The saying is not ours, but it travels ahead of any first visit: Sukiyabashi Jiro in the east, Komatsu Yasuke in the west. Morita Kazuo, born in 1931, opened in the town of Komatsu in 1967, moved to Kanazawa's Katamachi in 1998, and closed in November 2015, at 84 — an ending, most assumed. It reopened in March 2017 on the ground floor of the Kanazawa Chaya annex, three or four minutes' walk from Kanazawa Station. In 2019 the state named him a Contemporary Master Craftsman; the late founder of Ginza Kyubey called him Japan's finest sushi craftsman. At 95, on good days, he is still behind the counter.
What you eat
The ika is the reason many make the journey: filleted into gossamer threads, moisture drawn off with cloth — "squid hates water more than any other seafood," in the master's words — then rested into a dense sweetness and served with salt and sesame. His grip is called dancing — so light it keeps fingertips and body heat off the fish. Then Hakusan, a small bowl of soy-cured tuna, uni and grated yam; unagi-and-cucumber rolls; and in November and December, kobako crab. At the ten or eleven counter seats, nigiri go straight into your palm; at the few tables they arrive plated. The counter is the experience.
The master, at 95
His presence is a gift, never a guarantee. He appears most reliably at the first seating; when he rests, his hand-picked team, trained under him for years, runs the counter in his style. To be plain: you book the house, not an audience.
The phone on the first
Reservations are by phone only, answered 14:30–18:00. On the 1st of each month the book opens for dates three months ahead — October 1st opens all of January — sliding to the next business day when it falls on a Wednesday or Thursday. Regulars rebook as they leave; it is not formally introduction-only, though some local accounts advise first-timers to come with someone who has been. Tabelog holds it at 4.28 across some 765 reviews, with Bronze Awards in 2025 and 2026. The line will not get easier — and this is the table a Kanazawa food journey is built around.
