In Kyoto’s Gojo area, a place for looking beyond “delicious” is taking its next step. SOAN, a food-culture space that opened in November 2025, has announced that it is aiming to become a “small design museum of food culture.” It is not a place to look at displays, but a place where food leads you to land, people and daily life.
From “somehow delicious” to a world you did not know
SOAN is run by Release, a general incorporated association based in Kyoto. Its concept is “Table to Arts & Earth – discovering and sharing ‘delicious’.” Starting from eating, it has widened its curiosity to the climate and seasons of a place, the work of makers, tools, everyday wisdom, history and culture.
The museum it now describes is not one that displays a finished food culture or collects correct answers. You start from “this is somehow delicious” or “I want to know a little more”: one dish introduces you to a place you did not know, one tool to a material and a technique. SOAN says it designs that way of encountering food. It plans to gather and edit the small discoveries made there and share them with others, leading to the next question or interest.
“Exploring Deliciousness”: four entry points you can move between
What gives shape to this idea is “Exploring Deliciousness” (Oishii no Tankyusho), which edits entry points into food culture into four:
- FOOD: meals that make you think about the season and the land
- TOOLS: items sold because they have “surprise within beauty”
- LEARNING: a place to discover and learn about “delicious” together
- JOURNEY: sharing, through travel, the joy of making found across Japan
Whichever entry you take, you can move between the other three. In its first year SOAN served lunch dishes born from its exploration of rice, water and salt, and ran limited-time experiments such as a “spice and curry day.” In the store it sells food, seasonings, drinks, tableware and sundries, plus books chosen as “books to expand the imagination from the everyday table.” JOURNEY has included visits to the workshop of a Japanese candle maker whose products the store carries, ranging from easy outings within Kyoto to trips with an overnight stay, held irregularly.
LEARNING grows into five series
LEARNING is the part explained in most detail this time. Building on its past conversations with guests, it will be organized into five series:
- Series 1, Food Culture Journeys: exploring regional eating habits, climate and customs as if traveling
- Series 2, Maker Journeys: guests such as producers, chefs and artisans, followed by a meal
- Series 3, Origins of the Table Journeys: tracing the history of ingredients, trade and the values of each era
- Series 4, Food Culture Design Journeys: talks with people who shape culture and the future of communities through food
- Series 5, Handcraft Journeys: hands-on learning in fermentation, preserved foods and more
Upcoming sessions:
- Monday, November 9, 19:00–21:00: second session of Series 4. Ken Sakamoto, owner-chef of “cenci,” looks at his relationships with producers and regions, how he chooses ingredients and his view of the environment, from the viewpoint of designing food culture
- Series 1, “Japanese Archipelago” Season 1: four sessions with Atsushi Nakahigashi, who runs “so/s/KAWAHIGASHI” in Kyoto and has visited all 47 prefectures. Wednesday, December 9, 2026 covers the “Osaka area” (Osaka, Hyogo, Nara, Wakayama); Wednesday, February 10, 2027 the “Hokuriku area”; Wednesday, April 14 the “Chubu area” (all 19:00–21:30)
Sessions already finished: the “Kyoto area” (October 14), Series 4 session 1 (September 9) and Series 5 session 1 (October 22). Details of upcoming events and how to apply are on SOAN’s official Instagram.
Store information
- Name: SOAN
- Address: 101, 1F Jimukinoueda Building, 21 Gojo Takakura Sakaimachi, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto
- Access: 5 minutes on foot from Gojo Station (Kyoto Municipal Subway); 6 minutes from Kiyomizu-Gojo Station (Keihan Line)
- Open: Thursday, Friday, Saturday (may vary; check the business calendar)
- Hours: Lunch 11:00–14:00 (last order 13:30); Cafe 15:00–18:00 (last order 17:00); Store 11:00–14:00 and 15:00–18:30
- Website (Japanese): https://soan.release.world/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soan_kyoto
Hours and days may change because of events.
