Jyanoichi Honten

Jyanoichi’s main store is a holy site among Japanese literature aficionados. Not only was the restaurant’s unusual name — a pun on the snake-eye motif in Japanese culture — bestowed upon it by the famed novelist Naoya Shiga, but it is also rumored to be the setting of the opening scenes of the aforementioned’s story, The Shopboy’s God. But hundreds who know nothing of Shiga’s work still flock to the three-paneled white noren draped across its entryway. And for good reason: for five generations now, Jyanoichi has been making authentic Edomae sushi, with traditional techniques that have long since been forsaken by newer establishments. The directives are firm, and have been since the restaurant’s inception in 1889: in accordance with Edomae style, the rice has only salt and red vinegar added. Only Mitsukan red vinegar is to be used in the rice, and the salt must be carefully selected from the shores of the Noto Peninsula. Fish, meanwhile, must be chosen fresh daily from Toyosu Fish Market. Two items on the menu are of particular note, the first being the conger eel nigiri in sweet sauce reduction. The other, nonojimaki, is a true-to-life recreation of Edomae-style sushi rolls, with sesame seeds, sweet egg omelette and dried seaweed.