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In the novel, Takami said, "For the nationals, my determination to throw himself into the shoe leather industry, which was considered the most obsolete in all profession, even in the body of a tribe, was intensely my heart. Today, it is significant to look back on the traces of this pioneer who started the shoe leather business from a national point of view, with a remarkable turnover problem. Thus, I thought I would write this in a novel."

However, Takami, who was not accustomed to the method of novels and feared to hurt the deceased, took the "how to avoid habitual novelization and write the material as it is."
In this article, we will introduce the part related to Chuo-ku in a nutshell, so I hope you can actually pick up the novel for details.

According to Japanese Shoes, the use of (imported) shoes dates back to the Tokugawa shogunate era, when foreign officers were invited to begin Western-style training.
And the military reform in Meiji period was the turning point from the import of shoes to domestic procurement.
At the time, Daisuke Masujiro Omura, the Ministry of Defense at the time, where the name is engraved on the monument of the birthplace of the shoe industry, told Katsuzo Nishimura, `` When looking overseas for clothes, Ihi shoes and Ihi, exhaustion, The loss is extremely large, "he said.

Nishimura convinces his younger brother, Heisuke Ayabe of Itoigawa clansman and Seiji Takahashi of the same clan to become comrades, and somehow attracts his friends despite great opposition.
It is recorded that Takahashi at that time shed tears by cutting the bun, a symbol of samurai.
As mentioned above, the social reputation of the shoe industry at that time may have been "the most humbled in all professions."

In the first place, when manufacturing shoes in Japan, there was a decisive problem that imported shoes that had already entered Japan did not fit the feet of Japanese people.
Therefore, he invited Chinajin Clan Hiroshi, who once ran a shoe shop in Hong Kong, from Yokohama, and used a two-kenya near Akashibashi, Irifune-cho as a practice place, and Takahashi and other people learned shoemaking techniques.
At this time when the Japanese started making shoes, the time was March 15, 1870, when Nishimura was 35 years old.

At the same time, we invite samurai who were unemployed due to the influence of the abolished feudal prefecture to the practice place, and a total of more than 20 people learn how to make shoes.
Later, he invited Marshan, a Dutchman who runs a shoe shop in Yokohama, and became a teacher.
Only with extraordinary efforts at the turning point of the times and exchanges with people who are familiar with shoes made it possible to manufacture domestic shoes!

However, leather, the raw material for shoes, still relied on imports from foreign countries.
Therefore, Nishimura established a leathermaking factory in Irifune-cho in October 1870, and started producing leather for military shoes.
By 1889, it was possible to procure leather without relying on any foreign supply, and on the contrary, Japanese shoemakers who are active overseas also appeared.
I feel like I was impressed by the enthusiasm and energy of doing my own leather procurement, and I was able to understand a little why Takami was impressed by him.

If you are interested in Katsuzo Nishimura, please also take a look at the April 2019 article "[Excursion Series 13th] fashionable from your feet ♪ Japanese shoe industry in the life of a "successful person" .

[Aside]
Tarozaemon Sawa, who was studying in the Netherlands, stayed at Marshan's father's house mentioned above.
Marshan decided to come to Japan with this opportunity.
At first, he was hired by the Tosa clan to teach shoes making techniques, and then went to Yokohama to open a shoe shop.
He lived in Tsukiji Reservoir from 1872 or 1873 to 1875, and is said to be a benefactor of the shoe industry for the first time communicating European shoemaking techniques to Japanese people.
Later he married a Japanese and naturalized. With the permission of both governments, the wedding was completed, and it became one of the pioneers of international marriage in the early Meiji era!
In addition, the work seemed to be doing well, such as opening a Le Marshan shoe factory at 2-5 Obaricho, Ginza.

[Documents]
Tetsunori Iwashita, "Dictionary for Foreign People in Japan in the Edo Period", Tokyodo Publishing, 2011.
Jun Takami, "Jun Takami Complete Works Vol. 10", Keiso Shobo, 1971.

[Website]
Tokyo Metropolitan Leather Technology Center “History Walk of Shoes 58” https://www.hikaku.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/Portals/0/images/shisho/shien/public_2/113_6.pdf (Sept. 7, 2022)