Yagumo Nagarekawa

The Japanese mingei movement was born out of a desire to preserve Japanese folk art: to remind the Japanese people that in a period of rapid modernization, beauty could still be found in traditional utensils and lacquerware — the same ones that they used every day. It is this spirit of mingei that drives the restaurant Yagumo Nagarekawa. The restaurant’s plain white exterior belies the restaurant’s beautiful interior, which is full of traditional Japanese fixtures, such as noren curtains and shoji sliding doors with dark wood furniture. Mingei art, ranging from traditional ceramics and paintings, is tastefully displayed atop pedestals and hung on walls. Meanwhile, kimono-clad staff drift gracefully from room to room, showing guests to their seats and ferrying dishes to and from the kitchen. It’s a calming, restful place to spend an afternoon or evening, surrounded by history and culture. The restaurant’s signature dish may be familiar to anyone acquainted with Japanese cuisine, but it’s called something very different: while a dead ringer for shabu-shabu hotpot, it is instead called susugi-nabe at Yagumo, literally “rinsing hotpot”. In spite of being one of the first restaurants to serve shabu-shabu in the nation, when the term became trademarked, Yagumo was forced to come up with an alternative — and hence “susugi-nabe” was born, from the “rinsing” motion of swishing meat and vegetables in the soup to cook. The thin-sliced meat in Yagumo’s susugi-nabe is from the finest branded Japanese beef. These rich cuts of meat are best enjoyed with the restaurant’s signature sauce, made from a slew of secret ingredients, which are then mixed together and aged for three days to bring out the flavor.