Kurosawa (1910-1998)

    Somewhere near Shinagawa Eki, the local shinkansen (bullet train) station for residents of the Manor, film director Akira Kurosawa was born 100 years ago. Son of a samurai family Kurosawa-san would hardly recognize his old neighborhood, now a cluster of corporate skyscrapers built on landfill. In 1923 he survived the Great Kanto Earthquake that reduced the city's population by over 100,000 (with more earthquakes than any other city on the planet, experts predict another serious shakeup soon). Apprenticing at Toho studio, the director began his career during wartime; his breakout film Rashomon (1950) launched his legendary career. That film tells the same story through the eyes of four characters, posing the question: Which is the truth?

    Since food is the great preoccupation of Tokyoites, Kurosawa san's children decided to honor their father with a restaurant minutes from the Tameike-sanno eki (Exit 5). Tucked beneath a concrete monolith a quaint building (as per his 1965 film Red Beard) houses the Kurosawa Soba shop. Buckwheat noodles are to Tokyo what pasta is to Roma, but these te-uchi (handmade) are hand-cut by the chef as observed through a window. Inside the sliding front door the foyer boasts posters of Kurosawa's masterpieces (The Seven Samurai perhaps the best known), and servers in costume designed by the director's daughter welcome five members of Nihongo Kaiwa (Japanese Conversation Group). Everyone is delighted by the Y 1,100 set (prix fixe), which includes a bowl of noodles, side dishes of lotus root, tofu and beef bowl, plus macha (green tea) ice cream. Oishkata (delicious)!

    Across the road at the top of the zaka (hill) visitors pay their respects at the ancient Hie Jinja, a Shinto shrine devoted to the god Oyamakui who manifests as a saru (monkey).  A brief stop at the shrine shop to buy blessings for musume (daughter), born in the Year of the Monkey. As June 15th is Sanno Matsuri, one of the great festivals of old Edo, a temporary archway stands in the center of the courtyard. "Walk through it three times, twice to the left and once to the right, to leave bad spirits behind!" instructs tomodachi-san. The shrine gardener offers us kiku (chrysanthemums, the Imperial Flower) from the large display that he is disassembling. Trailing kiku petals into the eki the time has come for sayonara.