Mizutaki

Hakata (Fukuoka) mizutaki dates to the 1900s, attributed to Hayashida Heizaburo, who opened the restaurant Suigetsu in 1905 in Fukuoka, having gone to British-ruled Hong Kong at age 15 to live with a British family and study Western cooking, where he absorbed both Chinese boiled-chicken cookery and Western consommé technique. He combined the two — long-simmered Cantonese-style chicken yielding a clear-then-cloudy stock — into a Japanese hot pot. Kyoto has its own older mizutaki tradition using only kombu broth, but Hakata's bone-rich style is the version that travelled.

Hakata 1905 invention by Hayashida Heizaburo, who studied Cantonese white-cut chicken in Hong Kong and Western consommé in London, then merged them. Bone-in chicken at a rolling boil emulsifies collagen white — same chemistry as tonkotsu, lighter pot.

A clay pot of bone-in chicken simmered in plain water with kombu — no soy, no miso, no aromatics added until later. The broth turns milky white from the rendered collagen as it cooks at the table. Diners scoop chicken and vegetables (Chinese cabbage, leek, tofu, shiitake) into ponzu with grated daikon and yuzu kosho. End the meal with rice or noodles cooked in the remaining broth — that's the part most cooks plan for.

The bones are non-negotiable. Bone-in chicken simmered 1-2 hours releases collagen into water, creating an emulsion that turns the broth opaque white — the same chemistry as tonkotsu ramen, but lighter. Boneless chicken yields a thin, sad broth no matter how long it cooks. The Hakata move is to start the bones an hour before service, then add the eating-pieces (with vegetables) at the table — fresh meat in already-rich stock.