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1
Combine soy sauce, mirin, and sake in equal parts (100 ml each) in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over moderate heat and reduce until the liquid coats the back of a spoon and holds a clean line when a finger is drawn across it. Remove from heat. This is the house tare; reserve in a shallow dipping vessel. The tare is never discarded between sessions — top it up with fresh 1-1-1 mixture as it depletes.
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2
Cut all proteins to consistent 3 cm pieces. Thread each cut onto its own skewer type: thigh pieces compactly butted against one another; liver lobes flat, not folded; heart halves in pairs; skin folded accordion-style so fat layers are exposed to the fire; bonjiri pieces snug. For tsukune, press the 70:30 chicken mince firmly around the skewer in a log approximately 10 cm long, compressing until no gaps remain. For negima, alternate thigh pieces with negi lengths. Consistent piece size is not optional — irregular sizing produces simultaneously overcooked and undercooked segments on a single skewer.
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3
Light binchōtan charcoal in a chimney starter. Transfer to the grill bed when the surface is uniformly ashed white and the charcoal glows deep orange. No gas grill is a substitute: binchōtan's near-infrared radiation cooks the protein from the interior outward, a heat-transfer mechanism gas cannot replicate. The grill is ready when a hand held 10 cm above the grate can be held for no more than two seconds.
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4
This is where each skewer lives or dies: the cook does not step away from the grill. Lay skewers over the coals and rotate every 30 to 45 seconds, repositioning along the grill bed to manage flare-ups and hot spots. Shio cuts — breast, skin, bonjiri — are seasoned with fine salt immediately on removal from heat, never before. Kawa (skin) skewers require 5 to 6 minutes of sustained turning; the skewer is done only when the fat is fully rendered and the skin is audibly crisp and uniformly blistered, with no soft or translucent patches remaining.
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5
For offal cuts — reba and hatsu — maintain moderate, steady heat rather than direct high flame. The exterior should colour evenly to deep brown without charring before the interior is cooked through. Reba is done when it yields slightly to pressure but holds its form and shows no raw pink at the centre when the thickest piece is opened. Hatsu, being denser, requires an additional minute; it is done when it resists pressure firmly and the cut face shows uniform grey-brown throughout.
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6
Apply tare only in the final minute of cooking for tare-designated cuts. Dip or brush the skewer once, return to the grill for 20 to 30 seconds until the glaze tightens and shows caramel lacquer at the edges, then dip a second time and return briefly. The sugar in the mirin will scorch if tare is applied earlier. The finished skewer is glossy, deeply coloured, and smells of caramel and soy — not of raw sugar or burnt char.
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7
Serve tsukune with a raw egg yolk in a small dish alongside. The diner drags the hot skewer through the yolk before each bite. Taste the finished tare skewer: it must be sweet, savoury, and faintly bitter from char — if sweetness dominates without depth, the tare has not reduced sufficiently.