tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5114353219480265259.post1725167680425141068..comments2024-01-07T14:25:51.724-08:00Comments on Sgt. Tanuki's Lonely Hearts Club Blog: Ikeido Jun: Shitamachi Rocket (2010)Tanukihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010917992146986329noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5114353219480265259.post-13225976487099767602011-10-14T08:22:38.160-07:002011-10-14T08:22:38.160-07:00Yeah, that's a good point. Even though it'...Yeah, that's a good point. Even though it's set in the present day it's actually bringing us, in the Tsukuda company, a survival of the '50s-'60s Tokyo of, like, ALWAYS Sanchōme no yūhi 三丁目の夕日.<br /><br />You've got an excellent point about what that means, though. I'd always put the Showa '30s boom down to Boomer nostalgia for youth, but your idea that for younger people it could have something to do with finding something good in a non-Bubble Japan is persuasive. That certainly works for this book.<br /><br />BTW, the company is located in Ōta-ku. Is that considered Shitamachi now, or is Shitamachi just a state of mind?Tanukihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00010917992146986329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5114353219480265259.post-87170253621246512972011-10-13T23:40:53.372-07:002011-10-13T23:40:53.372-07:00I haven't read this one (my wife did for a boo...I haven't read this one (my wife did for a book club; she liked it OK) but it occurs to me that if the "shitamachi" in the title is symbolic of the content, that could explain a lot of the "really? in 2011?" thing. Everything shitamachi is hot these days. No-one gives a crap about bureaucratic samurai any more, hardly anyone cares about the pleasure quarters, but EVERYONE loves jolly, crude, "eco" shitamachi Edo, and sees themselves as bearers of this tradition.<br /><br />I know that you cover the general "little company vs big company" thing in the review, but if the specific shitamachi-ness of the starring company is emphasized, that could explain the timeliness. That is, it's not so much celebrating sad-sack salarimen as it is tapping into a vein of, I don't know, pre-now slum tourism, conceived as an unbroken tradition of urban saltiness-of-the-earth, from mid-Edo-period Edo through to the early postwar period. (Basically, until the Bubble steamrolled it and replaced it with giant glass skyscrapers and streets paved with Van Gogh's "Sunflowers".)<br /><br />I think part of this is people coming to terms with Bubble-less life: they either missed it (too young) or they're finally accepting that it won't come back in their lifetime. Romanticizing pre-Bubble community life is a way of turning that attitude into something positive. Who needs the Bubble when we have people selling tofu from bicycles, and shopkeepers who say "~ de gozai!"?Matthttp://no-sword.jp/blog/noreply@blogger.com