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The vegetable store is bustled with various kaki: fuyu-gaki, jiro-gaki,
tone-gaki, nishimura-gaki, ... The production areas are Gifu, Wakayama,
Fukuoka, Nara, ..., such prefectures.
Tsubune's pleasure is to buy one big delicious kaki there and to walk along
Sakai River to the seacoast in his Urayasu City, taking a bite out of it.
He is enjoying the fall happiness this year, too.
Tsubune suffered from brain infarction 10 years ago at the age of 45. The
doctor laughed at him saying, "It is too early."
Thanks to "too early" it was a mild case. But there is no guarantee
that it does not recur again, which is his worry. The doctor warns him
not to gain weight, besides the medicines, the fine rules of eating and
drinking, physical exercise, ...
Steady walking has been his daily work of rehabilitation nearly for 9
years. It has become his habit without noticing. In autumn especally, the
taste of kaki makes his walking light. That disease and its aftereffects
have apparently been swept away.
He is fat enough accordingly to his age, but the shape of 170 cm high is
not bad with a cap, a polo shirt and short pants.
The ocean view from the seashore is always fresh. Far to the left Boso
Peninsula sticks out into Tokyo Bay like in an arc, and Miura Peninsula
does the same far to the right.
Several tankers are going back and forth off the coast. There are fishing
boats and sailboats floating, and leasure boats are speeding with splashes.
Before his eyes seabirds are diving for food.
The breakwater with a lot of layers of tripods as wide as one kilometer
is a haunt of anglers.
The west side is a dead end blocked by the harbor. Beyond it Disney Resort
is located with famous Big Thunder Mountain and flame-smoking Prometeus
Volcano, nothing of which, however, can be seen from here, obstructed by
steel plants and chimneys of a clean center. The view of Mt. Fuji far beyond
is splendid in early mornings, though ...
When was it he started hiking in the mountains, not satisfied with steady
walking? He came to have another pleasure. He has been hiking in low mountains
in the vicinity at least once a month.
---
The area around the 12-story condominiums where Tsubune's family lives
and also his walking route of 3 km to the seacoast was in the sea of Tokyo
Bay 50 years ago.
Urakasu (Urayasu) is a fishing village at the lowest stream of Neto (Edo)
River, known with shellfish, nori (laver) and a fishing place.
---
The village was isolated. Fields to the north, the sea to the east, Neto
River to the west, and the wasteland called "a million-tsubo offshore"
expanded to the south, and also the sea over there.
The ditch connecting Neto River of the west and the sea of the east flowed
through this village.
Fishing boat shops were in a row along the ditch, ... |
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The stage of the novel "Aobeka Story" written by Shugoro Yamamoto is now Urayasu City (then Urakasu Village in the novel) where he lived for four years from Taisho15 (1926) to Showa 4 (1929).
The ditch is now surely north of Tsubune's walking route, and its extention
is the canal called Sakai River to the sea. It runs south through the reclaimed
land for a forest of high-rise condominium buildings and flows into Tokyo
Bay at Urayasu Seacoast. Where was "a million-tsubo offshore"
in the past?
Just when Shugoro lived at Urakasu Village on the other side of Neto River,
east of Metropolitan Tokyo, Kanematsu Auditorium was constructed at the
west end of Tokyo.
Tsubune found a letter from Goroji Suga, when he arrived home after walking
with sweat a little bit.
Refreshed with a shower and relaxed, he opens it.
The document made by a word processor is thick, with a paper "Please
read my summary."
That day Suga promised as follows at Eriko's residence in the suburbs of
Kamakura City.
Dr. Chuta Itoh, then the greatest authority in the architecture field,
voluntarily undertook the construction of the auditorium at a very remote
place those days, from designing all through building.
He continued to commute there in spite of his busy daily life, and at the
completion he commented that he devoted all his energies to build it.
It was rather an unreasonable happening.
First of all, how did Tokyo Commercial College (TCC) contact Dr. Itoh?
What ever made him put his mind to it?
This is also a clue to approach "the truth of the statues of Four
Gods."
I would like to inquire into it and form my idea in my own way
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The thick document is tied with a twisted paper string by methodical Suga
himself.
Tsubune admires his senior and begins to read it.
The construction of Kanematsu Auditorium in the new Kunitachi Campus of
TCC started in Taisho 15 (1926) by the design of Dr. Chuta Itoh.
The construction company and related companies and people were mostly known
by him for years as I showed the list the other day, just as we might mistake
to consider he had selected them by himself.
In addition, the books on Dr. Itoh, the college papers those days, his
own talk and other related documents, ..., all of them put together would
make us feel seeing a movie.
Let's look back on how the things went then for a while.
As we know about it, the Kanda campus of TCC was destroyed by the Great
Kanto Earthquake and the following big fire in September, Taisho 12 (1923).
Immediately after that the recovery committee of the professors had discussions
day and night, and at the year end they submitted "the New Campus
Construction Plan" to the Government and the Diet. But regrettably
it was dropped because the Diet dissolved early the next year.
However behind the scenes, the purchase activity of the woods around Yaho
Village in the outer suburbs of Tokyo had been started on the assumption
of the passage of their plan. It actually means that the project of Kunitachi
College City was progressing in accordance with the plan of the campus
recovery committee made up by the professors. The government budget bill
for the new auditorium was 130 thousand yen.
Just then in February, Taisho 14 (1925), Kanematsu Company, a main trading
company in Kobe, offered a donation of the campus building by the name
of Kanematsu Memorial Auditorium. Besides the big amount of donation of
500 thousand yen, we all know its valuable thought.
So, the new auditorium only among all the buildings varied from the government
budget plan, and was going to be built as a private building of Kanematsu
Company.
Therefore, it became possible to construct it separately from other buildings,
and its work was able to start earlier.
In the result, Kanematsu Auditorium was completed in November, Showa 2
(1927), three years before the other main school buildings under the government
control.
Its construction period was one year and three months. During the days,
Dr. Chuta Itoh himself led the whole architecture including the design.
When and at what stage did Dr. Itoh accept to be involved in the project?
My idea is as follows.
He supposedly decided it after the donation of Kanematsu Company in February,
Taisho 14 (1925), and at least one year before its ground-breaking in August,
Taisho 15 (1926). That is, between spring and early summer in Taisho 14
(1925), when the land development around the wilderness in Yaho Village
started.
If it had been before that, because of the government control of a small-scale
budget, there would have been any chance of Dr. Itoh's appearance, and
if after that, there would not have been enough time for Dr. Itoh to prepare.
Just an aside, since the place was located between Kokubunji Town and Tachikawa
Town, the recovery committee named it Kunitachi.
Dr. Itoh's excellent efficiency can easily be understood even by the short
costruction period.
With president Zensaku Sano as chair of the construction committee, Dr.
Itoh himself was not only in charge of designing but a member of the committee.
He was surely concerned with everything until the selection of the construction
companies. Of course, the selection of the companies must have been done
by a suitable procedure.
Now, let's go back to a stage of one day in May, Taisho 14 (1925), with
a fresh breeze.
The plan of the construction of Kanematsu Memorial Auditorium is brought to Dr. Chuta Itoh, professor of Tokyo Imperial University (TIU). Dr. Itoh is 58 years old, while Zensaku Sano, president of Tokyo Commercial College (TCC) is 55 years old.
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