Manabu Asanuma — Yamagata-born, trained in Japan under Iron Chef Koumei Nakamura and Kyoto master Hidenori Iwasaki, then through New York's Uchu, Odo, and Sushi Ichimura — opened Muku in September 2025 inside Ichimura's former Tribeca omakase hall, a ten-seat counter framed by tsuchikabe walls and a 17th-century gilded mural. The name means purity, and the kitchen earns it: a roughly $295 seasonal menu built on goho, the five classical techniques of raw, grilled, simmered, steamed, and fried. Signatures run to A5 wagyu shabu-shabu cooked diner by diner and Yamagata soba milled from buckwheat his parents grow. Part of the L'Abeille team's Kuma Hospitality group, Muku took a Michelin star within two months of opening — the fastest in New York history. For a quietly exacting kaiseki counter that trusts restraint over spectacle.