A loach restaurant founded in 1801. It is said to be the first shop to write the name as dozeu, since spelling it dojau with four kana was thought unlucky. The building has burned down three times, yet it keeps a wooden form little changed from its founding. You eat dozeu nabe from an iron pan on a charcoal brazier, set on a kanaita board over rattan matting, piled high with green onions from a wooden box. White rice comes in an ohitsu tub. Don't forget your shoe tag on the way out.
1-7-12 Komagata, Taito, Tokyo
Sources: dozeu.com norenkai.net tv-tokyo.co.jp
This moment in the journey
Into the dusk, toward Komagata
More of my stay in Asakusa. As the day faded, the Tokyo Skytree glowed blue beyond an elevated railway. Buses crossed the intersection and the city lights began to come on. Tonight I was going to taste a flavor of the common folk that has lasted since the Edo period.
Heading south from Kaminarimon, you come upon a shop front full of old-world charm: Komagata Dozeu, a loach restaurant founded in 1801. Beside the noren curtain dyed with the word dozeu, a row of red lanterns glowed.
I passed through a noren with more than two hundred years of history and found a space that still holds the essence of Edo. Old photographs hung on the walls, along with a sumo ranking sheet from June 1872. Beyond the curtain, the kitchen was busy.
Watch this scene on YouTube0:24
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