Yoshito Inomata

The Climb

Yakitori is the through-line of Yoshito Inomata’s work: the craft that shaped his apprenticeships, defined his restaurant openings, and gave TORIYOSHI its identity. The turning point came in Paris, where Inomata says the work clarified what he wanted to master. That experience did not broaden his menu so much as fix his direction. He then worked as yakitori chef at a yakitori restaurant in Paris, France until 1994. Seen in sequence, those posts map a practical education in the discipline of yakitori across Tokyo and Paris, with each stop tightening the focus on the same craft. From 1995 onward, the work shifted from training to building. Inomata founded and opened toriyoshi, then opened second branch of toriyoshi, opened third branch of toriyoshi, opened fourth branch of toriyoshi, and opened second naka-meguro branch of TORIYOSHI. The pattern is expansion by repetition: each opening extended the same restaurant language into a new address while keeping yakitori at the center. That same logic continued beyond TORIYOSHI. Since 2010, Inomata has opened miyashin (sister brand) of Toriyoshi Ginza Branch / Miyashin, and since 2016, he has opened kitano. Today, he is representative director of Toriyoshi Limited, a role that reflects the scale of the operation behind those names.

Today

TORIYOSHI, founded and opened by Inomata in 1995 in Naka-Meguro, Tokyo, Japan, has remained open since. The restaurant is the most direct expression of his approach: a long-running base for yakitori, built through continuity rather than reinvention.

In Their Words “Paris exposed me to the world that made me decide to master yakitori. This was a turning point in my life.”

Recognition

The craft attached to his name is yakitori. Inomata’s record is a study in sustained practice: apprenticeship in Roppongi, a chef post in Paris, and a sequence of restaurant openings that kept the same discipline in view across Tokyo.