My mother was originally in the business of running restaurants and inns, and Kiyohiro's oshizushi has its roots in the menu she served at her kappo restaurant. At that time, sardines, which were cheaply available, were used in kappo restaurants to serve course meals. The chef told her that he could not cook such a cheap fish like sardines, but my mother devised the entire menu and served it to the customers, which was very well received. Among them, “Iwashi sushi”(sardine sushi) was very popular.

So, in order to get more people to eat “Iwashi sushi” (sardine sushi), we started wholesaling it to the kiosk at Hakata Station and began doing business with Kyushu Retail, JR Kyushu Food Service, and Fukuoka Airport Trading Co. Ltd. And we began to have “Iwashi sushi” sold at Fukuoka Airport, major JR stations, and department stores. At that time, our target customers were businessmen who used airplanes and trains. We focused on compact packages that could be turned upside down so that they could be bought quickly and put in their bags when they were short on time.

We were asked if we could develop other products, and “Takana-leaf sushi” was born. Since Fukuoka is famous for mackerel, we invented and sold “Saba sushi”(mackerel sushi), which became so popular that it was ranked No. 1 in the sales ranking of soraben at Fukuoka Airport. It has been more than 40 years since the establishment of the company. After my mother retired, I took over the business and have been working on developing new products while preserving the traditional taste.
(soraben＝Bento you can by at the airports.)