🟠 Local-First — Best in its home region: Yamanashi.
Torimotsu-ni is a local Kofu dish made with chicken liver, heart, gizzard, and kinkan, quickly cooked in a sweet-savory sauce until glossy.
I grew up in Yamanashi and have eaten torimotsu-ni since I was a child. The local style of katsudon, served with sauce rather than simmered with egg, was just as familiar to me.
On this visit, I returned to both dishes at Okuto, a long-established soba restaurant in Kofu.
Last updated: 2026-09-23
Introduction
When I was a child, “katsudon” did not mean pork cutlet simmered with egg.
Rice topped with vegetables and a fried pork cutlet, eaten with sauce — that was katsudon to me.
The version simmered with egg had a different name: nikatsu-don.
Later, after I moved to Tokyo, I once ordered katsudon and was surprised by what arrived.
It was what I had always called nikatsu-don.
Torimotsu-ni was also part of my childhood.
My family often ordered it for delivery, and my father would eat it as a snack with beer.
For me, the best part was finding a kinkan, an immature egg yolk from a chicken.
I also liked the gizzard. Coated in the same dark, sweet-savory sauce, liver and gizzard were not always easy for me to tell apart by sight. When I took a bite and found the crunchy texture of gizzard, it felt like I had picked a winner.
On this visit to Okuto near Kofu Station, I ate both dishes again and took a closer look at the history behind these familiar foods.
📍 Okuto Honten Kofu Ekimae-ten (Tabelog English)
What to Try
Kofu-Style Katsudon
Kofu-style katsudon is served with rice, vegetables, and a fried pork cutlet, with sauce added for flavor.
The katsudon I ate at Okuto Honten Kofu Ekimae-ten was the same style I had known simply as “katsudon” since childhood.
Because the cutlet is not simmered with egg, the breading keeps some of its crisp texture.
Cutlets themselves developed in Japan from Western-style cuisine introduced and adapted during the Meiji era.
There are different accounts of exactly when and where Kofu-style katsudon took its present form, but this sauce-based version became established as a local style in Yamanashi.
Torimotsu-ni
Torimotsu-ni typically includes chicken liver, heart, gizzard, and kinkan — immature egg yolks that have not yet developed shells.
Despite the word ni, meaning “simmered,” torimotsu-ni is not slowly stewed for a long time.
The offal is cooked quickly over high heat as a sweet-savory sauce reduces around it, giving the pieces their characteristic glossy coating.
Each part has a different texture: the richness of liver, the springiness of heart, the crunch of gizzard, and the soft, distinctive bite of kinkan.
Torimotsu-ni was created around 1950 at Okuto, a soba restaurant founded near Kofu Station in 1913.
The dish is said to have begun with the idea of finding a delicious way to use chicken offal that might otherwise have been discarded.
It later spread to other restaurants in Kofu, and in 2010, Kofu torimotsu-ni gained national attention after winning the B-1 Grand Prix, an event showcasing regional foods from around Japan.
Tokyo or Trip?
🟠 Local-First — Best in its home region: Yamanashi.
Kofu has a long history of soba restaurants, including establishments dating back to the Edo period and others that developed through the tradition of noren-wake, in which established shops allowed apprentices or relatives to open related businesses. Okuto is part of this local soba-shop tradition.
What interests me here is not only the soba itself.
Kofu's soba restaurants have also helped turn new dishes into part of the city's everyday food culture.
Kofu-style katsudon and torimotsu-ni come from different periods and use completely different ingredients and cooking methods.
Yet today, you can find both on the menu of the same Kofu soba restaurant.
Torimotsu-ni itself is not even 100 years old.
A newly created dish can become a local tradition when people keep eating it as part of everyday life.
For me, torimotsu-ni is one of the foods that shows how that can happen in Kofu.
That is why, if you are trying torimotsu-ni for the first time, I recommend eating it at a soba restaurant in Kofu — and taking a look at the local katsudon on the menu too.
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- Nichinan-Dori Oyakodon in Togoshi-Ginza — A Refined Take on Japan’s Classic Chicken-and-Egg Bowl 🍱
- Jibu-ni in Kanazawa — Duck Stew 🍲
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About "Taste of Japan"
Hello, I'm Yuta.
Born in landlocked Yamanashi and having lived in the gourmet city of Sendai for 10 years, I now call Togoshi-Ginza home. My frequent business trips across Japan allow me to constantly explore the diversity of regional flavors.
Why Togoshi-Ginza?
This street is Tokyo’s longest shopping street (about 1.3 km), but it holds a special history. It was the very first street in Japan to adopt the "Ginza" name—a tradition that later spread across the country—after receiving bricks from the famous Ginza district following the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake.
My Wish as a Local
I am not a culinary expert. However, as a Japanese local who knows both the convenience of Tokyo and the origins of regional food, I want to share the "atmosphere" and "personal feelings" that you won't find in standard guidebooks.
The Concept: "Tokyo or Trip?"
Visiting every region of Japan in a single trip is nearly impossible. Some food experiences are worth the travel to the source, while others offer a fully satisfying experience right here in Tokyo.
This blog is a guide to help you make that choice. Based in Togoshi-Ginza, I share my honest experiences and "my personal answer" to help you maximize your culinary journey in Japan.
- 🟠 Local-First: Best experienced in its home region. Worth a trip.
- 🟢 Great-in-Tokyo: A nationwide favorite or regional specialty that offers a fully satisfying, authentic experience right here in Tokyo.
- 🟣 Tokyo-Do-Must: A unique food culture born in or exclusive to Tokyo.