In 1951, Shimakawa Motoko saw a tavern in Sendai grilling vegetables over charcoal and reasoned that Kushiro, a fishing town, could do the same with its fish. The name and the vegetable-grill format were Sendai's; what took shape here — at the present Sakae-machi site since 1953 — was seafood robatayaki, which spread from Kushiro to the rest of Japan and then the world. Locals call this house the robata of all robatas. The Michelin Guide Hokkaido listed it in 2017.
The hands at the hearth
The fire has always belonged to one person at a time. For some fifty years it was the late Ōgaku Mitsu, the first grill-mistress; today it is Nakajima Shizuko, around ninety, who still chooses the charcoal herself and grills alone at the hearth, while her granddaughter, the fourth-generation okami Nakajima Mia, runs the room. In August 2022 a fire spreading from the neighboring building gutted the interior. Five hundred and fifty-seven backers raised more than ¥8.6 million, and the house reopened in September 2023 with hearth and counter preserved — the soot-blackened ceiling kept on purpose.
The room and the menu
A sunken hearth ringed by a U-shaped counter of about twenty seats, in lantern light, with kan-zake from the local brewer Fukutsukasa ladled warm from the pot. The menu carries no prices: Rausu hokke is the signature, alongside shishamo, sanma, gindara, hokki and scallops, kinki, asparagus, potatoes with butter. Expect roughly ¥7,000–10,000 a head, and bring cash — card acceptance is inconsistent. Smoking is permitted; this is an old-school room, and it does not pretend otherwise. Doors open at five and close at eleven, last order 22:30; Sundays and the odd irregular day, the fire rests.
Save it for
A first night in eastern Hokkaido, before the markets and the marshes — eat where the form began, not where it was later refined. Order the hokke, take the warmed cup, and watch a woman of ninety read the charcoal.
