History of Yahatazushi
From late Edo into Meiji, the Boshin War reached Tokyo,
with battles even on Ueno hill.
Our founder, Isaburō, fought for the shogunate and lost,
laid down his sword and fled to Waseda.
Under the protection of Ana-Hachiman Shrine,
he opened a dango stall on its approach—
Hachiman-ya, the beginning of Yahatazushi.
Many out-of-work samurai quickly turned to dango stalls,
which mushroomed throughout the city.
As business took hold we were favored by Ōkuma Shigenobu of Waseda;
at his garden parties the Hachiman-ya cart served guests,
and many dignitaries tasted our sweets.
Yuki Yasui, later our third generation,
often played in Ōkuma’s garden after school.
“He looked stern, but with children he was gentle,” she recalled.
For the second generation’s daughter who loved sushi more than dango,
we shifted from dango to sushi in the mid-1910s,
and have continued in Waseda for over a hundred years.