History of tomato ketchup in Japan

The first tomato ketchup manufactured and sold were made by Yosuke Shimizu who were a farmer cultivating Europe vegi in Koyasu,Yokohama in 1903 Meiji era.At that time Koyasu was like entrance of foreign information and stuff ,lively post town with  many people.Yosuke was one of farmers of the first cultivating Europe vegi that were tomato,radish,celery,etc.It is said that  beginning of Europe vegi cultivation was that the person Harukichi Tsutsumi imported various kind of vegi from America in around 1866.Afterwords Yosuke began to make tomato sauce but when the beginning It was difficult to make profit so other tomato growers gradually gave up processing  tomato industry but Yosuke had continued to study to make tomato ketchup just alone.And finally he completed to start manufacturing and selling of tomato ketchup in 1903.

Up to this point,information from the internet. This tomato ketchup is reprint version that is sold by souvenir shop called Yokohamaya-honpo in Yokohama. Mr. Maruyama of Yokohamaya-honpo completed the Shimizuya Tomato ketchup reprint version with co-operation of Yosuke’s descendants.

I enjoy this ketchup every day with thinking about the culture and people's lives of Yokohama more than 100 years ago.