Inside the store, small items such as rice bowls, small plates, and tenugui towels (as well as Mingei design face masks) are sold on the first floor. Walking upstairs to the second floor, one can find clothing and larger objects, including Southeast Asian textiles, on display. (I was in shock for a moment when I found the “Marijuana cloth” hemp jacket from the Thai Meo Hill tribe.) I interviewed the current CEO, Mr, Jun Nozaki, sitting at a table in the corner on the second floor, going through old materials and photographs.
“We still write “Shokoku-mingei” (Mingei from around the world) before our name TAKUMI. Now, the word “mingei” was first coined by Soetsu Yanagi, and pottery artisans Shoji Hamada and Kanjiro Kawai.”
　Initially, they said “Mingei-teki kogei,” or folkart-like crafts, and as the name implies, it was rooted in a social movement to promote the artistic quality of livingware that is ingrained among the common people. The movement intensified from the end of the Meiji period through the Taisho period, and after the Great Earthquake, in the early Showa period, plans to build museums and Mingei stores emerged across Japan.
　The most famous Mingei museum would be the Nihon Mingeikan, which was opened in 1936 (Showa 11) in Komaba. Since it is only a ten minutes’ walk from my workplace, I visited the museum before the interview. The museum exhibits pieces (porcelain and pottery and block wood prints) made by Bernard Leach, Shoji Hamada, Kanjiro Kawai, Shiko Munakata, and Keisuke Serizawa, or Yanagi’s fellow advocates of the Mingei movement. But what really caught my eyes were the crafts from the Yi dynasty that Yanagi had collected intensively in the Korean Peninsula (mainly around Kyungsung) in the Taisho period and early Showa period. They all look like expensive antiques today, but seeing that some of them were labeled “1940s,” I wondered if some of them might have sat on a shelf at TAKUMI back then.

　The restaurant stands “as it always has” since February 1968 (Showa 43), when the three-story building was built. It was just after the tram disappeared from Ginza-dori. Before moving to the current location, for a time after World War II, the restaurant stood on the same street, but around where the Matsuya parking lot is now. They first started business in 1916, in a spot next to what is now the CORE Building, down the alley where Wakamatsu, famous for their “anmitsu,” stands now. It was presumable after the great earthquake that this alley came to be known for good food and sake, and was nicknamed “Shokusho-jinmichi,” after the one by Shirokiya in Shinbashi.
　The founder, Shoji Okada was born as the son of a shipbuilder in Fukagawa. When he worked for a grocery store as the head-clerk, he would often go to ”Shinkiraku” in Tsukiji, where he met Ko, who he would later marry. Ko, being a daughter of a milk store owner in Asakusa, the couple was an authentic “Edokko” couple, born and raised in Edo (Tokyo). Shoji had an unusual background of having voluntarily fought in the war against Germany during World War I, a few years prior to opening the restaurant. Fighting on the Western Front, where the total count of Japanese military men are said to have been only around 200, he must have been quite the patriot。

　Hitomi Yamaguchi, Kenichi Yoshida… Many people have wrote about Okada. The book that contributed to widely spreading Hachimaki Okada’s name was aforementioned Ginza Fukko (Restoring Ginza) by Takitaro Minakami. The novel narrated the restoration of Ginza from burnt ruins, featuring Okada, who had lost his store in the Great Kanto Earthquake after seven years since its opening, as the main character. The novel was serialized in Miyako Shimbun from 1931 (Showa 6). The author later commented that the characters and events were all fictional, but it is a fact that the motto “Restoration begins from good food. Good food that prioritizes nutrition lies in the hachimaki.” was posted on the reed screen of the small building and the description of Okada is, as aforementioned, very true to the facts.
　The narrator, a young man named Muta, is Minakami, the author himself. In the novel, Muta works for Mitsubishi Corporation, but Minakami, whose real name was Shozo Abe, worked for Meiji Life Insurance. Another character from the novel is Yamagishi, Muta’s friend from university and second-generation owner of an accessory store in Ginza. Judging from the name “Yamatoku,” I would imagine that the model was “Daitoku,” a hat store that was located in Ginza 8-chome near Shinbashi.
　Ginza Fukko was performed at Teigeki Theater just after the war in October 1945 (Showa 20), adapted by Mantaro Kubota and featuring Kikugoro VI. The setting was changed to the aftermath of the World War II air raids. The 1965 roundtable dialogue (among Ko Okada, Fumiko Enchi, Koji Tosaka and Yajiro Ikeda) first discusses this play, so Kikugoro’s performance may have contributed to making Hachimaki Okada known to a wider audience. Just when the show was making a hit, Kikugoro happened meet Ko in Ginza and told her, “How long are you going to keep the restaurant closed? I don’t want to be acting a lie.” This encouraged her to reopen the restaurant in Ginza 3-chome.
　In 1948, when the restaurant was reopened, Shoji fell ill and passed away at the end of the year at the age of 58. That marked the beginning of an era when the restaurant was run by the famous widow and her son Chiyozo.
“Second-generation owner Chiyozo, a student at Keio University: ‘I will take the cooking knife in my hand once I graduate.’ That is how Okada-kai was organized by a group of frequent diners who agreed: ‘Let us support this reliable son.’
　The story of the debut of the second-generation chef is written in Tokyo Fubutsu Meibutsushi (Scenes and specialties of Tokyo) (by Keiji Isurugi) published in 1951 (Showa 26). I have been told that in reality, Okada-kai was a fan club launched by Takitaro Minakami in 1933 (Showa 8), but the fans became even more closely knit after Shoji’s sudden death, especially among Keio alumni, sharing the purpose of supporting the young second-generation owner. Ko played the role of producer of their activities, which were led by Shinzo Koizumi, a frequent diner from before the war and a former teacher of Chiyozo.
　Chiyozo seems to have been a taciturn person, and Hitomi Yamaguchi’s essays mostly feature Ko. However, in a dialogue titled “Hocho Shinjidai” in the July 1961 (Showa 36) edition of Ginza Hyakuten, he speaks openly with Shogo Okazoe from Kanetanaka and other young chefs of Japanese restaurants, perhaps because he was well-acquainted with his peers.

　One of the reasons for Ichimura choosing to live in this area was that the factory of Asahi Optical Co., Ltd., the predecessor of RICOH’s camera section, stood in the valley below. RICOH Head Office building and other group facilities still stand on both sides of Kannana-dori Ave., forming a small “RICOH village”.
　The camera that Asahi Optical sold at the time was called “Olympic,” most likely named after the 1940 Tokyo Olympic Games, which were returned to the IOC due to the outbreak of war…….

My first question was what had brought this association into being in 1891. An event that directly led to its establishment was the Ginza-dori road widening project.
“When the first City Planning Law was promulgated, the city administration proposed plans to modernize Ginza-dori. This included plans not only to broaden the street but also to remove the gas lamps and replace the willows with poplars….”
　The local storeowners joined forces and stood up to prevent the authorities from arbitrarily going ahead with the undesired renovation of Ginza. People had just begun to use the term “Ginbura” in the early years of the Taisho period, so the emergence of Ginza tourism may also have contributed to the movement.
　The Association was initially launched as “Kyo-shin Rengo-kai,” taking “kyo” from the Kyobashi district and “shin” from the Shinbashi district. The first Chairman, Kunihiko Moritake, who I assume led the cause, ran a store called Moritake Shoten in Ginza 6-chome (then, Owaricho 2-chome) and offered the second floor of his store for gatherings.
　Moritake Shoten – according to a local business map from the Taisho period, the store was located on the northern side of (then) Tenshodo where GINZA SIX stands now. The map also provides the business category of each store; and it says that Moritake Shoten specializes in “machinery and hardware.” Koichi Noguchi’s Meiji no Ginza Shokunin Monogatari (Stories of Ginza’ Craftsmen in the Meiji Period) provides the following description:
“Besides running a retail business, the store was commissioned by the Tokyo City Government to supply all the materials necessary for the city’s waterworks construction project. Although he did not have a very large store, as a supplier of waterworks materials, he made profits of a different order of magnitude, which made him one of the most wealthy landowners in Ginza in only a few years.”
　His being “one of the most wealthy landowners,” is particularly convincing evidence of his qualifications as the first Chairman. In a map from 1931 (Showa 6) (Dai Nippon shokugyo-betsu meisai-zu (Great Japan Detailed Map by Industry)), Morinaga Candy Store stands after Moritake Shoten, so Moritake may have closed his business after having made a fortune.
　As for the “willows” that were to be replaced under the road improvement plan, gingkoes were planted instead of poplars, but the gingko trees were burned down in the Great Kanto Earthquake. In 1929 (Showa 29), when Ginza-dori had no boulevard trees, “Tokyo Koshinkyoku (Tokyo March)” made the hit charts, giving rise to calls for willow trees. In 1930 (Showa 5), the Ginza Street Association, which had changed its name from Kyo-shin Rengo-kai advocated the restoring of the willow trees, and in 1932 (Showa 7) Ginza-dori became lined with willow trees once again, thanks to a donation made by the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun.
　The Association had not only voiced the replanting of willow trees, but had also called for the removal of telephone poles with a view to the 1940 Olympic Games (which were cancelled). To my great surprise, they had vilified the tram at the start of the Showa period (1925-1989).
“The ugly tram and its noise, the filthy barracks, the spider web-like telephone poles and power lines, the poor willow trees whose growth isd hindered by them, bicycles parked in the street, recklessly standing signposts, distasteful underpass entrances, low sunshades, etc.”
　Points of improvements recommended at the time (1936) are listed in a report compiled by the Ginza Kensatsu-tai, a survey team hosted by the Association. That means Ginza’s tram only came to be remembered as a part of the picturesque scenery of Ginza a while after it was abolished in December 1967.
　The Association’s influence helped Ginza recover from the aftermath of the Taisho earthquake and Showa war. I was quite impressed by the manual for building barracks formulated by the Association jointly with Okura Doboku-gumi (currently Taisei Corporation).
“Use mortar to construct a building with a six-meter high storefront. Install an 80-centimeter canopy in the middle, with a window under it and a signboard above . The signboard should have the store name written out using the English alphabet, accompanied by a picture depicting the business. The building should be 5 “ken” (1 ken= approximately 1.8 meters) long, using the 3 “ken” in the front as store area and the remaining two “ken” in the back as living space.”
　I am sure that not everything proceeded according to the manual, but the intentions were to precisely design the town from the stage of building temporary business locations. Only Ginza would be expected to pursue such a plan.
Writing out the store name in English was probably for the Allied Occupation forces. Following a period of occupation, the post-war townscape took shape in around 1952 or 1953. In the 1953 (Showa 28) movie “Tokai no yokogao (A city in profile),” directed by Hiroshi Shimizu, Ryo Ikebe, appearing as Ginza’s sandwich board man, walks up and down Ginza-dori looking for a lost girl. The viewer can enjoy the fully restored Ginza townscape – Colombin’s signboard with a picture of the Eiffel Tower and the Peko-chan doll just introduced by Fujiya. The Association was, of course, not acknowledged in the credits roll, but the shooting evidently could not have been possible without their support.
　The tram running through Ginza-dori that appears at the beginning of the movie was abolished in December 1967. The road improvement project associated with the abolishment of the tram system also involved removing the telephone poles – and the willows along with them. The granite stones used in the tram rails were reused in the pavement. Most of the stones from the times of the tram system have aged and thus have been replaced with new stones, but we can still find some of the old stones in Ginza 5-chome.
“The street has become quite bumpy from the weathered cobbles and we have asked the national road authorities to improve it.”