Sushi Hanakuruma

Sushi Hanakuruma

Sushi Hanaguruma is the talk of Nagoya because it signals the arrival of authentic Edomae sushi in this central Japanese city. It challenges the perception that all the best sushi is in Tokyo and delights guests more familiar with the sumptuous creations of the restaurant owner described as a “master of meat” with his empire of over twenty meat-centric restaurants. Brimming with vitality, Hanaguruma is a dream come true for its owner and sushi lovers in Nagoya.

The characters for Hanaguruma stand bold on a white draped curtain just a three-minute walk from Nagoya Station on the ground floor of a commercial building. It was opened in November 2022 by sushi lover Satoru Tanaka, the group owner of Tanaka Food Service, founded in Gifu Prefecture in 1996 with the opening of Setsugekka. This was followed by Nikuya Tanaka, Nikuya Setsugekka, Yoshoku Tsubaki, Kodawari no Tonkatsu Tanakaya, and about twenty others, primarily in the Nagoya area, serving dishes using premium Japanese beef and pork.

Tanaka’s dream of bringing Tokyo-style sushi to Nagoya began with an encounter with renowned Ginza Sushi Arai owner Yuichi Arai. A sushi artisan who went independent at age 33 after training at Ginza Kyubey and Sushi Sho in Yotsuya, Arai is the producer of Sushi Hanaguruma. And before its opening, he welcomed the head chef Hiroyoshi Yokota and other staff to the Ginza restaurant to share his highly polished sushi techniques and hospitality. Yokota is a seasoned chef with many years of experience and the master personally selected him to unleash a new genre onto the Nagoya food scene—the elegant flavors of Sushi Arai.