Inside Look: Why Osu Kannon Temple Area Preserves Old Nagoya
gotowpHere's the short answer: the Osu Kannon temple district has preserved old Nagoya precisely because it never tried to become something else. For over 400 years, this neighborhood has held its ground — welcoming pilgrims, merchants, street performers, and storytellers — while the rest of the city transformed around it. And if you're looking for a once-in-a-lifetime culinary experience to anchor your Japan trip, that unbroken continuity of place is exactly why Osu matters.
I'm Masayuki Goto, founder and owner of Itadaki — The Original Rare Wagyu Gyudon, located on the 2nd floor of a building just minutes from Osu Kannon Temple. I've spent the better part of 18 years working in this industry, and I chose this neighborhood deliberately. Let me tell you why — and what that choice says about the kind of experience I wanted to create here.
Who This Is For
- ✅ Travelers who want at least one meal on their Japan trip that becomes a story worth telling for years
- ✅ Visitors curious about the Osu Kannon area and what makes it special beyond the shopping street
- ✅ Wagyu enthusiasts looking for an authentic experience rooted in place and craft — not just brand recognition
- ✅ Repeat Japan visitors who've already done Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka and are ready to discover something genuinely different
- ✅ Anyone wondering why a specialty wagyu restaurant opened in Osu rather than Sakae or Nagoya Station
A Neighborhood With Memory
Osu Kannon Temple was originally built in Gifu Prefecture in the 14th century, then relocated to its current site in Nagoya by order of Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1612. That single act of relocation brought with it an entire ecosystem: merchants, craftspeople, food stalls, and performers who gathered around the temple to serve the pilgrims who came daily. The result was a street culture that has never fully disappeared.
Walk through Osu today and you'll pass a 700-year-old Buddhist hall, then turn a corner into an arcade lined with vintage electronics shops, Taiwanese snack stalls, and cosplay outfitters. There are maid cafés next to traditional sembei shops. Grand Sumo wrestler portraits hang in windows beside anime merchandise. Nowhere else in Nagoya — arguably nowhere else in Japan — do these layers sit so comfortably alongside each other.
That layering is what I love about this district. Osu doesn't perform its history. It just lives it. And when I was looking for a location to open Itadaki in April 2022, that authenticity mattered deeply to me. I didn't want to open in a glass-and-steel building near Nagoya Station. I wanted a neighborhood with memory, with texture, with the kind of street-level life that makes a meal feel like it belongs somewhere real.
Why I Chose Osu — And What the Pandemic Had to Do With It
The honest version of why Itadaki exists starts during COVID-19. I had been running MAX'S BAR since 2008, and many of the farmers and small producers I sourced from — people raising Horai Wagyu in Okumikawa, growing Aikei No.1 shiso in Toyohashi, harvesting seaweed off the Himakajima coast in Mikawa Bay — were watching their livelihoods collapse. Events canceled. Restaurant orders dried up. Premium local ingredients with nowhere to go.
I wanted to help, but bars were restricted. So I started asking a different question. Every Japanese don dish — katsudon, oyakodon, kaisendon — had a premium, elevated version. Except gyudon. Everyone knew gyudon as fast food, as something cheap and quick. Why had no one taken the humble beef bowl seriously?
That question led to everything: the proprietary two-stage cooking technique that delivers a rare-style texture while fully meeting Japan's Ministry of Health food safety standards, the direct sourcing partnership with Horai Wagyu farms, the decision to use only Aichi Prefecture ingredients from rice to egg to pickles. And the name — Itadaki — taken from the Japanese word itadakimasu, spoken before every meal as an expression of gratitude to the people and land that made the food possible.
Osu felt like the right home for that philosophy. A neighborhood that respects where it came from, while staying alive and curious. That's what I wanted Itadaki to be.
✓ Key Takeaways
- Osu's 400-year history as a temple district created a street culture that layers tradition and subculture unlike anywhere else in Nagoya — and that authenticity is why I chose it for Itadaki.
- Itadaki was born from a genuine commitment to struggling Aichi farmers during COVID-19, not from market research — and that origin story is baked into every ingredient we source.
The Once-in-a-Lifetime Meal Question
Many visitors to Japan arrive with wagyu on their list. Kobe beef. Matsusaka beef. These are famous for good reasons. But I've watched the wagyu conversation shift over the years. Guests who've already eaten at high-end teppanyaki restaurants in Tokyo or Kyoto arrive in Osu asking a different question: is there something I haven't experienced yet?
That's the question Horai Wagyu was made for. Only 300 heads are raised each year, across just three farms in the Okumikawa region of Aichi. The cattle are fed on sake lees from Horaisen Sora — one of Aichi's finest premium sake breweries. In a country with approximately 500,000 wagyu raised annually, those 300 heads represent something genuinely rare. Not rare as a marketing claim. Rare as in: if you don't plan for it, you may never encounter it at all.
Serving it as gyudon — Japan's most unassuming bowl format — is the part that surprises people most. And that surprise is intentional. The experience isn't about formality or ceremony. It unfolds in five steps: separate the Nagoya Cochin egg yolk and white, enjoy the wagyu first in its purest form, fold in the golden yolk, explore the tabletop condiments (pickled ginger from Inazawa, dried seaweed from Mikawa Bay, our original 8-spice blend), and finish with wasabi. The dish teaches you how to eat it as you go.
"Instagram-worthy presentation and unforgettable taste. My followers keep asking about it."
— Guest review
That response captures something I hear often. The bowl is visually striking — marbled wagyu arranged over rice in a traditional ceramic vessel, a gleaming egg yolk resting at the center — and guests want to photograph it. But what stays with them isn't the image. It's the story they now carry: Horai Wagyu, Osu, Nagoya, a bowl that no one else back home has heard of yet.
What Osu Teaches Me About Hospitality
One of my favorite habits is walking through Osu on days off and noticing what's still there. The goma (sesame) sembei shop that's been in the same spot for decades. The elderly monk who sweeps the same section of temple courtyard every morning. The secondhand record vendor who sets up in the same corner of the arcade. Osu doesn't erase things just because something newer exists. It finds a way to hold both.
That's something I try to bring into Itadaki. We have 18 seats. Counter seats for solo travelers, sofa tables for families and groups. We operate only at lunch — 11:00 to 15:00 on Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays (and from 9:00 on public holidays). We keep Horai Wagyu limited to 10 bowls per day, not as a tactic, but because that's genuinely all we can source and prepare with the care it deserves.
When I travel abroad — and I travel as much as I can, specifically to encounter food and beverages I've never experienced before — I always notice that the meals I remember most are the ones where someone made a deliberate choice about what to serve and how. Not everything on the menu. One thing, done right. That's what I wanted to build here, in this neighborhood, with these ingredients.
My personal favorite spots in Nagoya reflect the same instinct: the Shikemichi district near Nagoya Station, with its 300-year-old merchant warehouses and cobblestone streets, where hidden cafés sit inside restored Edo-period buildings. Or IG Arena — the stunning new space designed by Kengo Kuma, where I go to watch the Nagoya Diamond Dolphins play basketball. Both places hold something specific. Neither tries to be everything.
Planning Your Visit to Osu — and to Itadaki
If you're building a Nagoya itinerary, the Osu Kannon area rewards an unhurried morning. The temple grounds are peaceful before 10:00. The shopping arcade comes alive by mid-morning. Hisaya-odori Garden Flarie — a free-admission urban garden featuring six themed sections including a European Harmony Garden and a Crystal Garden greenhouse — is just three minutes from Yabacho Station, the same station as Itadaki, and a beautiful stop before or after lunch.
Itadaki is a 4-minute walk from Yabacho Station Exit 4 on the Meijo Subway Line. From Nagoya Station, take the Higashiyama Line to Sakae, transfer to the Meijo Line, and get off at Yabacho — about 10 minutes total. Look for the sign reading 元祖レア牛丼 頂 at street level and take the stairs to the 2nd floor.
For Horai Wagyu, which is strictly limited to 10 bowls per day, I'd recommend reserving in advance via Tabelog. When you make your reservation, copy and paste this phrase into the notes field: 鳳来牛希望 (Horai Wagyu request). If you prefer to walk in, our Mikawa Beef Rare Gyudon is always available and prepared with the same two-stage cooking technique. Arriving right at 11:00 opening is your best chance without a reservation.
Osu has held old Nagoya in trust for over four centuries. The meal we serve here is our small way of honoring that. We hope you'll come find it.
For our complete menu, access details, and store information, visit our official page at https://itadaki8.com/english/
When you're ready to plan your visit, we'd love to welcome you:
Reserve Your Rare Wagyu Experience
Or check our monthly business calendar before you finalize your itinerary:
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