If kaiseki (traditional multicourse) chefs are, as writer Junko Sakai pointed out, not unlike novelists in their approach, then perhaps it's not surprising that certain dishes require considerable time and fine-tuning to perfect.
For two years, Shintaro Katayama worked and re-worked his version of saba-zushi, a dish that is relatively elemental: a combination of sushi rice, pickled chub mackerel and gossamer strands of konbu (kelp).
On a visit earlier this month to Rakushin — the austere Michelin-starred kaiseki restaurant that Katayama, 42, opened six years ago this April — the chef served his saba-zushi. It was accompanied by an ornate sashimi plate of sea bream decorated with cherry blossoms and "snow" in the form of salt flakes.