In Japan, you can assume that the fish at any good restaurant met its end by way of ike and shinkei jime; in the U.S., the same is true at restaurants offering catch imported from Tokyo’s famed Toyosu Market. Among the fishermen of Southern California, the practice can largely be traced to Yamasaki, whose evangelism has quietly transformed the local seafood supply. On the deck of the Jamaica Day, Mitchell and an array of other energetic restaurant-industry dudes in their thirties—all of whom learned the technique under Yamasaki’s tutelage—set up rods, checked the boat’s radar, and gleefully spotted clusters of birds diving in the distance, which signalled that schools of bonito swam beneath them. Whenever a line began to jerk, the group exploded in a joyful chorus. Then the men took turns reeling the fish in, and putting them out of their misery.journey-inline-newsletterinline-newsletter