Today we share the unfortunate news of the passing of Yuji Nagatani “Kaicho” artisan, friend, and mentor to us all at SingleThread. His spirit of omotenashi has had an incredible impact on how we serve our guests and his warmth reminds us to cook and live with happiness and appreciation. This portrait of Kaicho hangs in our kitchen and watches over the donabe station. If you have cooked at SingleThread over these past five years you’ve felt his presence everyday and heard about “ultimate complexity within simplicity” as you’ve learned to cook in his donabe. Thank you Kaicho for making all of us at SingleThread a part of your family.