We take a walk through the splendid area that is the heart of Kobe.
We take a stroll along the sea and canals and head downtown.
We chatted to Toshi Shioya, a film director, who has been shooting scenes in Kobe and interviewed Mako Tanaka, the director of the Kobe Film Office.
We visited the scenes of Kobe depicted in famous stories.
Kobe City > photo à•la•Carte > Small Features
Many famous stories have been set in Kobe due to its variety of aspects such as the sea, the port, the mountains and the town.
Let’s take a stroll around some of the Kobe scenes depicted in famous stories? A visit to the Kobe City Museum of Literature, with its collection of Kobe-related literature, is also recommended.
Kobe has a long, rich history as a literary setting. What did authors intend to convey by using the scenes and atmosphere of Kobe as the backdrop to their stories? We take a walk around Kobe, concentrating on five famous novels written in the Showa era.
Minatogawa Shrine at the Beginning of the Showa Era
This is the autobiography of Fumiko Hayashi, it tells the story of a young woman who lived a resilient life moving from place to place in Japan after World War I. She decided to stop off in Kobe during her journey. Her attitude of keeping moving forward, while shedding tears over her poverty and sorrow, still encourages readers today.
(July ____)
“Shall I stop off in Kobe, I wonder? Are there any interesting jobs around?”
Almost all the passengers in the third class car bound for Akashi were about to get off at Kobe. After setting down my basket and putting my leftover lunch back carefully, I too got off at Kobe Station for no particular reason.
“If I can’t find a job that feeds me, this is a door to a dirty world, not to say a Hinkelmann.”
There were the usual pigeons and postcard shops on the dusty grounds of Nankosan (Minatogawa Shrine). Sitting on a stone of a dried up hexagonal fountain, enjoying the wind under a parasol, I looked up at the clear, blue sky. The sun was so strong that everything looked bare and limp.
Sakaemachi Street circa 1973
Set in Kobe, this novel tells of the destiny of the wealthy conglomerate Manpyo family. This story provoked strong reaction because of the extremely realistic descriptions written after investigations into banks during the period of economic growth. Bank director Daisuke Manpyo was overly ambitious, even driving the steel company run by his eldest son in Nadahama into bankruptcy. Eventually all family relations broke down. This novel has been made into a film and drama many times as a masterpiece that got to the heart of the underside of an era.
The bank and securities company buildings that escaped damage during the war line both sides of Sakaemachi Street in Motomachi, with a streetcar track running down the middle. Sakaemachi Street, lined with many buildings that survived the war, retains the appearance of the financial district it was before the war. However, big banks built new buildings and moved to Edomachi and the surrounding area where a new city hall had been built.
The Nadahama Coastal Industrial Zone facing Kobe Port has been cloaked in smog since morning. Fanned by a seasonal northwesterly wind, smoke belching out from petrochemical plants, machinery plants and shipbuilding yards has drawn stripy patterns high above the sea.
Ishoan
This novel is a masterpiece by Junichiro Tanizaki, a great writer of a beautiful, elegant story about the four sisters of the Makioka Family, an old family from Senba, Osaka. The Ishoan building standing beside the Sumiyoshi River is the setting for this novel. It is from this place that the sisters go out in elaborate dress into Kobe. Retaining the atmosphere of the world of “The Makioka Sisters”, the house still attracts visitors.
Taeko’s exhibition ran for three days, this time in a Kobe gallery. Through the efforts of Sachiko, who knew everyone, most of the dolls were sold on the opening day. Sachiko brought Yukiko and Etsuko on the third day to help clean up.
“Etsuko, suppose we have Koi-san take us to dinner tonight”, suggested Sachiko when they had finished. “She has lots of money.”
Yukiko always felt that she had come to life again when she was back in Ashiya after four or five days in the Osaka house. She looked to the south. Just below her were the lawn and flower beds, and beyond them was an artificial hillock, from between the boulders of which a shrub trailed branches of tiny white flowers down into a dry lake. On the right shore of the lake, a lilac and a cherry were in bloom.
