The dough is drawn out by hand, twisted between the fingers in a motion closer to rope-making than to rolling, and then hung to dry. Nothing is extruded. That handling is why the finished strand is flattened in section rather than round, and why the broth sits on it lightly instead of clinging.

It is said to have begun before the Kanbun era, with a man called Sato Ichibei in the hamlet of Ozawa, in what was then the village of Inaniwa. The lords of the domain used it as a gift to send to other domains, which is a fair indication of what it was worth.

For most of its history the method was a secret held inside the Sato family. They did not teach it. Because they did not teach it, the quantity stayed small, and because the quantity stayed small the noodles stayed valuable. The scarcity and the secrecy held each other up.

In 1972 the family made the method public. Production rose sharply almost at once, and the name spread far beyond the prefecture. Something that had been precious because it was withheld became famous because it was given away. That looks like a reversal, and probably is not one: a secret can protect a price, but only an open method can make a place known for something.