Purple Magazine
— Purple #43 S/S 2025
The Tokyo Diary Issue
koji kimura
REINVENTING SUSHI
photos
by CHIKASHI SUZUKI
text
by ANDRÉ MICHEL
In a nondescript building in the Tokyo suburb of Futako Tamagawa, Koji Kimura’s restaurant looks nothing like the culinary revolution he started in the country. A third-generation sushi chef, Kimura has forged his own distinctive path in a country heavily burdened by tradition. He went from pariah to celebrity. With two Michelin stars, he has joined the ranks of the best sushi masters in Japan. His craft? Jukusei, the ancient art of aging fish, but taken to radical extremes. His masterpiece? A 54-day-old raw swordfish sushi, perfectly aged, with an umami-packed flesh that dissolves like butter on the tongue.
Trained initially in tempura, he opened his own sushi restaurant in 2005, only to face an empty dining room for the first three years. That was when he discovered a rotten piece of fish he was about to throw away. He noticed that the color around the fish’s spinal cord was not black, but still vibrant. And better yet, the intense flavor was unlike anything he had ever encountered. Through trial and error — playing with temperature, blood removal, and humidity — he gradually mastered his craft, resulting in slabs of fish that would shrink to a fraction of their original size.
This moment sparked an obsession. While most sushi chefs prize the fresh snap of just-caught fish, Kimura embraced the transformative work of bacteria, oxidation, and time, producing sushi akin to aged steak, except that it’s served raw.
His blue crab marinated in brandy leaves a lasting impression, as does his uni with soba. Kimura’s rice, bold with vinegar and large in grain, offers a bright counterpoint to his aged fish, each piece a masterful balance of acidity and texture. Unlike many chefs who rely on brokers, Kimura personally selects his fish at the new Toyosu fish market in Tokyo, right after his evening shift, when most of his peers go to bed. He’s a maniac in the best way.
“Delicious,” I say in clumsy Japanese, to which Kimura replies with a laugh:
“I know.”
