Back Issue Vol. 8: Hon no Machi December 2025 Issue, Now Available on note

Community Salon Magazine of Kanda, Ochanomizu and Jimbocho: Hon no Machi, December Issue, Vol. 8

Monthly “New Hon no Machi,” December 2025 Issue: Contents 🎄
Issue: DECEMBER 2025 No. 8 / December issue, No. 8
Publication date: November 10, 2025
Title calligraphy: Koto Takahashi
Artwork: Masako Takezawa, “The Nutcracker: March” (oil, size S0)
Design: Ryutaro Shimizu

Back issues are available on note!

[Lead Features and Series]

Reading Shylock Through the Lens of Political Correctness (Encounters with the Classics, 2) / Yasuo Hasebe (Professor, Waseda University; constitutional law)

Summary: Considers the ending of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice from today’s standpoint of “political correctness.” Describes in detail the scene in which Portia interprets law and justice strictly, allowing Shylock only his pound of Antonio’s flesh and declaring that if he sheds a single drop of blood, his property will be confiscated. The author also points out that forcing Shylock to convert to Christianity would, by modern standards, be an “arrogant violation of religious freedom.” He further analyzes Portia’s own discriminatory remarks as reflecting the gut feelings of audiences of the time.

My Apprenticeship in Old Books (5) / Inuhiko Yomota (comparative literature)

Summary: Begins by explaining the three stages of the old-book collector: the book pig, the book fool and the book wolf. The “book wolf” in particular is said to be possessed by such madness that, to become the owner of the only copy of a rare book in the world, he would burn the other one. The author recalls his mentor from graduate school, Professor U, a collector of rare books in 19th-century English literature. He writes of the professor’s grand plan — “the secondhand bookshops of Calcutta are a treasure trove of colonial-era first editions” — and of his vast library, cured in pipe smoke.

From the Study of an International History Detective (2) / Tetsuro Kato (Professor Emeritus, Hitotsubashi University; political science)

Summary: Probes the mystery of the model for Kenichiro Nogami, the diplomat in Seicho Matsumoto’s novel Kyukei no Koya (A Spherical Wilderness). The author puts forward Shigeki Sakimura, an agricultural scientist who defected to Sweden in 1943, as a new candidate. While it is unlikely that Matsumoto knew Sakimura personally, the author considers whether information may have reached him through his interest in Mitsuko Araki, a daughter of the Mitsubishi zaibatsu family who was close to Sakimura and was rumored after the war to be his “Tokyo wife.”

Jimbocho and Me (7): Tokumanden / Ryosuke Sakota (Keyaki Shoten)

Summary: Memories of Suzukiya, a soba shop that stood on Suzuran-dori Street, and Tokumanden, a Chinese restaurant in Jimbocho 1-chome. The author recalls a commotion over a delivery order from Suzukiya during a short lunch break in his days as a clerk at Isseido Bookstore. He also describes the astonishingly large portions at Tokumanden, which closed in 2015, and his own ordering trick — “order the same thing as the customer before you” — which turned the kitchen’s cooking sequence to his advantage.

A New Door: “Shin’s Little Lamb Library” / Naoko Sakamoto (Atelier Floral Mélange)

Summary: Looks back on how she started her floral work in Kanda-Sarugakucho in 2003. She writes of her ties with shops around Jimbocho, such as the Thai restaurant Menam no Hotori and the standing bar Meijiya 3rd. She also reports on a new beginning in 2025: opening “Shin’s Little Lamb Library,” the shelf of her own she had long wished for, inside Passage, a shared bookstore on Suzuran-dori Street where individuals run their own shelves.

New Whimsical Journal of Art (History) (8): Taijiro and Yojiro / Hiroaki Goto

Summary: An installment centered on the friendship between the novelist Taijiro Tamura and the painter Yojiro Shimamura. The author describes how, at the age of 18, an encounter with a single book led him to visit Gendai Garo (Gendai Gallery), founded by Tamura. He examines the background of the novel Nokosareta Shozo (The Portrait Left Behind) — Tamura, a darling of the postwar era, bought paintings from Shimamura, and the money became the capital for the Shimamuras to open a flower shop — as well as the deep friendship between the two men.

In Search of Yojiro Shimamura’s Paintings (3) / Naoko Shimamura

Summary: Episodes surrounding Yojiro Shimamura’s crayon-pastel work Cat and Boy. Describes the pianist Kazuko Yasukawa gazing intently at the picture at his posthumous exhibition in 1956, and how, for the exhibition marking 50 years since his death, the work was miraculously found in a storehouse at the home of Kenjiro Okamoto. Traces how the piece captured many hearts and came to grace the cover of Me no Hikari (The Light of the Eyes).

Going Down the Slope / Kyosuke Sato (Editorial Director, Kadensha Publishing)

Summary: Reflects on the charm of Tokyo’s slopes as devices that switch the mood of everyday life. The author recalls the late 1990s, when, unable to settle into university life, he would walk down the slope at Kudan to Jimbocho and spend his days treating the CD shop Janis and the old-book district (Tamura Shoten, Tokyodo Bookstore and others) as “my own university.” He describes searching the town for Auden’s Poems, a book Kenzaburo Oe kept close at hand, and the origins of his work at Kadensha, which marks its 40th anniversary this year.

What Maestro Muti Poured into the Music (Notebook of Sounds, 3) / Marsha Lin (music journalist)

Summary: An account of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra conducted by Riccardo Muti. Describes in detail Muti’s strict teaching at the Italian Opera Academy, his project for training young artists — “Play what is written in the score” — and the commitment behind it to conveying the truth of the music. Portrays the maestro’s true face and his feelings for music, from his humor-filled remarks at rehearsals to his fury at a moment of inappropriate laughter.

Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks (7): Kissa Hotaka / Eri Ito (photos and text)

Summary: A visit to Kissa Hotaka, a kissaten (traditional Japanese coffee house) in front of Ochanomizu Station that is marking 70 years in business. Introduces deep local stories, such as owner Yoshio Awano’s descent from a retainer of the Date clan of Sendai, and the history of Otahime Inari Shrine, which was moved to guard the kimon, the unlucky northeast direction, of Edo Castle. Praises its coffee, an original blend of five kinds of beans, its toast, and its view over Hijiri-bashi Bridge.

A Short Biography of Shuhei Fujisawa (8): Fourteen Short Stories from His Unknown Years / Katsuo Sawada

Summary: Focuses on 14 early short stories from Shuhei Fujisawa’s years of obscurity, identified in 2006. Analyzes these works, written in the 1960s during his time as a trade-paper reporter as if “pouring in his pent-up gloom” in an effort to overcome private misfortune (the death of his wife). Describes this as the run-up period of the future master, with stories such as “Kiso no Tabibito” (The Traveler of Kiso), which could be called a prototype of his celebrated “Kikyo” (Homecoming).

There’s No Hobby as Wonderful as Jazz! (72) / Kazuyuki Iida (amateur jazz drummer)

Summary: Installment 72 of his guide to jazz spots around Japan: a farewell to a renowned venue (owner: Mr. Yamaguchi) that has been in business for more than 40 years in the Osaka Ekimae Dai-2 Building in Umeda, Osaka, and will close at the end of this year. Introduces the Nicki Parrott and Jimmy Cobb records played on his last visit, and expresses his gratitude to the owner along with memories of Osaka.

Mahler and Hampson (A Soprano’s Stroll Through Jimbocho) / Sayu Kogure (soprano)

Summary: Holiday musings while opening a Mahler score over a Viennese coffee at the kissaten Ladrio. Through Thomas Hampson’s singing at the NHK Symphony Orchestra’s subscription concert in September, she turns her thoughts to the voices of children living in Gaza and Ukraine today. She writes of the message of “saying yes to life” in Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, and of the preciousness of dialogue through music.

Postwar Scenes Around Jimbocho (1): Matsumoto-tei / Shigeru Owada (scholar of modern Japanese literature)

Summary: The story of Fumi Matsumoto, proprietress of Matsumoto-tei, which once stood in Kanda-Nishikicho. Details its history as a “Liangshan Marsh” — a haven for rebels, after the classic Water Margin — where, carrying on the ideals of her father, a survivor of the Shogitai (a band of shogunate loyalists), she supported activists such as Shozo Tanaka, Shusui Kotoku and Sun Yat-sen. Introduces tales of Fumi’s courage in standing up resolutely to police roundups, and a behind-the-scenes anecdote about the recommendation of Shigeru Yoshida, the postwar prime minister.

Early Photographs of Edo Castle and Its Surroundings (75) / Atsushi Shimizu (Shakespeare Gallery)

Summary: Installment 75 of the series. The author recalls the café at the former Kumagai Morikazu Museum and reflects on the character of Kaya, the great painter’s daughter. Comparing Japan with educational efforts at the Prado Museum in Spain (such as visits with small children), he sharply criticizes the current state of Japan’s public museums, which have become like “ornaments of the administration” and neglect visitor services.

[Other Information and Advertisements]
• Shakespeare Gallery exhibition: “European Masterpiece Prints,” Thursday, November 20 – Thursday, December 18, 2025
• Ultra Kaiju (Ultraman monsters) Exhibition “Shuwatch!”: at AMMON TOKYO, Monday, November 10 – Friday, November 28
• This month’s Mount Fuji postcards: Yamagataya Paper Shop originals, “Holy Night Fuji” and “Santa and Fuji”
• Yamagataya Paper Shop relocation notice: moved to a new address in Kanda-Jimbocho 3-chome
• Bangkok Japan Expo 2026: scheduled for August 28–30, 2026
• Live schedule: December performances at The Adirondack Café
• Editor’s afterword (Atsushi Shimizu): a witty look at the current political situation, likening Japan to “a subsidiary of America.”

日本語で読む — Read this article in Japanese