Takamori Dengaku no Sato

Takamori Dengaku no Sato is a restaurant in the town of Takamori, in the Aso area of Kumamoto Prefecture. It serves Takamori dengaku, the local dish of skewered taro, tofu and river fish coated in miso and grilled over charcoal. You cook the skewers yourself at a sunken hearth (irori) inside a thatched farmhouse that is more than 200 years old.

The restaurant sits in woodland at the entrance to Rakudayama Park, and the grounds look out toward Mt. Neko, one of the five peaks of Aso. It seats up to 200 people, and a gift shop and a small gallery stand in a Meiji-era house moved onto the grounds. The Aso area page lists other places to see in the caldera.

What Takamori dengaku is

Dengaku is an old dish named after dengaku-mai, a dance farmers performed to pray for a good harvest. In Takamori, the restaurant says the local version began about 250 years ago. Villagers on pilgrimage ate tofu dengaku in Kyoto and Izumo, came home and tried the same idea with the taro grown in Aso's volcanic soil. The dish was later eaten at temple ceremonies and then around farmhouse hearths after the harvest.

The star ingredient is tsurunoko-imo, a local taro named for its shape, which looks like a crane's neck. It grows only in thin volcanic ash soil and is becoming rare as fewer farmers grow it. The restaurant uses it from about mid-October for several months and uses other local taro the rest of the year. The other skewers include yamame, a river trout raised on spring water from Aso's outer rim. There is also tofu made with local spring water, plus konnyaku, eggplant and freshwater crab.

The set meals and prices

All set meals come with dago-jiru (dumpling soup) and rice cooked with millet. An appetizer, fried tofu and pickles are also included. Prices on the restaurant's Japanese menu, tax included:

• Dengaku set: 2,690 yen for all five dengaku skewers

• Yamazato set: 2,890 yen, with three dengaku skewers and charcoal-grilled chicken

• Koeda set: 2,890 yen, with three dengaku skewers and two beef skewers on wooden branches

• Charcoal chicken set: 2,690 yen

• Higo akaushi set: 3,890 yen, with Aso's grass-fed red wagyu beef

• Kappo sake (sake in bamboo): 950 yen

You can also order single skewers. Meat is grilled on an old three-pronged farm hoe laid over the coals instead of a grill net, in keeping with the farmhouse setting. The restaurant can swap ingredients for food allergies, vegetarian diets or religious restrictions if you tell them when you book.

How the meal works

You sit on the floor around a charcoal hearth and grill the skewers yourself. They get very hot, so the restaurant asks you to wear work gloves when you turn them. Grill each side until browned, then brush on one of the two homemade misos (sansho pepper or yuzu) and let it toast a little. The restaurant's website has a short how-to video in English.

Reservations

Reservations are taken by phone only, and the restaurant does not accept bookings through online reservation services. Same-day bookings are possible but may be refused when it is busy, and they must be made at least an hour before that day's last entry time. After the last entry time, the restaurant serves reserved guests only. The restaurant's own website lists seasonal hours, which are shorter in winter.

The restaurant reported no damage from the Kumamoto earthquake of July 28, 2026, and is open as usual.

How to get to Takamori Dengaku no Sato

• By car: about 90 minutes from central Kumamoto or from Takachiho, and about 50 minutes from Aso Kumamoto Airport

• By train: JR Hohi Line from Kumamoto to Tateno, then the Minamiaso Railway to Takamori, the end of the line

• By bus: buses for Takamori leave central Kumamoto and take about two hours

A meal here fits easily into a day of driving around the caldera, with Mount Aso's crater area as another stop.

For more ideas across the island, see the guide to Kyushu's volcano country.