In shortAmakusa sushi and kappo-style dishes by two brothers from Yakko Sushi. Reservations run in Japanese and are hard to place from abroad, so our Tokyo desk requests the table for you, by phone and in Japanese.
Price
Omakase from ¥16,500 on Ikyu, tax and service included; recent guests report ¥20,000–30,000 with drinks
Cards accepted (Visa, Master, JCB, Amex, Diners); platform bookings carry a 100% fee from two days out
Getting there
Nishi-Karashimacho / Sembabashi tram stops, 3 minutes; second floor of SAKURA TERRACE by the Sakuramachi bus terminal
Murakami is what happens when a famous island sushi family sends its
sons to the city. Masaomi and Takuya Murakami grew up in Yakko Sushi
in Amakusa — their father Yasukazu’s house — and in January 2020 opened their own
ten‑seat counter on the second floor of SAKURA TERRACE, beside the
Sakuramachi bus terminal. The elder brother trained in Japanese
cuisine before returning to sushi; the younger went through Teruzushi
in Kitakyushu and a year at Tokyo’s Wasa. Between them the counter
runs as a sushi‑ya with a kappo’s reach, and it has become the sushi
booking Kumamoto’s own diners chase hardest.
What you eat
Amakusa first. The brothers draw on the island’s three seas — the
Ariake, the East China Sea and the Shiranui — for red uni, small
sardines and seasonal tuna, and shape the rice with white vinegar
rather than the red style common in Kumamoto, a lighter shari meant
not to tire you across a long meal. Before the nigiri come six to
eight cooked dishes that outrun the usual otsumami: guests describe
soft‑shell turtle consommé, oysters, a risotto from the leftover rice,
somen inspired by Chinese rice noodles, eel over rice. Lunch begins
at 12:00 for everyone, dinner at 19:00; Ikyu’s omakase is
priced at ¥16,500 with tax and service, and recent guests report
¥20,000–30,000 once sake is on the table. The house does not cater
to guests who dislike fish or carry allergies, seats children only
if they take the full course, and asks that strong perfume and
sandals stay away.
The booking reality
Three doors. The first is the telephone, 096‑288‑5210, in Japanese:
on the first business day of each month the book opens for dates
through the end of the month after next — a call on 1 October, for
example, reaches into December. The line is hard to reach during
service, and the house does not publish a release hour. The second
and third doors are online: Pocket Concierge, whose cancellation
waitlist delivered a seat to one guest in May 2026, and Ikyu, a
request booking confirmed within 72 hours. Both charge 100% from two
days before the meal. Lunch is consistently the easier ask — a guest
in June 2026 booked a Saturday lunch by phone without drama. How fast
it goes: when we called on 20 September 2026, both services on
23 and 24 October were already full — three weeks after that month
opened. Our desk
calls the house in Japanese on release day and watches the platform
waitlists in between.
One caution: in 2023 a visiting blogger reported that new‑guest
bookings had been paused because the book was full months out, and
a 2026 review describes a first visit arranged through a regular.
Neither is the rule today, but both explain why the platforms matter.
Pocket Concierge’s own Q&A confirms a single guest is accepted.
Anyone building a Kumamoto or Amakusa food trip around the island’s
fish, who would rather sit with the next generation of a famous
family in the city than drive two hours for the original — and who
can put a release‑day call, or a waitlist, into the plan.
The house's cancellation charge
From 00:00 JST, 2 days before100%
Same day, with notice100%
Same day, no notice (no-show)100%
Charged by the house, not by us. A plan's own policy takes precedence.
Free release-date alerts: the day before, on the morning of release day (08:00 JST) and about 30 minutes before when the time is known — or a weekly summary if the house opens a little every day.
Murakami: common questions
Can you book Murakami from abroad?
Yes, through our Tokyo desk. Phone in Japanese — the book opens on the first business day of each month for dates through the end of the month after next; a few seats on Pocket Concierge and Ikyu. We call the restaurant for you, in Japanese, and the ¥6,000-per-seat fee is charged only if we confirm your table — no seat, no fee.
Some of these links are referral links: if you book through them we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Restaurants never pay us to be listed or ranked. Editorial policy
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Facts on this page were checked by our Tokyo desk. You are welcome to quote them with a link:
