From NHK's “Saba Kaido” feature and a booth at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Tainan, Taiwan, to YouTube's “DELI BALI ch”, a collaboration with the Kyoto Shimbun newspaper, and our crowdfunding campaign. Here is the story of TAISHO, told through our media appearances and activities.
NHK / Saba Kaido / 2013
NHK filmed our weekly buying trips to Fukui for its “Saba Kaido” feature
In 2013, NHK (Japan's public broadcaster) featured TAISHO in a programme on the “Saba Kaido” — the “Mackerel Road”, the historic route that once carried fish from Wakasa to Kyoto — following the owner for a full day on his weekly drive from Kyoto to Fukui to buy fish. Only a handful of scenes made the final cut, but it was a valued experience.
To this day we make the same journey every week, driving to the ports of Fukui to buy our fish at the auction. Buying at auction ourselves is exactly why we can source fish that is fresher, and at better prices, than anywhere else — and it is why TAISHO can serve fine ingredients at honest prices.
A live sabazushi demonstration at the “Japan Fair” in Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, Tainan
From June 14 to 19, 2025, we took part in the “Japan Fair” held at the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department store (Ximen branch) in Tainan, Taiwan, giving live demonstrations of our signature sabazushi — pressed mackerel sushi.
Throughout the fair, guests who had tried sabazushi in Japan and Taiwanese guests tasting it for the first time alike gave it a warm welcome. Over the six days we handed out around 400 shop cards — a wonderful chance to introduce “Wakasa Bay Fresh Fish Cuisine TAISHO” to so many people.
TAISHO's sabazushi is made with carefully selected mackerel bought in person on our weekly trips to Wakasa in Fukui Prefecture. Together with the food culture nurtured by the historic “Saba Kaido” (the Mackerel Road) that links Wakasa and Kyoto, we were able to bring this traditional Japanese taste to the people of Taiwan.
We will keep cherishing the fish culture of Wakasa and the food culture of Kyoto as we share the appeal of Japan at home and abroad. You can also follow our activities in Taiwan on our Taiwan Instagram (@kyoto.taisho_tw).
YouTube / DELI BALI ch
The YouTube channel “DELI BALI ch” filmed our monkfish cuisine up close
They covered even the finer details — our kitchen, and the way we break down the fish.
The following is quoted from DELI BALI's YouTube video description.
This video follows “Wakasa Bay Fresh Fish Cuisine TAISHO”, a seafood restaurant in Kyoto that serves wild live fish from Fukui Prefecture at peak freshness.
It is famous that in the manga “Oishinbo”, monkfish liver is introduced as the “foie gras of the sea”, surpassing foie gras itself. I searched high and low, and had almost resigned myself to travelling all the way to Aomori for fresh monkfish — when it turned out there was a restaurant serving fresh monkfish right here in my home city of Kyoto.
This time they broke down a top-grade wild Wakasa Bay monkfish of the 5-kilo class by ike-jime (a technique for killing the fish to keep it at its freshest), and made a full Japanese-style course from which nothing is wasted — the elusive monkfish sashimi and raw liver, and everything from the skin to the intestines and stomach.
Loved by locals in Yamashina, Kyoto for 55 years. I do hope you will all go and eat there once. Thank you for the feast. — DELI BALI
The Kyoto Shimbun's reader paper “Tomato+Plus” / Mail-order feature
Our wild fugu hot-pot mail-order set featured in “Tomato+Plus”, the Kyoto Shimbun's reader paper
“Tomato+Plus”, the reader information paper published by the sales federation of the Kyoto Shimbun newspaper, featured TAISHO's wild fugu (pufferfish) hot-pot mail-order set (serves 3) in a special collaboration. It uses wild “mafugu” landed at Obama in Fukui Prefecture, and comes as a hot-pot set complete with a fugu-broth rice porridge to finish. In the past we have also offered mail-order sets at exceptional prices and run collaborations with sake breweries.
The truth is that TAISHO once fell into financial difficulty. It was in 2017 that my father, the company president, told me he was going to close the restaurant. The passing of our founder, Shoichi, around the same time was one of the reasons.
To save the struggling TAISHO, I — Seiji Isotani, the third-generation owner — left the university I was attending in Taiwan just before graduating and came home to Kyoto, where my family lives. But no sooner had I set out to turn the business around than the COVID-19 pandemic arrived.
“I had dropped out of university and come home. I absolutely did not want to let TAISHO end — I had to find a way through this.” Out of that wish, I took on the challenge of crowdfunding.
In the end we received 1,338,000 yen in support, and the project was a great success. TAISHO is still here today thanks to everyone's warm support. You can read the original article at the link below.
