Which former shogun was a regular at a tempura restaurant and ordered an especially large kakiage?

The former shogun who regularly visited a tempura restaurant and ordered an especially large kakiage was Tokugawa Yoshinobu. The dish was reportedly served on a Nabeshima plate.

Kakiage is a type of tempura made by combining small pieces of seafood, vegetables, or both, then frying the mixture as a single disk or fritter. Shrimp, scallops, onions, carrots, burdock, and mitsuba are among the ingredients commonly used.

Yoshinobu lived from 1837 to 1913 and was the 15th and last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate. He held the office from 1866 until his resignation in 1867, during the upheaval that led to the Meiji Restoration.

A common mix-up is to treat kakiage as ordinary whole-shrimp tempura. Its defining feature is the clustered mixture of small ingredients, which is shaped and fried together. Kakiage can also be served over rice as kakiage don, or on soba and udon.