Ito Nori-ten

The Tsukiji outer market. Four generations, nori alone. It began in Ryōgoku in 1923. Roasted nori, seasoned nori, furikake — each chosen by a trained eye.

Nineteen twenty-three. Taishō 12. A small sign went up in Ryōgoku — a nori wholesaler. Before the war, after the war, through every Tokyo morning, it supplied the city's tables and the noren of its sushi shops. After the war, a retail shop opened in Tsukiji, with a factory-direct operation in Ichikawa, Chiba. Four generations have done just one thing: select sheets that are dark, glossy, and melt on the tongue.