Sushi Gion Matsudaya

He was born in 1964 in Shiga prefecture. His parents ran a sushi shop for over 40 years. Taken with the Edo-style techniques and flavors, he often visited Tokyo, and learned the skills of a number of famous restaurants, before fulfilling his desire to open his own restaurant in Gion in 2007. He preserves traditional techniques, letting his signature eggs sit overnight after frying them, and he uses his own tricks to perfect his pickles and boiled-down sake, offering the Matsudaya version of Edo-style sushi. His motto is "make the people of the world smile with sushi". He spent a year in New York and made the best of that experience, and is now a well-respected authority on how to serve foreign customers.