Photo/Illutration Kozo Iwanaga and his son, Sodai, greet a customer in Ashikita, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Sept. 27, 2020, after Iwanaga Shoyu resumed sales of soy sauce. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

“The water was 180 centimeters high here, and reached 2 meters there,” said Kozo Iwanaga as he pointed out sites inundated by flooding in Ashikita, Kumamoto Prefecture, this time last year.

But from the cloudless sky and the peacefully flowing river, it was hard to visualize the roiling floodwaters that devastated parts of the town.

Iwanaga, 52, the fourth-generation owner of Iwanaga Shoyu, a soy sauce brewer, was patrolling the area as a volunteer firefighter in the predawn hours of July 4 last year.

His instinct told him that the rainfall was unlike anything he was used to.

He rushed back to his soy sauce factory to find it flooded. He woke up his family to get them to take refuge on the second floor.

There was nothing he could do to contain the deluge. The soy sauce tank inside the factory had toppled over and mud was everywhere.

Marks left on the walls by the muddy water indicate the extent of the flood damage.

Still, the thought of closing the family business never entered Iwanaga’s head as he had plans for his 24-year-old son, Sodai, to take over one day.

He resorted to crowdfunding to get back on his feet and 940 people contributed 10 million yen ($90,000).

A donor attached this message: “Our dining table has never been without a bottle of Iwanaga soy sauce since ... forever.” Another said, “Whenever I return home, I make sure to pick up Iwanaga’s sashimi soy sauce.”

These encouraging messages made Iwanaga acutely aware that soy sauce making had been the family business since 1909.

In late September last year, the company resumed soy sauce shipments. Sales of miso fermented soybean paste followed in April.

“This past year flew by like in a dream,” Iwanaga noted.

Seventy-nine people perished and two remain unaccounted for in the torrential rains that lashed Kyushu in July last year.

The disaster was the result of a linear rainband spawned by a series of cumulus clouds that cause downpours.

The Japan Meteorological Agency initiated a program this summer to alert the public when a linear rainband forms. I cannot but wish this had been done sooner.

The town of Ashikita still bears the scars of last year’s disaster. I saw fragments of cups and hair combs at a mudslide site.

A Tanabata (Star Festival) decoration, set up at a local tourist information center, was strung with a “tanzaku” votive card that read, “You’ve all tried so hard this past year.”

This simple message made my chest feel tight.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 3

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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