The humble appearance of this simple soy sauce bottle hides layers of stories.

The most obvious is how it came about.

Japanese soy sauce manufacturer Kikkoman wanted to update its product, which in the early 1950s had to be decanted from large containers to be used at the table. Sorry, this audio has expired Listen to the program

Given the importance of soy sauce at every Japanese meal, the appearance in 1957 of a small glass bottle was almost revolutionary.

Broad-based for stability, with a narrow neck making it easy to hold, it has a bright red lid with a clever spout.

Kenji Ekuan, who designed the Kikkoman soy sauce bottle, died in 2015. ( Getty Images: Jiji Press Japan )

It took Kenji Ekuan three years and 100 prototypes to complete the design — a fact that speaks volumes for the importance of detail in Japanese culture.

The Kikkoman bottle led the way, showing that Japan had a place in the modern world, and became known the world over.

While the bottle is often said to be inspired by a teardrop, it also reminds me of the ceramic bottles in which sake is served. It's both ancient and modern.

Ekuan became a designer after seeing the devastation of his hometown, Hiroshima.

The atomic bomb killed his sister and the radiation would kill his father, a Buddhist priest, soon after.

Where some might view the devastating effects of the bomb as a sign of the ephemeral nature of objects, it spurred Ekuan to create objects of lasting beauty that would give the user happiness.

The plain little bottle does create happiness simply because it works so well — making the contents visible and keeping the table clean with a clever inward-facing spout that never drips or leaves ring-marks.

The Kikkoman soy sauce bottle is a fixture on the tables of most Japanese restaurants. ( Flickr.com: Roman Drits, CC-BY-2.0 )

Ekuan went on to design other things that were emblematic of the new Japan, like Yamaha pianos and motorcycles, and the luxurious bullet trains that streak across the land at 300 kilometres an hour.

Even the snub-nosed train that carries travellers today from Tokyo's airport to the city centre has a kind of reassuring Japanese functionality with a twist of personality.

Ekuan died in 2015, but he's been credited with creating the look and the character of modern Japan; a country that still amazes with its elegant mix of minimalism, craft and rationality.

It seems fitting that something as simple as a soy sauce bottle, in daily use on tables around the world, remains an icon of a Japan looking to the future but never forgetting its past.