Memories of the Produce Market
August 15th, 1945. Suwanotaira Station was abuzz that morning as adults spoke to each other in hushed tones.
“I hear there’ll be a major announcement on the radio.”
Shortly before noon, they all headed toward the station. Curious, Totto joined the group walking over from the produce market.
Under the glare of the blazing sun, they huddled around a radio in a shop and held their breath to listen to the emperor speak. Totto stood outside the circle and strained to hear, but couldn’t make out a word.
The radio announcement ended. “Guess the war’s over,” the adults murmured amongst themselves. Totto tugged on the shirt of a man nearby and asked, “Is the war really over?” The man nodded, looking perplexed.
Totto had to tell Mother right away, but her mother was working at the cooperative that day. Not sure what to make of the news, she decided to go to Mr. Numahata’s house to ask if it was true. She ran and ran and arrived completely out of breath.
“Mr. Numahata! Is the war really over?”
“Yeah, it’s over.”
“Phew,” Totto sighed, feeling at first more relief than joy. This meant there would be no more air raids, and Daddy would come back, and they might be able to go home to Tokyo. The more she thought about it, the more her relief turned to happiness.
Totto left Mr. Numahata’s house and skipped the whole way back to the apple hut.
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The war had ended, but Totto and her family had no house in Tokyo to return to.
Instead, they moved from the apple hut to a tenement row housing complex near the station, as torrential rain had caused the river near the apple orchards to overflow and flood their hut. Their new home stood much closer to Suwanotaira Station and right next door to the produce market. It also made for a shorter trip to school every day, which suited Totto quite well.
Many people traveled from great distances to buy fresh produce at the market, often on the first train of the day, from as far away as Tokyo. One morning, Totto left her house to go to school when she found herself face to face with a man of small stature. He had come to buy food at the market next door and looked like he might be from Tokyo.
“Might you be able to cook this rice for me before my train leaves late this afternoon?”
In his hand he held a burlap sack which must have contained the grains of uncooked rice. The sudden request caught Totto off guard, but she called for her mother and said, “This gentleman wants to ask you something,” then headed to school.
On her way home that day, she spotted the same man at Suwanotaira Station carrying a large basket on his back. “Mother, did you cook the rice for that man?” she asked upon arrival.
“I did,” Mother answered.
Although the war had come to an end, rice was still being rationed, and people who worked at a distance from their houses often carried a serving in a mess tin and asked people to cook it for them wherever it was they were headed. They could cook it before leaving home and make rice balls to carry around, but depending on the weather, those could easily go bad. People had to get creative to make the most of their precious rice.
As Totto set off for school the next morning, she saw four or five more middle-aged men forming a line outside their home.
“We heard that you cook rice here. Can we ask you to cook ours, too?”
From that day onward, Mother continued working at the farmers’ cooperative while also volunteering her time to cook rice. She would mold it into rice balls and wrap them in bamboo peel, then hand the onigiri back to the travelers in the early evening. It would have been nice if Grandmother could help, but Totto’s grandmother had never once cooked rice in her life. She was the only adult Totto had ever encountered who did not possess that skill.
Mother didn’t try to teach her mother, however, and instead scraped together time to cook and fix the rice balls herself for these travelers from afar who had come to purchase fresh produce. Though many offered to pay for her services, she would not dare name a price. Seeing her hesitation, people often left a little money as a gift.
Once this became a regular occurrence, Mother made a decision. Rather than continuing this volunteer service, she would prepare the rice along with some miso soup and broiled fish and serve it all as a meal. Mother was about to start her own small business.
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Available to cook rice.
Mother wrote the words on a piece of paper and posted it on their door. She procured a small charcoal grill, pot, cutting board, knife, and dishes, and decided to turn the dirt-floor entrance of the row-house unit into a little diner. The produce market was becoming busier by the day since the end of the war, but there were still no places for shoppers to eat. Mother’s diner was an immediate hit.
The fish that she cooked and served she purchased fresh every morning from the fishmongers who came from Hachinohe to sell their catch. Wanting more than what they had to offer, Mother also took the train to Mutsuminato Station to buy ingredients such as squid, which lasted longer than fish. In front of that station was a market street called Isaba where people in the fishing industry gathered to peddle their goods.
Totto accompanied her mother on several occasions to help with the shopping. To get to Mutsuminato, they transferred to the Hachinohe Line at Shiriuchi and rode for four stops. When the transfer did not go smoothly, it could take over an hour each way, but the trip was well worth it. As soon as you stepped out of the station, there were shops—often mere boards lined with goods—up and down the street selling fresh fish, clams, and salted and dried seafood. Totto loved this lively street where fresh seafood abounded.
What she found interesting was that the people selling food at the market were mostly middle-aged women called katcha, or “mother” in the local dialect. It was generally accepted that fishing was a man’s job, but after working all night on their boats, the men were exhausted. When they returned in the morning, they would sort out the fish and the rest of their catch, but then it was time for the women to step in.
All of the Isaba katcha in Mutsuminato were kind and brimming with energy, and they generously shared their knowledge about which fish were in season and how best to cook them. Totto couldn’t help but marvel at how strong and self-sufficient Mother had become when she saw her negotiating with these women, asking, “If I buy multiple, will you lower the price?”
So it was that Mother’s business allowed her to kill two, even three, birds with one stone; while earning an income with the diner, she would also pick up wisdom from the katcha at the market and collect news about Tokyo from her regulars.
Presently, Mother began to show her skills as a vendor of all goods, progressing from cooking and serving meals to selling vegetables, fruit, seafood, and any other foodstuffs available on the market. This new business yielded a daily flush of cash income. Once, in the middle of the night, Mother was awakened by the sounds of Grandmother flattening out the bills and bundling them with rubber bands.
“You’re a Christian. Aren’t you meant to lay up your treasures in heaven?” Mother teased, amused by the sight of her mother counting the cash. Grandmother grinned and replied, “Money is something we ought to be grateful for.”
“Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” was Grandmother’s favorite refrain. Totto wondered how thick the wad of bills must have been that it could bring temporal joy to even this devout Christian.
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A playhouse once went up in a corner of the produce market.
The first spring following the war, the bridge over the river was submerged due to snowmelt and collapsed clean in the middle. The Tohoku Line had no alternative but to suspend service, causing a traveling theater troupe that was headed to a nearby big city to make an unplanned stop in Suwanotaira.
The troupe was none other than the Takarazuka Revue, a company famous for putting on shows in which women actors performed all the parts, including those intended for men. This detour happened during their traveling production of An Actor’s Revenge, in which Misayo Minatogawa, their troupe leader and top star at the time, played the male lead.
The playhouse had a makeshift, handmade stage. There were no theater seats, of course, so the audience had to sit on straw mats on the market floor. Nevertheless, each performance was packed with people. Totto went to see the show nearly every day, either on her own or with friends, cheering on the performers from the very first row.
Truth be told, Totto enjoyed the opening performance more than the main show. A middle-aged man wearing brown-and-white spectator shoes played the accordion and sang a tune called “Tokyo Rhapsody”: