Kurumazushi

Some counters earn their reputation slowly. Kurumazushi did not. Its second-generation chef, Takahira Koji (高平康司), became the youngest sushi chef in Japan to hold two Michelin stars, awarded at twenty-seven, and in 2025 the room became the first in all of Shikoku named a Destination Restaurant. The pedigree runs through Ginza Sushi Yoshitake (銀座 鮨よしたけ), one of Tokyo's most exacting kitchens, but the soul of the place is unmistakably local. This is not a Tokyo counter transplanted to Matsuyama; it is what happens when Tokyo discipline is turned loose on Ehime water.

The case for the place rests on its sourcing, which approaches near-total locality — close to one hundred percent Ehime fish, an almost unheard-of figure outside the great bay towns. Much of it arrives by way of Fujimoto Junichi (藤本純一), a fisherman in Imabari (今治) whose shinkeijime (神経締め) — the precise spinal nerve-killing that arrests a fish's decline at the dock — produces material that rivals anything moving through the mainland markets. The relationship is direct, boat to chef, with no auction floor in between. This is chi-no-ri (地の利), the advantage of place, expressed not as a slogan but as a phone call to a single fisherman who knows exactly what tomorrow's counter needs.

Expect a high-nigiri progression at an eight-seat counter, ¥27,500 for the omakase, the price still landing well below what comparable stars command in Tokyo. White-fleshed fish — tai (鯛), hirame (平目) — show the Seto Inland Sea at its most delicate, while the spring months bring the bay's full register to the board. For a serious eater building a Shikoku itinerary, this is the counter the others are measured against.

Two honest cautions. The room runs a double rotation, so a late seating may inherit a counter still warm from the party before — ask for the first turn if the stillness matters to you. And the reservation is genuinely hard: by April the calendar is often closed months out. Treat a confirmed seat here as the spine of your trip and build around it; if it cannot be had, Sushi no Ma is the natural alternative. Photography and service-charge policy are unconfirmed — settle both at booking.