When I lived in Honjo, In the north ward of Osaka, I could see two four-person wide paths from the balcony on the second floor, one was in front of the apartment building, parallel to the balcony, the other was fifty meters to the west, perpendicular to the balcony, and the intersection of the two roads was facing a rice shop that could not see any business but did not go out of business, and next door to the rice shop was a small pharmacy that sold Chinese cough medicine and cream, and there was a restaurant next door. In autumn and winter, the rice shop, which is also as silent as brown stones in the daytime, closes the door panel, and on the open space in front of the intersection, a red and black lantern lights up. In the silent cold wind, a slightly rough voice shouted into the black and white air: "Stone roasted sweet potato oh, sweet potato!" ”
The lantern looked hot, and the roar was thick, and it had to be so thick that it was necessary to grasp and fix the fallen leaves blown by the wind and the things that were about to be blown away. Baked sweet potatoes are naturally hot, I have never gone downstairs to buy, but I like to look, stare, see that little red; like to listen to the noise there, feel the warmth of life in front of me, this situation in the autumn and winter to give me all the support.
Baked sweet potatoes are not difficult to understand, stone baked sweet potatoes are buried in a hot stone, indirectly roasted. Some of the sweet potato sellers, like the hawkers who came to the village, opened open open-air shops with shelters, and some drove through small trucks. There are always a few residents who hear the movement and will move closer. Sweet potatoes are packed in paper bags, and there are also old newspapers wrapped in a wrap.
Nowadays, the shouting and selling rely on the voice to drink less, more recordings, not because of laziness, but because the city is becoming more noisy, just shouting a voice is often unable to hold back. The roasted sweet potato is roughly similar, a sentence "stone roasted sweet potato, delicious oh, no more come, go oh". There are also some places where some people improvise, plus a sentence and a half, "hot oh, hot oh" and the like, are also in line with the scene.
Stone roasted sweet potatoes appeared on the streets in 1950, and in 1960, when the 8,000 stone baked sweet potato stalls in Tokyo solved the livelihood of workers from the northeast who came to Beijing. It ceased to be popular in 1970 due to the emergence of the fast food industry. Baked sweet potatoes themselves date back to the Edo period, but the streets of Edo were frequently burned, and baked sweet potatoes were only sold in some stores on the main road. During the Meiji period, there were walking vendors of baked sweet potatoes. Baked sweet potatoes are not the only products in the history of Japanese street hawking.
There are still roasted sweet potatoes and roasted corn on the streets of Shanghai, and the scan code pays. Photo: Ma Xiaomao
Nowadays, there are still tofu, bamboo poles, fern cakes and shaved ice and other things flowing through the urban and rural areas through tape recorders. From the Edo period to the early Showa period, shouting was a part of life. Especially in the Edo period (1603-1868), when commerce and civic culture flourished and the great wave of the Industrial Revolution had not yet hit, the shouting was almost the clock of the street market. Not only the hours of the day, but also the changes of the four seasons. Sound is a kind of scenery, where there is a huge space, full of goods, full of life and human feelings of an era.
Early in the morning, some people shouted: "Natto, natto", and there are clam sellers; in the afternoon, the iron pot appears with a burden, and also comes to sell other groceries; selling tofu three times a day, if you hear the call to sell tofu in the afternoon, you don't need to look out the window, you can know that the sunset is slowly falling. The Edo Bathhouse, a masterpiece of the late Edo-shi and Burlesque Masters- Tei-style Sanma, features the Edo Bathhouse as the main scene and shows the funny and vivid dialogues of various characters. Shortly after the opening chapter, it is written that the crows "Gaga" at dawn; the hawkers sell "Natto ~, natto~"; and the sound of flint stones in every household "Kata, Kata". A few strokes recorded the representative sounds of the people in the morning light at that time--the people at that time woke up to the sound of crows and natto shouting.
Speaking of the sale of the four seasons of Edo, at the beginning of the new year, the street is the first to come to sell treasure ship paintings - a lucky charm with treasure ships. On the night of the second day of the first lunar month, you can put it under the pillow to make auspicious first dreams. In case of an ominous dream, the paper charms flowed into the water can dispel bad luck.
Immediately after the seven grasses that can be seen and sold, every household needs to cook a bowl of seven grass porridge on the seventh day of the first month. Seven kinds of greens that report the news of spring: celery, cabbage, mother and child grass, multiplicium, baogai grass, pineapple, and radish are chopped and added to the porridge. Eat seven grass porridge and pray for a year without disease and disaster. This is not all superstition, first, the tired stomach in the first month is relaxed, and the lack of chlorophyll in winter is supplemented. The Southern Dynasty Emperor Zongyi's "Chronicle of the Jingchu Years" records the seven seven vegetable soups of the first lunar month that can dispel diseases, and it is said that it is these seven vegetable soups that derive the Japanese seven grass porridge.
In February, the marinated reddened sardines are sold.
In March, primrose is sold, and it produces small purple-red five-petaled flowers that resemble cherry blossoms, which can be used as ornamental plants. Also for fun is barnyard, which is planted in a basin of water and emits green leaf buds, simulating a green paddy field. Set in the early Japanese detective novel "Half Seven Traps Tent" set in Edo life, barnyard is mentioned many times, and one day, "Half Seven slept a little more than usual, and walked to the gallery with a toothpick, and could see the pomegranate flowers in the neighboring courtyard bright and moist, and could hear the sound of barnyards outside." ”
In April, bonito is sold, and the bonito that comes out of the water at the beginning of the new year is particularly precious and can only be enjoyed by the rich and noble. Matsuo Basho also listened to the clamor of bonito, "What kind of people are drunk tonight because of bonito"—in the fourth year of Sadahiko (1687), at basho-an in Edo, the 44-year-old Basho sang. There are also those that sell flying fish and sardines. Fish sellers in Edo place fresh or dried fish in round or oval wooden barrels and carry them around the streets with flat shoulders.
The sound and rhythm of the flying fish have the sense of leaping of the fish. As for the sardines, Yoshiichiro Hamada, a scholar of Japanese literature and Kawayanagi, wrote "The Chronicle of the Edo Food Chronicles": "The summer heat is finally weakening, and the curtain of Japan's autumn, rich in seafood and mountain treasures, is opened." The omen of seafood is sardines. In the early years of Taisho, in the evening sky, when bats were flying, the lamp lighter of the gas lamp crossed diagonally from this side of the street to the other side of the street to light the lamp, and on the bank of the river in the twilight, the sardine seller shouted and walked: 'Oh, sardines, oh, oh, please come and buy oh', I still vaguely remember all this. ”
There is also a story about The Ape Genji from the Muromachi period, the original author is unknown. Based on this, Yukio Mishima created a Kabuki script based on this, and with reference to other materials, with a sardine seller as the male protagonist, conveying some human truths in nonsense. In the 29th year of Showa (1954), the script was published in the November issue of Acting Circle magazine. It premiered on November 2 of the same year, with the seventeenth generation of Nakamura Kansaburo playing Ape Genji, and the sixth generation of Nakamura Kaemon playing fireworks. Whether it is called "The Love Web of the Sardine Fishmonger" or "The Fish Seller Qiao Marriage", this story is written about the fish seller Ape Genji who saw the famous prostitute Fireworks who fell into the city after being blown up by the wind and fell into the city, and suffered from lovesickness. The soul drifted in the powerful and high-pitched shouting, listless. The father came up with the idea to let the fish seller pretend to be the daimyo to visit The Firefly. Ape Genji was really able to exchange cups with the firefly, and he was so happy that he began his most familiar cry in his drunken dream: Oh, sardines. Firefly pressed the question, and Ape Genji reluctantly prevaricated, but it caused Firefly to come from it. She was originally the princess of Jiguo Danhe Castle, and only because she fell in love with the shouting of a sardine selling fish lang, she chased out of the city and got lost, and was abducted into fireworks alley. Hearing The Ape Genji's cry, I thought I had finally met the fish seller, who knew if it was, and I was discouraged and wanted to commit suicide. Ape Genji quickly stopped him, explaining that he was really selling sardines. At this moment, the people of Jiguo Danhe City rushed to save the princess with ransom. The freed princess refuses to return to the city and is determined to go with Ape Genji to sell sardines. She ordered the crowd to practice sardine selling. At the sound of the shouting, Ape Genji and Firefly left together. This funny and joyful play highlights the sound of shouting, the father sees the trouble of his son in the sound of the soul flying away, and the princess falls in love with the sound. Whether such a wayward and pure princess may exist is another matter, the story shows the sound of shouting in the past years into the ears and hearts.
In April, green plums are also sold, and the unripe plums are blue, slightly hard, slightly sour, and they look at the refreshing flavor of eating.
Sell calamus in May. Calamus that grow by the river and by the pool bloom fine pale yellow flowers in early summer. On the fifth Dragon Boat Festival in early May, there is a custom of hanging calamus on the door or soaking in the bathtub to ward off diseases and evil qi. The Japanese dance "Tokiwatsu Sells Calamus" directly lets the girl carry the calamus burden and dance. Every move and turn is retracted and rounded. The appearance of greeting pedestrians as they walk, the labor of planting and harvesting calamus, and even the legend of Zhong Kui melt in the rhythm of the body, and are carefully conveyed under the cooperation of the rap of pure glass and the sansai.
In May, the liqueur picker appears, with a box with pots and bowls at the front, a square paper lantern, and a pot for wine in the back. "Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet," he shouted, his voice euphemistic and sweet. Dessert wine started as a summer drink and then spread to the four seasons, especially in winter. In the early years of showa, there were also sweet wine sellers on the streets.
In May, selling bamboo shoots and fava beans, he also began to sell a food that looked like cold powder, "Heart Tai", boiled from the red algae to a gelatinous cold day, and then solidified, the whole piece was placed into a cutting wood called "Tiantu", and there were thin noodles like a line squeezed out when pressed, which once made haiku people think of a waterfall. There are also knives that are cut. Serve in a bowl and drizzle with sauce. This way of eating was introduced from China in the Nara period, only the nobles were able to taste it in the Heian period, and it was popularized to the people in the Edo period, and many people loved this mouthful, and such pictures remained in many paintings.
Titled Hydrangea, in the first year of Ansei (1854), in a ukiyo-e work co-produced by Hiroshige Utagawa and Toyokuni Utagawa (Miyo), the landscape painter Hiroshige Utagawa painted the summer hydrangea, and Utagawa Toyokuni painted the two kabuki characters of Takezaburo Sakato and Tsuruzo Nakamura, who were dressed in summer clothes. One of them had a bowl of food in his hand, and the line revealed that it was a bowl of hearts (pictured above).
In the picture book Edo Jue, Kitagawa Kaoru's illustrations also express the heart. Hawkers, burdens, celestials, dishes, diners, and hearts are all meticulously outlined in line (below). Today, Shintai is still popular, a bowl of hearts in a glass container looks almost transparent, kanto people like to add vinegar, and Kansai people are drenched in black honey. In the summer when the appetite is low, it can make people feel refreshed and have the effect of eliminating constipation.
In June, the cold dessert of cutting ice is a cold dessert that cuts the ice cubes and drizzles them with seasonings, which is the predecessor of modern shaved ice. In the Heian period's "Pillow Grass", ice cutting began to appear. The knife-cut fine ice is added to the sweet ingredient of ganga, which is placed in a new metal bowl, which is classified into an elegant and beautiful thing by Qing Shao nayan along with the beads of crystal, bird eggs, wisteria flowers, and the scenery of snow falling on plum blossoms. At that time, summer ice was extremely valuable, and natural ice cubes cut in winter were stored in the ice chamber of the cave at the foot of the mountain for the summer court to cool off. During the transport, the ice cubes melted and became smaller, and they were finely cut for the nobles to eat. At the end of the Edo period, ships transported ice from the north to Edo, and ice cubes were no longer unusual. In the Meiji era, the people also ate openly. Due to the development of ice-making technology, Tokyo Ice Co., Ltd. was established in the 16th year of Meiji (1883). After the Meiji 30th century (1897), machine ice making became mainstream.
Selling bamboo poles in July, Tanabata in Japan continued and developed the Chinese custom of erecting long poles in the atrium.
In August, the weather is getting cooler and the Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching. On August 15, the lunar dumplings dedicated to the moon should be prepared. The street came to repair the stone mortar. The Japanese kanji is not the same as the Chinese, mainly referring to the pushing of small stone grinding. There are ravines between the upper and lower layers of stones, and it is precisely by relying on the ravines to grind rice and broken beans. The stone mortar of the stone mortar made the milling of the rice beans smooth out the gully. With this kind of trimming, it is more convenient to make a lunar dumpling.
There are also rice noodle dumplings sold along the street. This street scene was presented on the stage of Dotonbori Kakuza in Osaka in the twelfth year of Meiji (1879) and subsequently became a Kabuki repertoire. The famous characters Nakamura Kankuro and Sakato Mitsugoro also performed this play, or Osaka, the flag of Tenman is visible, and the Tenman Bridge is flying in the background. A couple walked and danced with their burdens in the accompaniment of the rich taste of the shamisen, in the occasional rap of the pure glass. There is a saying: "Pure white new flour like snow flowers, knead and knead with love with heart, let the ball fly together." "Interpretation sells dumplings, interpretation sells while doing, men are pestles, women are mortars, and dumplings are children, metaphorically prolific and fertile, popular, vivid and funny, but not vulgar and obscene." There is exaggeration in simplicity and the brilliance that comes from it, and the witty movements amplify the details of life, and the seemingly clumsy parody of labor is full of chewing on details. If you don't look closely at life, you may be fleeting, tasteless and tasteless. Although this play hints at the joy of husband and wife and praises the reproduction of children and grandchildren, it takes the title and theme of "selling dumplings", and there are flat burdens in the props, and there are pestles and mortars, and even in the original book, the husband is called the pestle, and the wife is named usu. Street selling makes people understand the hour and season, and it is also part of the flesh and blood and texture of the life of the common people.
From late summer to autumn, bug sellers take to the streets. They peddle interesting autumn bugs, such as bell worms, that sound like bells gently rocking. Selling autumn insects does not bark, first, people shout, the insects do not make a sound, and second, the insects also make the peddlers proud. The season for selling insects is mainly between the end of May and the Obon Festival, because the citizens of Edo have a custom of releasing insects during the Obon Festival.
On December 25, the seller of Cigu must have come, and as he walked, he shouted: "Hey, Cigu Cigu, Hey, Cigu Cigu." The children ran after the lady seller, elated, and the shouting reminded them that the delicious and fun New Year was in front of them.
Of course, there are many other walking vendors, lyrical and aesthetic haiku poets and Xie Wucun chanted: "Give the charcoal seller a mirror, a woman." "There are people in the market who sell charcoal, oil, rice, goldfish, flowers such as Chaoyan and Xiyan, fans, hair combs and hairpins. Obviously, it was the years of material scarcity, and listening to the distant and close shouts through poetry, and actually getting a rich feeling - not because of the goods, but because the people of the past strongly felt the seasons and lived. From the first month to the twilight of the year, different goods flow on the street, floating with different shouts, the content and tone are different, but it is still similar, as soon as you hear it, you know that it is a shouting, a long complex and a short tone, specifically and clearly expressing the short and most important information, and in order to spread it as far away as possible and melodiously shouting out, it is sales and propaganda, and it is not far from the labor trumpet that dissipates fatigue.
Akiji Miyata, a 1933-born manga artist, was almost 60 years old when he staged the sound of street shouting from Edo to the early Showa period. The cause is the entrustment of an artist on his deathbed. Why did he entrust it to himself, Miyata did not have time to ask, and later he realized that he had the experience of a child's Tokyo citizen life, and he even realized the dream in his heart, and his lifelong dream was actually to carry a pair of goods to walk the streets. When Miyata was eighty years old, this dream could no longer be realized, and I guess it was not because he could not lift the burden, but because the space in which the silent and vivid, shouting and shouting existed no longer existed. Akishi Miyata did put some of the shouting on the stage, like a deduction to restore the face of a primitive person with skin and expression, which is both laborious and touching, and finally tries to restore something that was buried earlier. The dying listeners listened joyfully and asked earnestly, was this really the name of the year? Miyata replied honestly, somewhat unsure, he took his body to feel, imagined the texture and characteristics of the goods, let a voice spit out naturally, and estimated that eight or nine were not far from ten.
All of this, the shouting of walking vendors or the self-singing of bugs, has disappeared with the development of cities and industries, the increase of cars and other noises, and even Akiji Miyata has gone. Akiji Miyata's dream consists of at least three parts: a craft; being able to make his voice heard in his voice; and passing through the lively and quiet streets and alleys, from here to there— a metaphor for a style of life.
Although the vendors who walk and sing have gone far, the lantern on the streets of Honjo twenty years ago has always been lit in my memory, and the string of roasted sweet potatoes selling stones echoes from time to time from time to time.
Written in Malmö on August 20, 2021
Author: Wang Ye
Editor: Qian Yutong
Editor-in-Charge: Shu Ming
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.