It is always a sad thing to learn about somebody through their obituary. I have one of these bottles at home simply because I like it without even considering the quality of the sauce inside. I hadn’t thought to hard about it though, let alone who might have designed it. That designer was Kenji Ekuan, a highly respected Japanese industrial designer. A former Buddhist monk, Ekuan created the soy sauce bottle in 1961 and more than 300 million soy dispensers have been sold worldwide.