Kashiwaya Osaka Senriyama

A house in the hills north of Osaka

Kashiwaya is not in central Osaka at all. It occupies a standalone house in Senriyama, a quiet residential area in the hills of Suita, north of the city, reached through a moss garden; inside are sliding doors, paper screens and tatami rooms, several of them private.

The chef-owner, Hideaki Matsuo, is the second generation of the house. He entered the trade in 1986 and became head chef in 1992, and the restaurant as it stands grew out of his interest in the tea ceremony and his wish to express the Japanese art of living in a meal, or even a single dish.

Twenty-four seasons

Matsuo’s kaiseki follows the traditional Japanese calendar of twenty-four solar terms rather than four seasons. Michelin describes menus that carry short seasonal messages meant to call up natural scenes, and dishes built around the produce and annual observances of each period. One stated rule is to introduce something new every month.

He has put his own aim simply: “balancing the creations of tomorrow and protecting the traditions of yesterday.” His hospitality, too, draws on the tea ceremony.

Producers and the sea

The sourcing reaches beyond the market. Concerned about the decline of wild seafood, Matsuo works with a fisheries research institute to improve the quality of farmed fish. He also keeps close ties with nearby growers to preserve Naniwa traditional vegetables, the heritage produce of Osaka: “We prize our relationships with nearby producers,” he told Michelin.

A teacher as well as a cook

Matsuo is also known as a teacher. His protégé Atsushi Takahashi joined Kashiwaya at 19 and stayed 21 years before Matsuo sent him to lead a Hong Kong branch, which opened in 2015 with equipment, utensils and ingredients brought from Osaka and won two Michelin stars the following year.

Kashiwaya now welcomes trainees from abroad, and Matsuo presented Osaka’s food culture at an event during Expo 2025. The restaurant holds three stars in the 2026 Michelin Guide Japan, and the same edition gave Matsuo its Mentor Chef Award.

Sources: Michelin Guide; Precious