Japan is home to only a handful of soy sauce sommeliers—certified inspectors who regularly visit breweries and report on their products—and Keiko Kuroshima is the first and only woman, so far, to earn the title. She was born and raised in Shodoshima, an island in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea that has been a major soy sauce production hub for centuries, thanks in part to its flourishing salt and shipping industries and close proximity to trading ports, where manufacturers could easily obtain soybeans and wheat to make the condiment, and export it to surrounding areas. (During the Meiji era, in the second half of the 19th century, Kuroshima says the area was home to as many as 400 breweries; around 20 remain today.)