What is Shokuya?
We are an importer of artisanal Japanese kitchen staples - rice, shoyu, tea, vinegar, and other ingredients. “Shokuya” means “food store.” We serve consumers and users of Japanese ingredients.
We are passionate about Japanese culture, food, agriculture, fermentation, tea making, and other techniques. We want to bridge cultures, cuisines, languages, and knowledge bases.
We are insatiable foragers. We research categories, regions, and suppliers. We meet with suppliers to learn more. We develop relationships. We taste, select, repackage, import, and sell.
We are also a team of creatives. Japanese design and packaging are world-renowned. We use our suppliers' branding and packaging and we create our own using the branding we have developed.
We like to keep things simple and friendly. We are not makers or chefs. We are a supplier. We sit at the cross section between makers and users. We focus on our job in the supply chain and give it our best.
We make artisanal Japanese ingredients accessible
Goals
We want to create a portfolio of exceptionally delicious products.
We also want to represent the people who make them, their visions, and their companies.
We want to represent the people, companies, traditions, and regions behind every product.
We also want to capture and express regionality, seasonality, and craftsmanship. Japanese cuisine and the making of products is incredibly diverse and nuanced. There are many different styles and types of products that seem so simple like rice, vinegar, or soy sauce. However, within these categories, there are differences based on region, ingredients, and manufacturing. Even if we could or should have another certain item, we might resist, or we might just stick to one type or location. However, we will do a lot of work to make this decision.
We also want to select products that are delicious on their own, or with just one or two other items. We cherish a bowl of rice with a bit of meat and delicious shoyu. We want our products to be so delicious that this is possible. At the same time, we don’t want to be so precious that you can’t pour in a cup of something to make a bigger dish. Over time, we intend to have more bulk products like this. To start, we are keeping it small.
Supplier selection
We believe that safety, health, sustainability, and renewal are essential principles of any good food and beverage business. We work with Japanese makers who practice high levels of safety, cleanliness, low waste, efficiency, environmentalism, and community development.
All of our suppliers are practicing some form of sustainability. Many of our suppliers use organic farming and production methods, even if they don't have certification. We are applying for organic certification as an importer so we can say "organic" on our labels when they are in Japan.
We have started with the southern island of Kyushu so we travel within a smaller geography. We also consolidate and ship from Kyushu. We use bags made from recycled biomass. We limit the use of aluminum cans, and we use glass bottles instead of plastic.
Most of our suppliers are small, multi-generational craftspeople, living in the countryside of Japan. Many of their local areas have seen depopulation due to rural flight and general aging trends. The average age of a farmer in Japan is around 65. We work with a number of young owners who are keeping their family businesses going and protecting their local environments and traditions. We try to place minimal demands on them so they can succeed in all areas of their businesses with limited resources. We hope to bring them more profit to grow.
Our Promise
We intensively research, taste, meet with suppliers, visit, learn, taste, talk, select products, and clearly present them. There is a good reason for every supplier and product we have, all the way down to the size of the package and price. We apply our palates many times before making decisions. We will continue tasting, evaluating, and deciding. We will also use your feedback to make this process richer.
