From the strongly built main gate of the restaurant, a stone pavement leads visitors to the entrance hall highlighted by the calligraphy of Sensho Manabe, the lord of the Sabae domain who once governed Kyoto as a representative of the Shogunate government.
The building that is now a Japanese restaurant was originally a medical school, established in 1839 by Ryotei Shingu (1787-1854). At this school, talented students studied anatomy, physiology, pathology,surgery, internal medicine, natural history, chemistry, and pharmacy.