The dish is credited to Toyoken, a restaurant in Beppu, on the coast of Oita. Its founder, Miyamoto Shiro, adapted a Chinese preparation into something Japanese, and in the early Showa period it appeared on the menu under the name chicken kamaboko tempura.

Chicken is sliced flat on the diagonal, coated in a tempura batter, and lowered into oil. The batter uses eggs collected that morning, wheat flour, and potato starch, and the frying is done at 165 to 170 degrees for three or four minutes. Those numbers are published by the restaurant itself, which tells you something about how seriously the place regards the dish.

What comes out is crisp on the outside and soft inside, lighter than the word tempura suggests. Fried chicken in Japan usually means karaage, which is a heavier and chewier proposition altogether. This is not that.

You can eat it entirely plain, with nothing on it. You can squeeze kabosu over it, the citrus Oita is known for. Or you can dip it in vinegared soy sauce with mustard, which changes it again. A Chinese-trained cook pulled a dish toward Japanese cooking a hundred years ago, and the result is now what an entire prefecture is known for.