Okinawa has its own kitchen, distinct from the mainland's, and Urizun is where many people go to meet it. The house opened on August 15, 1972, the very year the islands returned to Japan, under its late founder Saneyuki Tsuchiya, and it has become something close to a sanctuary for the Okinawan izakaya. It was here that duru-ten was born, the fried cake of mashed ta-imo taro that is now a Ryukyu standard. And it was Urizun, more than anywhere, that carried the culture of kusu — aged awamori — back into the light.
What you eat
Ryukyu cooking across its whole range, from home dishes to the refined plates of the old court kitchen, and at its center the duru-ten this house invented. To drink, the house keeps awamori from every distillery in the prefecture, a collection that made it a champion of the aged-spirit tradition. It is an evening place, in the Sakaemachi quarter of Naha.
The keeper of awamori
More than a restaurant, Urizun has been a custodian: of the duru-ten it created and of the kusu culture it helped revive, gathering the island's distilleries under one roof when few others bothered. To sit here is to drink through Okinawa's spirit tradition in one room.
Who to bring
Travelers who want Okinawa's own food and drink at the house that helped define both, and who will reserve, because the island loves this place as much as its visitors do.