Aug. 5th, 2014 03:10 am
Ginnikan Ep. 3: Drama Notes
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earth_colorsEp. 3: "Two Paths"
Episode Synopsis: Even after Ikawaya had solved the issue regarding the baseless rumor about them, bad luck still hounds the shop. Clients still refuse to buy their agar, and rather choose the cheaper yet low-quality ones. To top it off, the disgruntled shop assistant Matsushichi (Saito Taichiro) and apprentice Takekichi (Nakamura Taiki) have both run away. The remaining apprentices, Matsukichi and Umekichi (Onoue Hiroyuki) are doing their best to take on all the errands themselves. Head clerk, Zenjiro (Shiomi Sansei) also has to take on delivery errands too. The head of the House, Wasuke (Tsugawa Masahiko) meanwhile has to find a temporary replacement for housekeeper Osato (Ishino Yoko) who has to take a leave due to a relative's passing. All the extra work, plus learning the abacus, is especially tiresome for Matsukichi. It seems he is forcing himself to sell agar which he is not fond of in the first place. Meanwhile, his friendship with a cute and sympathetic girl named Maho (Ashida Mana) whom he met before, deepens. Her father Kahei (Hosshan.) is a talented chef who runs a restaurant across the river, called "Mahonoya". Maho seems to have a crush on the older boy, and looks forward to his delivering agar to their shop. Kahei is also fond of the hard-working, young lad. However, one day, when Matsukichi expressed his dislike for agar, Kahei suddenly becomes enraged with the young man. "Even if you're looking down on this business, you better shape yourself up!"...
Drama Notes:
Business virtues of an Edo Period Merchant (1 of 3): Shimatsu.
Ningyo joruri-bunraku. It is Japanese traditional puppet theater, in which "each puppet is manipulated by three people and performs to joruri, a story chanted by the narrator (tayu) and accompanied by shamisen music. This art was developed in Osaka." It was also designated as World Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 2003. However, this art is currently having trouble attracting audiences... (Read here)
(info/pic: wiki, pref.oaska.lg)
An Edo Period meal. During the drama's time period, killing animals like cows and horses for the purpose of eating their meat and/or using their skins was banned because it is against the Buddhist philosophy of not taking a life. However, eggs and fish are allowed. (Although there were people especially in mountainous regions, that did eat meat, especially that of wild animals that were hunted). As shown in this drama, a merchant's house that practices frugality like Ikawaya, their meals are typically simple.
In Edo (Tokyo), merchants usually have their goods delivered to their clients so their employees require more energy-giving foods which they usually get from street vendors along the way. Acc. to kikkoman: For breakfast, it could be rice, soup, and pickles, and probably "one or two dishes of dried fish, boiled dried daikon radish strips, deep-fried tofu with kelp, fried burdock roots, boiled beans"... For lunch, it could be something heartier like soba noodles, or tempura or eel. For dinner, left-over rice from the day could be turned into chazuke (green tea poured into it) and some pickles.
In Osaka, however, most shops do not have their goods delivered (the customers come to them), and just wait on customers at the store front. Acc. to kuidare-osaka, their meals are far simpler. For breakfast, they'd have ochazuke (green tea and left-over rice from yesterday); for lunch, some dish, newly cooked rice and miso soup; while for dinner, it will be ochazuke again. Food is simple because the men of the house usually eat out during their business dinners, anyway. However, they are known to splurge and dish out fancy meals during festivals.
(info: kikkoman/foodculure, kuidare) (pic: azumasou6, last_sasurai)
Kahei's menu of the day. If you are interested to know what Kahei was serving in his restaurant, it was a set menu that consisted of a main dish, vegetable salad, miso soup, and pickles. For the main, it was Hamo-suriryu ( 鱧すり流), an old Osaka dish wherein pike conger eel is grounded up and made into soup along with beans and nuts (pic above, left). For the salad, it was Renkon Shiraae [蓮根白和え], lotus root salad dressed with tofu, white sesame, and white miso (above pic, right)
(info/pix: ajiyoshi, akazake)
Chilled Amber or Amber Agar. Or "Kohaku-Kan". NHK did not explain Kahei's recipe for Kohaku-Kan much. So some viewers made their version of it, particularly, TV Guide Kitchen. I also found moleculargastronomynetwork's recipe helpful.The secret to the amber color is apparently soy sauce. It uses agar, dashi, and for flavor, soy sauce, and mirin or vinegar. But you can also experiment with brown sugar, brandy, tea, kinako, brown molasses/honey etc, umeshu. With the yellow cubes, it might be steamed egg custard, similar to chawanmushi sans the other ingredients (though in the drama it looked a lot firmer, so I suspect lots of egg whites are used). To see pix of the show's staff preparing the "kohaku-kan": nhk.
(pic: nhk)
The Merchant House spotlight: Taido or Shop Assistant. "The promotion to tedai came at the age of seventeen or eighteen at an elevation ceremony which became an occasion for eating and drinking. (...) The tedai was doing the buying, selling, as well as book-keeping and what else there was to do, under the guidance of the banto (head clerk)." (The Development of Japanese Business: 1600-1973, p. 39)
Episode Synopsis: Even after Ikawaya had solved the issue regarding the baseless rumor about them, bad luck still hounds the shop. Clients still refuse to buy their agar, and rather choose the cheaper yet low-quality ones. To top it off, the disgruntled shop assistant Matsushichi (Saito Taichiro) and apprentice Takekichi (Nakamura Taiki) have both run away. The remaining apprentices, Matsukichi and Umekichi (Onoue Hiroyuki) are doing their best to take on all the errands themselves. Head clerk, Zenjiro (Shiomi Sansei) also has to take on delivery errands too. The head of the House, Wasuke (Tsugawa Masahiko) meanwhile has to find a temporary replacement for housekeeper Osato (Ishino Yoko) who has to take a leave due to a relative's passing. All the extra work, plus learning the abacus, is especially tiresome for Matsukichi. It seems he is forcing himself to sell agar which he is not fond of in the first place. Meanwhile, his friendship with a cute and sympathetic girl named Maho (Ashida Mana) whom he met before, deepens. Her father Kahei (Hosshan.) is a talented chef who runs a restaurant across the river, called "Mahonoya". Maho seems to have a crush on the older boy, and looks forward to his delivering agar to their shop. Kahei is also fond of the hard-working, young lad. However, one day, when Matsukichi expressed his dislike for agar, Kahei suddenly becomes enraged with the young man. "Even if you're looking down on this business, you better shape yourself up!"...
Drama Notes:
Business virtues of an Edo Period Merchant (1 of 3): Shimatsu.
In the drama, Osato likes to tease Zenjiro about being a miser, and Zenjiro would insist that being miserly is different from being frugal. The word for this virtue is "shimatsu." According to Japanese scholar Ishida Baigan, "Shimatsu" is more than just a virtue but a way of life or "an economic rationalism in business philosophy". According to The Development of Japanese Business: 1600-1973, p. 41, "Shimatsu could be translated with thrift, but it meant much more, it in fact should be interpreted as 'economic rationality principle' which demands that any waste be avoided, waste of material, of time, or money, for the sole purpose of increasing efficiency of capital. An interesting rule, found in Baigan's writings, gives the following evaluation of various factors leading to business success: 'Early rising = 5 ryo, work in business itself = 30 ryo, staying up until late = 8 ryo, shimatsu = 10 ryo, skill = 7 ryo..."
Shimatsu is not only upheld by the merchant but is expected to be practiced by his wife as well. For example, to be skilled at "shimatsu", the wife would not waste all the parts of the fish she bought, and make them into full use: its white meat for sashimi, make broth with its head and bones, salt or ferment its entrails, etc...
(other info: bhs.ssoj, kikkoman)
Shimatsu is not only upheld by the merchant but is expected to be practiced by his wife as well. For example, to be skilled at "shimatsu", the wife would not waste all the parts of the fish she bought, and make them into full use: its white meat for sashimi, make broth with its head and bones, salt or ferment its entrails, etc...
(other info: bhs.ssoj, kikkoman)
Ningyo joruri-bunraku. It is Japanese traditional puppet theater, in which "each puppet is manipulated by three people and performs to joruri, a story chanted by the narrator (tayu) and accompanied by shamisen music. This art was developed in Osaka." It was also designated as World Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 2003. However, this art is currently having trouble attracting audiences... (Read here)
(info/pic: wiki, pref.oaska.lg)
An Edo Period meal. During the drama's time period, killing animals like cows and horses for the purpose of eating their meat and/or using their skins was banned because it is against the Buddhist philosophy of not taking a life. However, eggs and fish are allowed. (Although there were people especially in mountainous regions, that did eat meat, especially that of wild animals that were hunted). As shown in this drama, a merchant's house that practices frugality like Ikawaya, their meals are typically simple.
In Edo (Tokyo), merchants usually have their goods delivered to their clients so their employees require more energy-giving foods which they usually get from street vendors along the way. Acc. to kikkoman: For breakfast, it could be rice, soup, and pickles, and probably "one or two dishes of dried fish, boiled dried daikon radish strips, deep-fried tofu with kelp, fried burdock roots, boiled beans"... For lunch, it could be something heartier like soba noodles, or tempura or eel. For dinner, left-over rice from the day could be turned into chazuke (green tea poured into it) and some pickles.
In Osaka, however, most shops do not have their goods delivered (the customers come to them), and just wait on customers at the store front. Acc. to kuidare-osaka, their meals are far simpler. For breakfast, they'd have ochazuke (green tea and left-over rice from yesterday); for lunch, some dish, newly cooked rice and miso soup; while for dinner, it will be ochazuke again. Food is simple because the men of the house usually eat out during their business dinners, anyway. However, they are known to splurge and dish out fancy meals during festivals.
(info: kikkoman/foodculure, kuidare) (pic: azumasou6, last_sasurai)
Kahei's menu of the day. If you are interested to know what Kahei was serving in his restaurant, it was a set menu that consisted of a main dish, vegetable salad, miso soup, and pickles. For the main, it was Hamo-suriryu ( 鱧すり流), an old Osaka dish wherein pike conger eel is grounded up and made into soup along with beans and nuts (pic above, left). For the salad, it was Renkon Shiraae [蓮根白和え], lotus root salad dressed with tofu, white sesame, and white miso (above pic, right)
(info/pix: ajiyoshi, akazake)
Chilled Amber or Amber Agar. Or "Kohaku-Kan". NHK did not explain Kahei's recipe for Kohaku-Kan much. So some viewers made their version of it, particularly, TV Guide Kitchen. I also found moleculargastronomynetwork's recipe helpful.The secret to the amber color is apparently soy sauce. It uses agar, dashi, and for flavor, soy sauce, and mirin or vinegar. But you can also experiment with brown sugar, brandy, tea, kinako, brown molasses/honey etc, umeshu. With the yellow cubes, it might be steamed egg custard, similar to chawanmushi sans the other ingredients (though in the drama it looked a lot firmer, so I suspect lots of egg whites are used). To see pix of the show's staff preparing the "kohaku-kan": nhk.
(pic: nhk)
The Merchant House spotlight: Taido or Shop Assistant. "The promotion to tedai came at the age of seventeen or eighteen at an elevation ceremony which became an occasion for eating and drinking. (...) The tedai was doing the buying, selling, as well as book-keeping and what else there was to do, under the guidance of the banto (head clerk)." (The Development of Japanese Business: 1600-1973, p. 39)
"When apprentices are promoted to clerks, they must submit contracts countersigned jointly by their parents and relatives. (...) They may also be permitted to make their own estimates in business transactions. (...) Some of them stay at the store front to engage in business transactions and meet customers..." (Japan: A Documentary History, p. 233) [Up next: Banto, or the Head Clerk]
Ginnikan's episode index: (link)
Ginnikan's episode index: (link)
