Buyers inspecting the catch at a Fukui fish auction

Every Thursday, without fail

4 a.m., and three hours north

Every Thursday the owner sets out from Kyoto at four in the morning and drives his own live-fish tank truck three hours to the ports of Obama and Takahama, on the Wakasa Bay coast of Fukui. He stands on the auction floor before the sun is fully up, picks the fish himself, and carries them back to the restaurant the same day.

Live-Fish Tank Truck

Straight from the tank, still swimming

Because the truck carries live tanks, the fish do not simply arrive fresh — many arrive alive. In winter that means live squid, live monkfish and live cod: things you will rarely meet on a plate in Kyoto.

Our own routes

Fish Kyoto never sees

What Wakasa and the Kyoto central market cannot supply, we source directly: oysters from Akkeshi and Kushiro in Hokkaido, fish from Ishinomaki in Miyagi, from Naruto in Tokushima. Which is why this restaurant serves things the city's markets never carry. See our courses →

Why It Matters

Standing on the auction floor

In Japan, only licensed buyers may bid directly at a port's fish auction. The licence — a kaisanken, or buying right — is issued in limited numbers by each market, and applicants are weighed on their trading record, their deposit, and the market's own approval. Obtaining a new one today is, by most accounts, no easy matter. That is why the great majority of restaurants buy their fish through a wholesaler instead.

TAISHO, founded in 1965, has driven to Obama and Takahama week after week, earning the trust of the ports, and has kept its place on the auction floor as a Kyoto restaurant. Leaving at 4 a.m., three hours each way, in its own live-fish tank truck — that is how the fish the owner bid on himself reaches the kitchen alive, the same day.

Fish routed through markets and wholesalers can take several days to reach a restaurant. Here it takes one. That difference in distance is, quite simply, the difference in freshness.

* Kaisanken: the licence that allows a buyer to bid directly at a wholesale fish market.

FAQ

Questions about our fish

Where do you buy your fish?

The owner leaves Kyoto at 4 a.m. every Thursday and drives his own live-fish tank truck three hours to the ports of Obama and Takahama in Fukui, where he bids at the auction himself. We also buy directly from Akkeshi and Kushiro in Hokkaido, Ishinomaki in Miyagi and Naruto in Tokushima — fish that never reaches Kyoto's central market.

Can I eat live fish here?

Yes. Because we run live tanks in the truck, we can serve fish that are still alive when they arrive — live squid, live monkfish and live cod in the winter months.

What do you recommend?

Sashimi platters of fish bought that morning at auction, grilled guji (tilefish) and nodoguro, fresh oysters from Akkeshi, hairy crab and botan shrimp. In winter, the crab and fugu courses.