Curry Flight

Flight 20 A great writer loves rice and curry.

It is often said that "musicians love curry. But it is not only musicians. Curry is a muse for people involved in all kinds of expressive activities, such as movies, animation, literature, and so on, as it stimulates the brain.

In this issue, we will introduce how the great writers in the history of Japanese literature have loved curry, along with their favorite curry restaurants.

Soseki Natsume and "Hibiya Matsumoto Tower".

Soseki Natsume, known for such works as "Bo-chan" and "I am a Cat," boarded a ship bound for Europe in 1900 and ate the famous rice curry at the British India Hotel in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), a port of call.

"At 6:30, we will return to the inn for dinner, and after eating the famous "rice cake" we will return to the ship."

It is said that the curry they ate was a South Indian Tamil dish called "Mulligatny," which is said to be the prototype of the Japanese curry that was later introduced to England.

After returning to Japan, Soseki went to Hibiya Matsumoto Tower, which was established in 1903.
At that time, "eating curry and drinking coffee at Matsumoto-Ro" was very popular among the high-culture-loving mobos and mogas, and it became a place of relaxation for many literary figures, including Soseki and Kotaro Takamura of "Chieko Sho" fame.

Although there is no direct record of Soseki eating curry from Matsumoto-Ro, there is a passage in "Sanshiro" that says, "I was treated to curry rice at Yodomiken by someone sometime ago," and it seems certain that Soseki was fond of curry, which was ahead of its time. It seems certain that Soseki was fond of curry, the cutting edge of the times.

Shibata Renzaburo and "Oh Roji".

Founded in Shinjuku in 1921, Oroji is known as the birthplace of tonkatsu.

The man who frequented this place was Renzaburo Shibata, the author of "Neme Kyoshiro," "Suikoden," "Tokugawa Taiheiki," and other works.
The signature dish at Ou Roji has remained unchanged since the restaurant's founding: ton-don (pork bowl).
It is a bowl of rice topped with a mille-feuille of pork cutlets and beef curry with apples and other ingredients (the term "cutlet curry" did not exist at that time). (The term "pork cutlet curry" did not exist at that time.)

The store is designed by Renzaburo Shibata.
"Three years in a good store does not change the customer, three years in a good customer does not change the store, 為王ろじ."
The amount that is.

It shows how much he loved the restaurant and how regular he had become.

Sakunosuke Oda and "Namba Jiyuuken".

When it comes to writers who are particularly fond of curry, the name of Sakunosuke Oda is hard to miss.
He frequented Jiyuuken in Namba, Osaka, which was established in 1910.

His famous curry, which is made by mixing rice, curry, and a raw egg, even appears in his masterpiece "Meoto Zenzai" (Married Couple Zenzai).

In the text of "Meoto Zenzai," the scene where Choko goes to Jiyuuken alone after a quarrel with Yanagikichi is described as follows.

"I had a rice curry with egg at Jiyuuken next to Rakutenchi. Remembering what Ryukichi once said, "Jiyuuken (here) la, la, la, the rice curry is so good because it's made of rice and anjouma, ma ma, ma, ma, ma."

He was so devoted to curry rice that a picture of Sakunosuke Oda displayed in the restaurant reads, "A tiger dies and leaves its skin, and Sakunosuke Oda dies and leaves curry rice.

Shotaro Ikenami and "Murugi".

Shotaro Ikenami is known as a great writer who loves to eat and drink. He has attacked all kinds of food genres, and the curry shop he recommends is "Murugi," a long-established restaurant in Shibuya that was founded in 1951.

"The one I frequented the most was Murgi at the Hyakken restaurant. It was a small restaurant, but the curry and rice it sold was unique, and I never got tired of eating it day after day. The rice was heaped up in one corner of the plate like a high peak in the Himalayas, and the chicken curry looked like a meadow on the rice hillside. It was a rather black, spicy curry with an aromatic flavor that immediately whetted one's appetite.　At the time, a plate of this curry cost 70 yen. A serving with eggs was 100 yen..."
-From "Shokutaku no Emotion" by Shotaro Ikenami

In addition to Shotaro Ikenami, many other creators such as Kenji Ootsuki and Kenji Ozawa also loved Murgi, a legend in Shibuya.

Naoya Shiga and Atami "Scott".

Founded in 1946, "Scott's" is a long-established Western-style restaurant that was loved by literary giants who lived in Atami, such as Naoya Shiga and Junichiro Tanizaki. Naoya Shiga was especially fond of the curry here.

Slowly simmered to a deep, deep flavor, fruity sweetness, and tangy spiciness, this is a venerable Western-style curry that will make you want to straighten up your collar. It is a venerable Western-style curry that makes you want to straighten up your collar. We also recommend their signature stews and bavarois.

Seicho Matsumoto and Nishiogikubo "Kokeshiya".

The catchphrase, "Papa omiyage omiyage wo don't forget ne (don't forget your souvenirs, Papa)," is a specialty that Nishiogikko will grin at.
Kokeshiya, whose western-style confections are popular in Nishiogikubo, used to be a small store with tatami mats on the second floor.
Kokeshiya began as a sweet shop in the building of a western goods store that somehow managed to survive the postwar devastation. The store became known as a place where people of culture gathered, as it hosted cultural lectures called "Kokeshi-kai" every Saturday, inviting local cultural figures.

Tagawa Suiwa, Ibushi Masuji, Tokugawa Musei... and Matsumoto Seicho.

It's a great lineup.
Seicho Matsumoto, in particular, "used to come here around noon, eat curry and stew in silence, and spend the rest of the evening writing his manuscript. Even after he moved away, he frequented the restaurant frequently, and on New Year's Day of the year he died, his family accompanied him to eat there" (Sarai, October 7, 1993).
He said.

After all, that spicy development of mystery novels is all about spice ingestion, isn't it?

A painting displayed behind the cash register on the coffee shop floor in the main building, with Seicho Matsumoto's hidden signature behind it.
The Kokeshiya Honten, which has been such a valuable presence, will be closed for three years in March 2022 for rebuilding due to the aging of the building. We are looking forward to its reopening.

Ango Sakaguchi and the "Rice Curry for 100 People Incident.

Ango Sakaguchi is known for such works as "The Fall" and "Hakuchi. His style of writing was known as "Muyori-ha," but his real life was also quite tumultuous.
Around 1948, when Osamu Dazai, a close friend of his, committed suicide, he became depressed and took a lot of drugs. Finally, he was involved in a rare incident related to curry.

(show quote)
In September, he started going to bicycle racecourses, investigated whether there was any irregularity in the placement judging (photo judging) of a certain race at Ito Bicycle Racecourse, and filed a case against the Shizuoka Bicycle Promotion Association, the governing body at that time, with the public prosecutor's office, alleging irregularities in the Ito Bicycle Racecourse. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), the supervising authority, ruled that Mr. Sakaguchi was mistaken, but in November, he wrote a piece about this in "Shincho," in which he again alleged fraud by photo-swapping, but in December, the case was dropped due to insufficient suspicion. It is said that bicycle racing in this era was a den of thuggish yakuza.
He was so exhausted by the mire of the bicycle race prosecution case that he took a large dose of Adorm and left Ito City. His paranoia led him to change his residence from one place to another, including the residence of Kousuke Oi, and he stayed at his wife Michiyo's parents' house and at Kazuo Dan's house in Shakujii. While staying at Kazuo Dan's house, Ango told his wife to order 100 servings of rice curry, and Mrs. Michiyo had no choice but to ask the neighborhood diner and buckwheat noodle shops ("Hatori Shokudo" and "Tatsumiken"), causing the "rice curry 100 servings incident" in which the servings were piled up one after another in the yard.
*Taken from Wikipedia Ango Sakaguchi

Both the "Horori Shokudo" and "Tatsumiken," which received orders for the "Rice Curry for 100 People Incident," were established in 1939 and are still going strong in the shopping district of Shakujii Koen. They still serve the same curry as at the time of the incident.

While tours of sacred places for anime have been gaining popularity recently, it is also fun to take a trip to curry spots associated with great writers.

Creative work and curry are, and always have been, inseparable.

Now, what kind of Flight should we try next time?