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Matsutake mushroom simmered shigure-style, mackerel checkerboard pressed sushi, lily bulb with chrysanthemum fragrance, sweetfish grilled with its own roe, yam bulbils in a diced coating, mustard-stuffed lotus root, mochi and ginkgo nuts tossed with sea urchin

Chinese yam simmered in a pale broth, dressed with persimmon vinegar

Horse Meat Tossed with Tonburi

Since we're in Kumamoto, many guests do ask for horse meat. This time, for the appetizer, I tossed horse meat with broom cypress seeds, sometimes…

Sweet shrimp cured in koji

Lemon Jelly Terrine

The seasonal fruit dessert marks the climax of the wedding banquet, so I plated it with the image of the candle service in mind. I also added a…

Miso soup blending white and red miso

Longtail red snapper rice steamed in a sake flask

For the rice course, I added two slices of pickles per guest. In honzen cuisine (formal banquet-style dining), odd numbers are the formal rule for…

Eel and Vegetables in Vinegar Marinade

The vinegared dish is eel and vegetables in vinegar marinade. I hear eel shops were swamped this past summer, but in washoku, eel's true season is…

Tilefish Okina-maki

For the fried course, the tilefish okina-maki, we pour hot sesame oil over the scallion just before carrying it out to the guest. The aroma spreads…

Turnip kettle-simmered dish

For the simmered course, the turnip kettle-simmer, we carve a kettle shape out of turnip and fill it with a simmered dish made from ingredients the…

Skate saikyo-yaki

The grilled course here is skate Saikyo-yaki. The guest we served this to was from the Tohoku region, where skate is called kasube — written there…

Sea bream sashimi shaped like a crane, tuna, striped shrimp, squid cut into a flower pattern

Quail Shinjo

For the clear-soup course, the quail shinjo, we start by making the niyose (a simmered-and-set preparation). We combine 60% of the twice-ground quail…

Salmon roe with grated daikon and sablefish-carrot sandwich, rein-twist sushi, turban shell tossed with chrysanthemum petals, salt-grilled crossbred duck, salt-roasted new-season ginkgo nuts, new-season chestnuts simmered in a savory broth, white melon cut in a ginkgo-leaf motif and kombu-cured, Ishikawa taro steamed in its skin

This is the celebratory course. Meiji Jingu Shrine, Jingu Gaien, and the Meiji Memorial Hall are together known as the "All Jingu." One of the three…

Crab Salad

This crab salad is the opening course. We boil the crab, pick the meat apart, season it, and gather it into a cylinder, then wrap taro stem around…

Late-season autumn-run salmon, spiral deep-fry, shrimp-shaped taro, roasted-grain-flour deep-fry

There are two deep-fried dishes, and both have already been seasoned to bring out their own true flavor, so they're delicious to enjoy just as they…

Tilefish grilled with three flavors, hairy crab, late-season matsutake wrapped in Joshu pork, Joshu pork spare ribs, Joshu pork heart and liver

For the grilled course, I tried smoke-grilling using an Iga-nabe (Iga pot). This Iga-nabe has a distinctive shape and a very strong far-infrared…

Jade ginkgo nuts, chrysanthemum-cut turnip, kuruma prawn, shimeji mushroom, leaf-cut kabocha squash, maple-leaf-cut carrot, ginkgo-leaf-shaped taro, pinecone-cut arrowhead bulb

Pufferfish milt checkerboard tofu, first-frost style

For the clear-soup course, I finely minced mountain yam and stirred it into a lightly kuzu-thickened soup broth, styling it after the first frost.

Persimmon and turnip in a binro-style dressing, kabosu-shell cup with seared kombu-cured pufferfish, chestnut-burr mound of white-puffed deep-fried sweet chestnut paste, crab cake baked with a poppy-seed-studded cracked top, roe-bearing ayu kelp roll, stone-wall-arranged yam bulbils, skewered

For the appetizer's seared kombu-cured fugu, I take fugu that has been kombu-cured in the usual way, sear the surface, and serve it together with a…

Flowering fern deep-fried tofu fritter, shrimp-shaped taro, roe-bearing sweetfish kelp roll, kuruma prawn simmered in egg yolk, Tanba shimeji mushroom

For the simmered dish's zenmai hiryozu, I take a single stalk of zenmai simmered in the usual way, round it into a core, form it into a…

Echizen Crab and Napa Cabbage

The vinegared dish has a Western feel, you might say: I pickle napa cabbage and celery in a Chinese-style sweet vinegar, then use a ring mold to set…

Pufferfish sushi, fermented crucian-carp sushi, Shirakawa sea bream grilled with bottarga, beef loin marinated in miso, king crab grilled with aromatics, assorted crackers with dried sea-cucumber ovary, bur-shaped deep-fried chestnut with its inner skin, small sea bream in a chrysanthemum-style sweet-vinegar marinade

For the hors d'oeuvre tray course, I had in mind an outing box lunch for this season — a 'slightly luxurious bento,' say, for maple-leaf viewing —…

Spiny lobster, oyster, and sea urchin and milt, grilled

For the additional course — ise-ebi, oyster, uni, and shirako, grilled — I salt the shirako lightly and boil it, bind it just slightly with premium…