- Soy sauce type
- 再仕込み醤油
Saishikomi
Brewed on soy sauce instead of brine.
Flavor profile
The strengths are editorial judgments on a scale within the family, not measurements. They can be compared across the soy sauce varieties, not directly against another family.
Saishikomi means rebrewed: instead of brine, the mash is brewed on already finished soy sauce, so the raw materials ferment in the previous round's result. That gives the family's deepest ferment, darker, sweeter, and denser than everything but tamari, and a price and flavor level that makes it a drop sauce rather than a kitchen sauce. It is also called kanro shoyu and sashimi soy sauce, and both names say something true about it.
Sensory analysis
Pyramid and character
Aroma
from the tub
- dark ferment
- dried fruit
- caramel
Taste
on the tongue
- deep umami
- sweetness
- round salinity
Finish
what lingers
- very long
- sweet
- heavy
Character 0-100 per axis, set relative to the other entries in the same family. An editorial judgment of a typical serving, not measurements.
Background
Facts
- Method
- brewed like regular soy sauce but with finished soy sauce instead of brine in the mash; a bottle thus carries two full brewings, and they are what you taste
- The name
- saishikomi means rebrewing; the alias kanro shoyu, roughly sweet dew, has followed the type since old times and describes the sweetness of the double ferment
- Origin
- Yanai in Yamaguchi counts as the birthplace, with records from the 1780s, and the town's breweries keep the tradition alive
- Use
- a dipping and finishing sauce, for sashimi, sushi, and finished dishes where a few drops are the whole dose
- Proportion
- under one percent of Japanese production, the smallest type next to shiro
In the kitchen
Use
- Dosage
- drops, not spoons; the double brewing makes every drop twice as heavy
- Timing
- always on the finished dish; in a stew the difference from koikuchi disappears, and then the money was wasted
- Note
- do not confuse the type with commercial sashimi soy sauce, which is sometimes just sweetened koikuchi; the word saishikomi on the label is what counts
Evidence
Sources
- 再仕込み醤油 (japanska Wikipedia) (retrieved 2026-08-15)
- Soy sauce (Wikipedia) (retrieved 2026-08-15)
- 柳井市 (japanska Wikipedia) (retrieved 2026-08-15)
Compiled by Basim Ali Yoshiguchi. .