Official

Along the street, there is a monument engraved with "Toson Shimazaki Tokoku Kitamura Young Day Learn Here".
I was not familiar with writers at this time, and said, "I must have lived in a good place since I was born to go to Yasuaki Elementary School. I thought they were from Tokyo!” but in fact they are not both from Tokyo.

Tokoku Kitamura, a pioneer of modern Romantic literature, was born in present-day Odawara City, Kanagawa Prefecture.
In 1881, he moved to Tokyo and moved with his family to Yazaemon-cho, Kyobashi-ku (now Ginza 4-chome), where he went to school.

On the other hand, Toson Shimazaki, a representative writer of naturalist literature, was born in present-day Nakatsugawa City, Gifu Prefecture.
Also, in 1881, he moved to Tokyo and went to school from his sister's wife (now near Ginza 4-chome) and his home in Yariyacho, Kyobashi-ku.

On the 22nd of this month, Toson Shimazaki's anniversary, "Fujimura Anniversary", and events will be held at Eishoji Temple in Bodaiji Temple in Magome.
For that reason, this time, I would like to focus on Toson Shimazaki and focus on the childhood spots that influenced the novel.

As you can see on the information board next to Yasuaki Elementary School, his novels "Child Day" and "Osana Monogatari" depict the childhood spent in Ginza, but when I visited Gifu the other day, I was blessed with the opportunity to pass in front of his birthplace.
The birthplace was an old house that also served as Honjin, Shoya, and wholesaler during the Edo period!
In addition to realizing that he was not from Tokyo, I also got an episode that was likely to get interested in his work.

(The birthplace that remains as the Fujimura Memorial Hall)

Next to his birthplace is "Oguroya Chabo", famous for its chestnut kowameshi.
At that time, it was known as "Oguro-ya", which runs a sake brewery, and played the role of wholesalers and elderly people in Magomejuku.
It seems that this was the house of Oyu-san, who is said to be his first love ^ ^

In addition, the feature-length novel "Before Dawn", which drew before and after the Meiji Restoration with his father as a model, and gained high praise as a historical novel, is influenced by the "Oguroya Diary (New Year's Diary Book)", which tells the state of Magomejuku and surrounding post towns at the time. It is said that it has been.
When you learn about the background of such novels, why don't you want to pick up works that have the source of the novel world in childhood?

When you go to a local city, you can always find people and things that connect to Chuo-ku.
That's why the current Chuo-ku may have been the center of Japan at that time and the place of admiration.
If you find interesting connections in the future, I would like to introduce them on the blog ^ ^