In the 1970s, when Kamaishi was thriving with both the steel industry and fishing trade, there were several blocks of steelworks company housing (nicknamed harmonica houses for their long shape) in the same neighborhood as the ramen shops. On payday, whole families would come and eat together, paying \30-50 a bowl. Therefore, it could be said that the prosperity of the steel trade contributed greatly to the development of Kamaishi’s ramen culture. Prior to that, the booming fishing trade and the impatience of the influential fishermen strutting through the business district lead to the popularity of the thin, quick-to-cook noodles and transparent soup.

In this way, the development and progress of Kamaishi’s ramen culture came about not just from the popularity of a particular style of noodles or soup, but through unifying the approach of those cooking ramen with the taste and temperament of those eating it, to make a ramen perfectly suited to the local people. Therefore, Kamaishi Ramen contains not only the people’s local pride and the history of the lively fishing port and steel town, but also the path of the progress made in its culinary culture.