Interview with Yutaka Ohno, Representative Director of Teshimaya
We interviewed Yutaka Ohno, President and Representative Director of Teshimaya, about the story behind the creation of Super Extra-Hot Sauce, what makes Teshimaya distinctive, and his aspirations for the future.
This article presents the interview conducted during our initial visit in January 2020.
“Super Extra-Hot Sauce” draws attention from across Japan
When did Super Extra-Hot Sauce start attracting attention?
Ohno
Super Extra-Hot Sauce was originally made for commercial use.
It was launched in 1997.
It was featured in the media, including on television and in magazines, and gradually attracted more attention.
Eventually, in response to requests for a household version, we began selling Super Extra-Hot Sauce for home use in 2000.
At first, sales were probably a little over 500 bottles a year, calculated as 360 milliliters each.
Then word of mouth spread among people who love spicy food and sauce, and by 2006, sales had reached more than 10,000 bottles a year, calculated as 360 milliliters each.
Since then, in addition to word of mouth, it has been featured in the media many times. Today, it has become a hit product, selling about 48,000 bottles a year, calculated as 360 milliliters each.
Kansai’s sauce culture also helped make Super Extra-Hot Sauce a hit
Super Extra-Hot Sauce is also sold online. Where are most of your customers located?
Ohno
Locally, in Okayama, people can buy it at supermarkets and other stores, so most of our online sales are outside Okayama Prefecture.
Our biggest markets are the Kansai region and Hiroshima Prefecture.
Both are areas where people eat a lot of dishes made with sauce, such as okonomiyaki.
Among them, we have many customers in Osaka Prefecture and Hyogo Prefecture.
That’s because sauce lovers in Kansai have a culture of blending several sauces at home to create a sauce to their own taste.
Super Extra-Hot Sauce is very popular as one of the sauces they blend.
In fact, we’re allowed to sell Super Extra-Hot Sauce at service areas along the Sanyo Expressway.
Many Kansai sauce lovers who spot it there buy it to take home, think, “This would be great for blending!” and then purchase Super Extra-Hot Sauce from our online shop.
I think they buy it from our online shop because they’ve had a chance to pick up the sauce at a popular stop along the expressway, try it, and enjoy it.
And they’re people from Kansai, where sauce culture is deeply rooted.
Of course, word of mouth and media coverage have helped make Super Extra-Hot Sauce a hit.
On top of that, I feel that sauce lovers in Kansai, sales at expressway service areas, and our online shop have all had a major combined effect.
“Super Extra-Hot Sauce” was created in response to a customer’s request
How did Super Extra-Hot Sauce come about?
Ohno
It started with a request from one of our customers.
A restaurant that we supply with our sauce told us, “We want you to make a sauce that’s much, much hotter—really hot—than the hot sauce made by a certain sauce manufacturer in Kobe.”
After a process of trial and error, we created a sauce with 100 times the capsaicin, the spicy component, compared with our other products.
We had our employees and various other people try it, and the response was very positive.
That’s how Super Extra-Hot Sauce was born.
But the reason we were able to start making prototypes right away in response to the customer’s request was that we had a chili pepper extract factory.
Teshimaya has decades of know-how in making chili pepper extract
Is it unusual for a company to have a chili pepper extract factory?
Ohno
It’s unusual for a company to have a chili pepper extract factory anywhere in Japan.
In fact, we built a chili pepper extract factory back in the 1960s.
Super Extra-Hot Sauce was made possible by our know-how about chili peppers and spicy components, accumulated over many years.
You might be wondering why we’ve been making chili pepper extract for so long, right?
Of course, we also used it in our own sauces.
We also made chili pepper extract for commercial use, for products such as seasoned seaweed and mentaiko.
Teshimaya actually makes many products for commercial use.
We have about 50 products for home use, but about 80 for commercial use.
Responding closely to customers’ needs and providing seasonings tailored to each restaurant’s flavor
Why do you have as many as 80 products for commercial use?
Ohno
We respond to our customers’ needs by making seasonings and seasoning liquids in small batches.
Local restaurants and food manufacturers each have their own flavors, and different seasonings for each menu item.
For example, a delicatessen might use a different seasoning liquid for each prepared dish.
But small shops and companies inevitably place small-batch orders.
Large seasoning manufacturers often don’t accommodate small-batch production.
So we at Teshimaya began accepting small-batch orders to meet the needs of local restaurants and food manufacturers.
That’s how our commercial product range grew to 80 varieties as we responded to our customers’ requests.
We create flavors tailored to each shop and product.
Our distinctive products, including Super Extra-Hot Sauce, were born from that experience.
By the way, I’ve developed more than 200 product prototypes!
“Local sauces” have a place, too
What are your aspirations for the future, or things you’d like to try?
Ohno
There are local ramen and local yakisoba, right?
I think there could be “local sauces” in the same way.
There are many sauce manufacturers throughout Japan, especially in western Japan, making products rooted in their regions.
Each manufacturer and each region has its own distinctive sauces.
There are also regional differences in how people use sauce.
In fact, Tate Sauce is widely used in the Mimasaka region, including Tsuyama.
Tsuyama is famous for hormone udon.
Hormone udon is made with miso sauce.
But around Tsuyama, people use Worcestershire sauce for yakisoba!
That’s quite distinctive, isn’t it?
And many restaurants use Tate Sauce Worcestershire sauce.
I’d like more people to learn about these regional ways of using sauce and the distinctive flavors of local sauces.
In fact, Okayama Prefecture is one of Japan’s biggest sauce-consuming regions.
According to Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications statistics, it has ranked first or second in Japan at times.
I don’t know why Okayama Prefecture consumes so much sauce, either.
It might be interesting to look into that, too.
Promoting industrial tourism to share the region’s history and appeal nationwide
What else are you focusing on?
Ohno
Right now, industrial tourism is one of our priorities.
I’m also involved in tourism in Tamashima.
Our company is part of an “industrial tourism tour” that visits companies in Tamashima and Kurashiki City.
Visitors can see how sauce is made, something they normally wouldn’t get to see, and sample the products. It’s been very well received.
Kurashiki, including Tamashima, is a region with many traditional industries and long-established companies.
I think new companies have inherited that spirit, too.
I’d like as many people as possible to learn about the region’s traditional industries.
And everyone at Teshimaya is working together to create “flavors that excite, made with passion” and “traditional flavors passed down to this day”!
From the Writer
I’ve been familiar with Tate Sauce since I was little.
I’m so happy that Tate Sauce has become known throughout Japan for its Super Extra-Hot Sauce.
I think this hit product was made possible by the experience and know-how Teshimaya gained by responding to the flavors each local shop wanted and recreating them.
Super Extra-Hot Sauce, which has won over so many spicy-food and sauce lovers.
And the classic sauces that form its foundation.
Plus seasonings such as ryotei dashi and salted sauce.
Why not bring the traditional flavors of this long-established manufacturer to your dining table?
Teshimaya data
| Organization | Teshimaya |
|---|---|
| Industry | Food manufacturing and sales (sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, other seasonings, chili pepper extract) |
| Representative | Yutaka Ohno |
| Established | Established: August 1, 1948; founded: 1720 |
| Address | 1-7-8 Tamashima Chuo-cho, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture |
| Contact | 086-522-2148 |
| Website | Teshimaya in Tamashima, Kurashiki City — Tate Sauce / Super Extra-Hot Sauce / Okonomiyaki Sauce / Ryotei Dashi / Soy Sauce, Sauce and Vinegar Brewery |
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