fermentation, craftsmanship — and most importantly, time.
THE FOUNDER 創業者
MEET CHAZ.
Chaz has always loved soy sauce. Maybe a little too much.
He put it on everything, but the bottles were messy, hard to control, and almost guaranteed to leave a stain. After spilling soy sauce on himself one too many times, he started wondering why such an essential ingredient had never been given a better bottle.
That question led to a much bigger discovery. Many of the soy sauces Chaz grew up with were produced in the United States for mass consumption, far removed from the patient brewing traditions that made Japanese soy sauce so special.
So he traveled across the world to Japan to experience the craft firsthand. There, he found a family-run, women-led brewery where soy sauce is slowly brewed with care, patience, and generations of knowledge.
Chaz created DOJO to bring that experience home: authentic Japanese soy sauce with deep, balanced flavor, packaged in a precision squeeze bottle that makes it easier and more fun to use.
What began with a spill became a mission to help America rediscover how soy sauce should taste.
