# Tamari Shoyu Is Overrated In The West

When you search about shoyu (soy sauce) in English, a lot of people
recommend tamari shoyu because it's less salty and has deeper taste
& flavor. But if you search about tamari shoyu in Japanese (if you
just search about shoyu, you probably couldn't find tamari), people
recommend it only as a dipping sauce for sashimi (raw fish) or for
stir-frying meat & fish because of its strong flavor.

Why is it like that?


First of all, the darkness and flavor of shoyu comes from the
fermentation of soybeans. So more salt means less fermentation and
lighter color. Also more wheat (shoyu is not just from soybeans)
means lighter color. Like shiro miso (white miso) containing wheat
has lighter color than aka miso (red miso).

Then there are types of shoyu by the colors. Tamari > Koikuchi >
Usukuchi > Shiro. Tamari is the darkest and Shiro is the lightest.
Tamari uses only soybeans but Shiro uses a lot more wheat than
soybeans (1:9). If you compare saltiness, Usukuchi is the most
salty and Tamari is the least.

"Shoyu" without any adjectives means koikuchi shoyu. The ratio of
soybean and wheat is 1:1 in koikuchi. So it's for general purpose.
And more importantly, it was invented in Kanto region which contains
Edo (the former name of Tokyo).


The origin of shoyu was tamari. So I could call tamari the most
Chinese type because shoyu came from China. But soon people in
Kyoto realized that tamari is too strong and dark so that it kills
the original flavors and colors of the ingredients. Thus they
invented usukuchi shoyu. Well, to be precise, it was invented in
Hyogo which is near to Kyoto.

Usukuchi shoyu is the most salty. Because of that, you need only a
little of it. This with the already light color makes foods a lot
lighter. Usukuchi shoyu accentuate the original flavors and colors
instead of killing them. Think of Greek Horta. I think those are
similar in the way of thinking.

However, with the start of Edo period, the capital of Japan went
from Kyoto to Edo. Well, emperors still have lived in Kyoto, but
they are just symbols anyway. And a problem was that Edo people
ate much more (especially blue) fishes and birds than Kyoto people.
But usukuchi shoyu is not strong enough to cover the original
scents. And tamari is still too strong.

Note that Kyoto was the city of emperor, scholars, and buddhists
who don't eat meat but Edo was more like a city of merchants who
prefered stronger taste. Also Kyoto is surrounded by mountains so
that people couldn't get fresh seafoods anyway even if they wanted.
Seafoods were usually fermented or salted.

Thus Kanto people invented koikuchi shoyu. With that, Kanto people
had started to use katsuobushi for the main ingredient of dashi
and soba went widespread with mentsuyu. In Kyoto, people still
prefer konbu > katsuobushi, and udon > soba. Also note that Kyoto
style dashi doesn't include ingredients other than konbu & katuobushi
like shiitake and daikon. The purpose is to make lighter dashi.


Long story short, what I really want to say is that stop overusing
tamari like a savage. And try usukuchi shoyu. It's a lot more
refined and noble taste. Shiro miso and konbu dashi are good too!