Now some of us may recall that Hijikata worked in a clothing store
during his youth and was dismissed for some reason due to some sort of
a run-in with a woman.
Below is some background info of the store where young Hijikata was
employed. The info was passed along to me from Michael who composed
the Shinsengumi filmography (Michael is usually at
http://www.ninjadojo.com where he dishes out movie reviews and tidbits
on cinema).
[Publication title:The Daily Yomiuri. Tokyo: Feb 21, 2007. pg. 1]
Musings
Yomiuri
The following is a translation of the Henshu Techo column from The
Yomiuri Shimbun's Feb. 20 issue.
* * *
Unable to have his petition to save impoverished people suffering from
famine accepted, Oshio Heihachiro (1793-1837), a former official of
the Osaka Higashimachi magistrate's office and a scholar of Wang
Yangming doctrines, led an armed uprising against the establishment in
1837. The rebels set fire to the town and attacked the warehouses of
wealthy merchants.
"Daimaru is a chivalrous merchant shop. Don't vandalize its
warehouses"--words uttered by Oshio and quoted in Daimaru Inc.'s
company history book. The book says that Daimaru avoided being burned
down due to Oshio's words.
Matsuzakaya Holdings Co., Daimaru's negotiating partner for management
integration, has a company history comparable to Daimaru's.
Matsuzakaya originated from a kimono fabric shop opened in 1611 by Ito
Ranmaru, a retainer of Oda Nobunaga (1534-82) in present-day Nagoya.
Hijikata Toshizo (1835-69), an executive member of the Shinsengumi
(literally, newly selected group) dedicated to support the Tokugawa
shogunate, is said to have worked as an apprentice at its Ueno branch.
Thus, the Daimaru-Matsuzakaya merger talks represent those between two
shops with long-standing traditions.
The two department store chains, which have their own traditions and
corporate cultures, are reportedly approaching each other to seek
economies of scale through management integration against the
background of a market that has been shrinking in size due to the
decline in the population--yet another area over which the declining
birthrate has cast a shadow.
The two merchant shops evolved into leading department store chains
after surviving the turbulent years at the end of the Tokugawa
shogunate, depressions, defeat in the war, oil crises and the bursting
of the economic bubble. Now each of them finds it difficult to go it
alone as a consequence of demographic change.
Haiku poet Hiryoshi Tagawa composed a poem that reads:
A line of students
on a school excursion trip
passing through Daimaru
This reminds me of a line of students walking through sales floors
while looking around pleasantly.
After reading newspaper stories on the Daimaru-Matsuzakaya merger
plan, I think of department stores as places that glitter with
children as a source of light.
Copyright 2007 The Daily Yomiuri