# Katsudon (かつ丼)
**Katsudon** (かつ丼) is a [Japanese rice](https://www.edgepedia.org/japanese-rice)-bowl dish consisting of a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet served over rice, in its most widespread form simmered briefly with onion in a dashi (Japanese soup stock made from kelp and bonito flakes) broth and bound in softly cooked beaten egg.[1](https://www.nsouzai-kyoukai.or.jp/fried-pork-cutlet-rice-bowl-with-egg/) The dish is built on tonkatsu, the Japanese pork cutlet that emerged as a yoshoku, or Japanese-style Western dish, and whose modern form was pioneered in 1899 at the Tokyo restaurant Rengatei in Ginza.[2](https://japan-food.jetro.go.jp/en/recipe/108.html) In several regions the name instead belongs to a sauce-covered cutlet bowl, so the same word can denote different dishes depending on the prefecture.[3](https://www.maff.go.jp/j/keikaku/syokubunka/k_ryouri/search_menu/menu/katsudon_yama_nashi.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Dish type | Pork cutlet on rice; the dominant national form is egg-bound (katsu-toji), simmered in dashi with onion[1](https://www.nsouzai-kyoukai.or.jp/fried-pork-cutlet-rice-bowl-with-egg/) |
| Foundation | Modern tonkatsu was pioneered in 1899 at Rengatei in Ginza, Tokyo[2](https://japan-food.jetro.go.jp/en/recipe/108.html) |
| Origin stories | Egg-bound accounts place the birth near Waseda in Tokyo: Sancho-an (1918 tradition) and Keijiro Nakanishi (1921); a sauce-style bowl was served at Yo-roppaken from 1913[4](https://www.waseda.jp/inst/weekly/features/specialissue-katsudon1/) |
| Regional naming | In Yamanashi, "katsudon" means a cabbage-and-sauce cutlet bowl; the egg-bound version is a separate dish called "ni-katsudon"[3](https://www.maff.go.jp/j/keikaku/syokubunka/k_ryouri/search_menu/menu/katsudon_yama_nashi.html) |
| Energy per serving | 1,105 kcal and 4.4 g salt in a standard Kikkoman home recipe[5](https://www.kikkoman.co.jp/homecook/search/recipe/00054786/) |
| Popularity | In a 2017 survey of 1,000 people, katsudon ranked first among dishes made with tonkatsu at 64.6%, ahead of katsu curry (59.1%) and katsu sando (50.1%)[6](https://www.umios.com/jp/contents/research/pdf/20171214_tonkatsu_cyousa.pdf?form=MG0AV3) |
| Lucky-dish status | Eaten before exams and contests as a lucky meal, from the pun on katsu meaning both "cutlet" and "to win"[7](https://don.or.jp/text/kind/) |
## The standard egg-bound bowl
In the version most Japanese kitchens mean by the word, a freshly fried tonkatsu is cut into bite-size pieces and simmered in a shallow pan with sliced onion in a broth of dashi, soy sauce, and mirin. Beaten egg is poured over, the pan is covered, and cooking stops while the egg is still half-set. The mixture is then slid over a bowl of hot rice.[8](https://www.takarashuzo.co.jp/cooking/recipedata.php?id=63) The Japan Sidelish Association (日本惣菜協会) describes exactly this construction, tonkatsu and onion cooked in dashi and bound in beaten egg over white rice, and notes the alternative name katsu-toji don.[1](https://www.nsouzai-kyoukai.or.jp/fried-pork-cutlet-rice-bowl-with-egg/)
The transformation of the cutlet is deliberate rather than accidental. As the JETRO Taste of Japan guide explains, the breading absorbs the sweet-salty dashi, giving up its crunch for something soft and yielding; the dish is a conscious reinvention of tonkatsu rather than a lesser version of it.[2](https://japan-food.jetro.go.jp/en/recipe/108.html) Home recipes vary in the broth base: some use a concentrated noodle-soup base (mentsuyu) diluted with water[5](https://www.kikkoman.co.jp/homecook/search/recipe/00054786/), others a hand-mixed mirin, soy sauce, and Hondashi broth[9](https://park.ajinomoto.co.jp/recipe/card/700940/print/), and others brewed mirin with dashi stock[8](https://www.takarashuzo.co.jp/cooking/recipedata.php?id=63). With a ready-made cutlet, total cooking time falls to roughly 15 to 25 minutes.[5](https://www.kikkoman.co.jp/homecook/search/recipe/00054786/)
## Origins in the Waseda district
The birth of the egg-bound katsudon is usually placed in Tokyo around 1920, and the leading origin stories all converge on the streets around [Waseda University](https://www.edgepedia.org/waseda-university).[7](https://don.or.jp/text/kind/) • [4](https://www.waseda.jp/inst/weekly/features/specialissue-katsudon1/)
**Sancho-an, 1918.** The old soba shop Sancho-an (三朝庵), near the Babashita intersection by the Waseda campus, is the best-known candidate. In the family's account, the owner bought expensive tonkatsu from a meat shop for a customer banquet, guests canceled, and a regular student suggested cooking the leftover cutlet like a tamago-don, simmered in soba broth and bound with egg. The result spread by word of mouth, and the shop still serves that style today.[4](https://www.waseda.jp/inst/weekly/features/specialissue-katsudon1/)
**Nakanishi's 1921 version.** Keijiro Nakanishi (中西敬二郎), then an 18-year-old first-year student at Waseda's preparatory school, said he invented the dish in February 1921 at a café near the Kani River by turning a plate of katsu-meshi into a bowl, cutting the cutlet onto the rice, and pouring a thickened Worcestershire-and-flour sauce over it. His account was recorded in a 1967 university history, and after he claimed the credit in the Asahi Shimbun in 1981, his version became widely accepted as an origin story.[4](https://www.waseda.jp/inst/weekly/features/specialissue-katsudon1/)
**Yo-roppaken, 1913.** The oldest of the three predates both. Takahata Masutaro, a Fukui native who had trained in German cooking for six years, opened the restaurant Yo-roppaken (ヨーロッパ軒) near the Waseda campus in Tsurumaki-cho on 28 November 1913 and presented a sauce katsudon at a cooking demonstration held that year. By the Waseda count, this makes Yo-roppaken the oldest documented katsudon vendor, though the egg-bound bowl that dominates nationally came from the other two accounts.[4](https://www.waseda.jp/inst/weekly/features/specialissue-katsudon1/)
An academic study of [fusion cuisine](https://www.edgepedia.org/fusion-cuisine) notes that katsudon began appearing in local restaurants around 1918 to 1921, and the All-Japan Donburi Association records that some accounts place the sauce style before the egg style.[10](https://jmic.online/issues/v7n2/6/) • [7](https://don.or.jp/text/kind/)
## Regional styles
The egg-bound bowl is the national default, but several regions treat something else as the local "katsudon." In [Yamanashi Prefecture](https://www.edgepedia.org/yamanashi-prefecture), ordering katsudon brings rice topped with shredded cabbage and a freshly fried cutlet, doused generously in sauce; the egg-bound version eaten elsewhere is served there under the name ni-katsudon and is considered a separate dish. Yamanashi tradition attributes its katsudon to a Meiji-era soba shop: the proprietor of Okumura Honten, a Kofu shop with a 360-year history, ate cutlet in Tokyo and wanted to serve it, but because soba shops worked mainly by delivery with one bowl per order, the cutlet-on-rice bowl was born. The prefecture has designated the dish among its 47 "specially selected foods of Yamanashi."
[3](https://www.maff.go.jp/j/keikaku/syokubunka/k_ryouri/search_menu/menu/katsudon_yama_nashi.html)
**Sauce katsudon strongholds.** Fukui is the best-known sauce-katsudon region, where the dish is credited to the restaurant Europe-ken (Yo-roppaken) in Fukui City during the Taisho period and is eaten at home and in restaurants alike.[11](https://www.gov-online.go.jp/hlj/en/august_2025/august_2025-00.html) The Waseda recipe for the style is specific: thinly sliced loin and thigh meat, a very fine breadcrumb coating fried in lard, and a Worcestershire-based sauce adapted to Japanese rice, with no cabbage or egg.[4](https://www.waseda.jp/inst/weekly/features/specialissue-katsudon1/) In Gunma, the Kiryu Sauce Katsudon Association (桐生ソースかつ丼会) defines its bowl as pork fillet dipped in sauce and placed on rice, with no fixed rule on the sauce or the pork brand; in Kiryu, saying katsudon means the sauce version, and delivery of the dish, which stays good even cold, was common when the city's textile industry flourished.[12](https://www.maff.go.jp/j/keikaku/syokubunka/k_ryouri/search_menu/menu/32_20_gunma.html) A Josai University study connects this egg-free katsudon culture to regions that prospered on the silk industry, including Maebashi, Kiryu, and the neighboring Chichibu district with its large waraji-katsudon, a cutlet the size of a straw sandal dipped in sauce.[13](https://libir.josai.ac.jp/il/user_contents/02/G0000284repository/pdf/JOS-24362336-0615.pdf)
Further variants differ in cut thickness and sauce. Komagane in Nagano uses thick-cut cutlets of about 200 g heaped on shredded cabbage with a sweet, rich sauce, while Aizu-Wakamatsu pairs thick cutlets with a distinctive sauce carrying body and acidity.[14](https://mydev.whoapi.com/Natsu-matsuri-summer/4405888/) Niigata's tare-katsu, a cutlet dipped in a sweetish soy-based tare rather than [Worcestershire sauce](https://www.edgepedia.org/worcestershire-sauce), is lighter than the sauce-katsudon style, and in Niigata City residents simply call it katsudon.[15](https://www.foodinjapan.org/ja/%E4%B8%AD%E9%83%A8/%E6%96%B0%E6%BD%9F/tarekatsu-don-ja/) • [16](https://www.masachan.co.jp/history/index.html)
## Nutrition and place at the table
Katsudon is a filling one-bowl meal, and its energy values reflect that. Published recipe nutrition per serving includes 1,105 kcal with 4.4 g salt equivalent, 48.5 g protein, and 94.5 g carbohydrate in the Kikkoman version[5](https://www.kikkoman.co.jp/homecook/search/recipe/00054786/), 786 kcal with 3.9 g salt in the [Ajinomoto](https://www.edgepedia.org/ajinomoto) version[9](https://park.ajinomoto.co.jp/recipe/card/700940/print/), and 807 kcal with 3.1 g salt and 95.3 g carbohydrate in the Takara version.[8](https://www.takarashuzo.co.jp/cooking/recipedata.php?id=63) The dish sits firmly in everyday Japanese eating: in the 2017 tonkatsu survey it was the favorite dish made with tonkatsu, and respondents' favorite condiment for the cutlet itself was tonkatsu sauce at 73.0%.[6](https://www.umios.com/jp/contents/research/pdf/20171214_tonkatsu_cyousa.pdf?form=MG0AV3)
The word also carries a hopeful pun. Because katsu (cutlet) sounds like katsu (to win), the bowl is eaten as a lucky meal before exams and other contests, a usage the All-Japan Donburi Association records alongside its notes on the dish's disputed origins.[7](https://don.or.jp/text/kind/)
## References
1. [カツ丼｜日本惣菜協会 (katsu-toji description)](https://www.nsouzai-kyoukai.or.jp/fried-pork-cutlet-rice-bowl-with-egg/)
2. [Inside Tonkatsu: Japan's Beloved Pork Cutlet Explained, Taste of Japan (JETRO)](https://japan-food.jetro.go.jp/en/recipe/108.html)
3. [かつ丼 山梨県｜うちの郷土料理, 農林水産省](https://www.maff.go.jp/j/keikaku/syokubunka/k_ryouri/search_menu/menu/katsudon_yama_nashi.html)
4. [「カツ丼 早稲田発祥説」を探る, 早稲田ウィークリー](https://www.waseda.jp/inst/weekly/features/specialissue-katsudon1/)
5. [カツ丼〖本つゆ（めんつゆ）使用〗のレシピ, キッコーマン](https://www.kikkoman.co.jp/homecook/search/recipe/00054786/)
6. [とんかつに関する調査, 株式会社umios (2017)](https://www.umios.com/jp/contents/research/pdf/20171214_tonkatsu_cyousa.pdf?form=MG0AV3)
7. [丼の分類学, 全国丼連盟](https://don.or.jp/text/kind/)
8. [かつ丼 レシピ, 宝酒造](https://www.takarashuzo.co.jp/cooking/recipedata.php?id=63)
9. [かつ丼の作り方, 味の素パーク](https://park.ajinomoto.co.jp/recipe/card/700940/print/)
10. [A Consideration of the Characteristics and Historical Background of Japanese Fusion Cuisine in Port Cities, Journal of Marine and Island Cultures](https://jmic.online/issues/v7n2/6/)
11. [The Birth of Yoshoku, Highlighting Japan (August 2025)](https://www.gov-online.go.jp/hlj/en/august_2025/august_2025-00.html)
12. [ソースカツ丼 群馬県｜うちの郷土料理, 農林水産省](https://www.maff.go.jp/j/keikaku/syokubunka/k_ryouri/search_menu/menu/32_20_gunma.html)
13. [絹の道とソースカツ丼, 城西大学・城西短期大学地域連携センター紀要 第6号](https://libir.josai.ac.jp/il/user_contents/02/G0000284repository/pdf/JOS-24362336-0615.pdf)
14. [駒ヶ根ソースカツ丼の圧倒的魅力（地域別比較）](https://mydev.whoapi.com/Natsu-matsuri-summer/4405888/)
15. [たれかつ丼：新潟の醤油カツ丼案内, Food in Japan](https://www.foodinjapan.org/ja/%E4%B8%AD%E9%83%A8/%E6%96%B0%E6%BD%9F/tarekatsu-don-ja/)
16. [新潟タレカツ丼の歴史](https://www.masachan.co.jp/history/index.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Food, customs, and everyday culture › Food, cooking and hospitality › Dishes, foods, and foodstuffs › Rice, noodle, pasta, and grain dishes*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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