A friend who lives in Atami contacted me to say he wanted to come visit over the holidays, but before I knew it the plan fell through. However, he is a fan of Miyazawa Kenji and told me something like "Mitosaya is like Polano's Plaza," which reminded me of the story and made me reread it for the first time in a long time.
Kyuusuto, a man who works at the museum bureau of Morio city, is put in charge of a project to renovate a horse racing track into a botanical garden. As his hobby is making and arranging plant specimens, this is the perfect place for him to work, so he moves into the horse racing track's guardhouse alone with a small, unused gramophone and about twenty records. One day, his pet goat goes missing, and while searching for it, he meets a boy named Faselo, who tells him that the legendary square where anyone can sing well, Polano Square, has been revived. After much difficulty, he arrives at the square, where he finds Professor Wildcat and other employees of a wood distillery company in the middle of a drinking party and singing contest. As the prices of their products have fallen and their business is no longer viable, they start using the factory's equipment to produce a moonshine called "straw wine," and drink with it.
Kyuusuto, a man who works at the museum bureau of Morio city, is put in charge of a project to renovate a horse racing track into a botanical garden. As his hobby is making and arranging plant specimens, this is the perfect place for him to work, so he moves into the horse racing track's guardhouse alone with a small, unused gramophone and about twenty records. One day, his pet goat goes missing, and while searching for it, he meets a boy named Faselo, who tells him that the legendary square where anyone can sing well, Polano Square, has been revived. After much difficulty, he arrives at the square, where he finds Professor Wildcat and other employees of a wood distillery company in the middle of a drinking and singing contest. As the prices of their products have fallen and their business is no longer viable, they start using the factory's equipment to produce moonshine called "straw wine," and drink with it.
Kyusuto, who doesn't drink alcohol, gets into a fight with a drunk person.
...It's a story about a moonshine factory.
Kenji Miyazawa probably didn't have a very good impression of people who drank alcohol, and he has Kyuusuto say the following line in the text.
"Gentlemen, by not drinking, you will gain 10% more strength than those who drink. By not smoking, you will gain 20% more strength. By deciding the direction to go in and organizing all the energy in your head, you will gain more than 20% more strength than those who are in disarray. Yes, all the energy that those people use to think about women and fight among themselves, we can use it to bring us true happiness. Look, you will soon have twice the strength of those people. However, you must not force this way of doing things on other people. Those people were born at a time when they would have been lonely and cold and unable to live if they had not drunk alcohol."
Alcohol is meant to help you get through the hardships of life. Although that is one aspect of it, it is harsh.
By the way, what exactly is this "straw sake" mentioned here? After a little research, I found out that it is said to be an invention of Miyazawa Kenji, and that there was no such drink. However, there must have been something he had in mind.
It reminds me of sake with a straw in it, similar to Zubrowka, which is vodka flavored with bison grass, but since it's moonshine, it's probably not something that sophisticated.
I've never heard of fermenting straw to make alcohol. It seems like it would be difficult, as it could end up turning into compost or natto. I looked up the "Honcho Shokan," which lists all the different ways to use different materials, but when it comes to straw, it only lists "ash" and "soot," which is pretty plain.
A clue may lie in the facility they had, a wood distillery. Wood distillation involves steaming wood in a brick or iron kiln in an air-tight environment. By removing oxygen and heating, the wood is broken down into solids and liquids without burning, and charcoal, wood vinegar, wood tar, and other substances can be extracted. Furthermore, distilling the wood vinegar produces methanol. In other words, we can imagine that straw sake was made by dry distilling straw to produce methanol, which was then drunk as alcohol.
There is a sentence that expresses this:
"You've been fooled very well. What came out of that factory, bottled under the guise of acetone, was actually a fine mixed drink. To make matters worse, they mixed in wood alcohol (methanol). They'd been brewing it illegally for two years."
Methanol is an industrial alcohol used for fuel, etc. Unlike ethanol, it is not neutralized in the body, so it is highly toxic, with a lethal dose of 30ml to 100ml. It is obviously not good to do something so dangerous.
Meanwhile, what Kyust and his friends, who don't drink alcohol, drank was tartaric acid mixed with cold water. Tartar (potassium tartrate), which settles at the bottom of wine, has almost no taste when you lick it, but tartaric acid has a strong sour taste. It was probably mixed with water to add a little sourness.
It is also said that tartaric acid used to be effective in relieving fatigue and regulating the intestines, so perhaps it was something like an energy drink at the time.
As can be seen from the drinks they are holding, they are polar opposites, but later, the lumber distillery (and moonshine factory) run by Professor Wildcat goes bankrupt, while the young Faselo returns having worked at a leather dyeing factory and mastered the techniques of tanning leather. Then, with Kyuusuto's advice, Polano Square develops into a cooperative where farmers tan leather, prepare ham, steam and dry chestnuts, and make their own products.
This was probably Miyazawa Kenji's idea of the ideal farmer.
However, as times change, so do the things we make and the way we view them. For example, tartaric acid, which Kenji depicted as a symbol of goodness and health. During World War II, crystals of "Rochelle salt," made by combining tartaric acid with potassium and sodium, were used as a material for sonar, which converted underwater sound waves into electrical signals to detect the sounds of enemy ships. (As a result, tartaric acid was confiscated from wineries.)
Wood distillation, which was once thought to be outdated, is now an indispensable method for extracting essential oils from wood and fossils, and the tea distillate made by distilling tea plants is also used to eliminate pet odors.
Nature is neither good nor evil; it all depends on the people who use it.
But of course we have to admit that alcohol is harmful to humans. My favorite response to that is what Kristoff said in an interview:
"Alcohol is not important for me. I love making eau-de-vie from fruit. If possible, I don't need alcohol. Alcohol is necessary to extract the aromas, and it has the power to bind the aroma molecules together. Therefore, alcohol is not involved in the distillation of fruit."
And another photo that issy sent me recently is also pretty good.
"I do not drink alcohol. I drink spirits. Therefore I am not an alcoholic. I am of a noble and noble spirit."
So what kind of plaza will be created? Things are getting more and more confusing, but please come and visit Mitosaya Square.
A friend of mine and his family who live in Atami contacted me about coming to visit them for the holidays. He told me that "mitosaya is like a square in Polano," and I wondered what the story was about.
Qwest, a man who works for the Natural History Bureau of Molio City, is in charge of a project to renovate a racetrack into a botanical garden. As his hobby is to make and organize botanical specimens, this is the best place for him to work, and he moves into the racecourse guard shack by himself with a small gramophone and about 20 records that are no longer in use. One day, his goat disappears, and while looking for it, he meets a boy named Fazero. While looking for him, she meets a boy named Fazero, who tells her that the legendary Piazza del Polano, where any person can sing well, has been restored. When he arrives at the piazza after much effort, Dr. Wildcat and other members of the wood-drying company are in the middle of a drinking and singing contest. When the market price of their products dropped and their business became unsustainable, they began to use the facilities of the factory to produce moonshine called "straw liquor," and they were having a party with that liquor.
Qwest, who doesn't drink alcohol, gets into a fight with a drunk.
...Isn't that the story of a moonshine manufacturing plant?
Kenji Miyazawa must not have had a good impression of people who drank alcohol. In the text, he has Qwest say this passage.
"Gentlemen, by not drinking alcohol you gain an extra ten percent of strength over those who do drink. You gain 20% more strength from not smoking. By setting a straight course and organizing all the forces in your mind, you gain 20% more strength than those who are disorganized. Yes, all the power they use to think about women and quarrel with each other, we can use to bring our true happiness. See, you will soon be twice as powerful as those people. But don't force others to do it this way. Those people were born at a time when they were too lonely and cold to live without drinking like that."
It's a way to get through the hardships of life. It's harsh, even though alcohol has that aspect to it.
By the way, what exactly is the "straw sake" mentioned here? When I looked it up, I found that it is said to be a creation of Kenji Miyazawa, and that there was no such drink. However, there must have been something that he imagined.
It reminds me of the Zubrowka, which is vodka flavored with bison grass, or sake flavored with straw, but since it's moonshine, it's probably not that sophisticated.
I've also never heard of fermenting straw itself to make sake. It seems to be difficult to make sake from straw, because it might be turned into compost or natto. I checked out the "Book Breakfast Book," which lists all kinds of uses for each material, but for straw, it only lists "ashes" and "soot.
This may be a clue to the facilities they had, called wood dry storage. Wood dry storage is the process of steaming wood in a brick or iron kiln with no air. By heating the wood without oxygen, the wood is broken down into individual pieces and liquid without burning, and charcoal, wood vinegar solution, and wood tar can be extracted. When the wood vinegar solution is distilled, methanol is produced. In other words, we can imagine that straw wine was made by dry distilling straw to produce methanol, which was then drunk as drunk alcohol.
There is also this sentence to describe it.
"You have been deceived very well. The barrels of acetone from that factory were all fine mixed liquors. The bad ones were mixed with methanol. I've been doing that kind of bootlegging for two years.
Methanol is an industrial alcohol used for fuel. Unlike ethanol, it is not detoxified in the body and is extremely toxic, with a lethal dose of 30 to 100 ml. Of course it is not good to be doing such dangerous things.
On the other hand, what the non-drinking cuists were drinking was tartaric acid mixed with cold water. The tartaric acid has a strong sour taste, although the tartaric acid (potassium tartaric acid) that settles at the bottom of the wine has almost no taste when licked. It was probably mixed with water to add a little acidity.
Also, in the past, tartaric acid was said to have anti-fatigue and bowel control properties, so it must have been like an energy drink in those days.
After that, the wood distillery (and moonshine factory) run by Dr. Wildcat goes bankrupt, while Fazero, the boy, comes back after learning the art of tanning leather by working in a leather dyeing factory. With Qwest's advice, the square in Polano develops into a cooperative where the farmers make their own products, such as tanning leather, making hams, and steaming and drying chestnuts.
This must have been Kenji Miyazawa's idea of the ideal farmer.
However, as time goes by, what we make and how we look at it changes. For example, tartaric acid, which Kenji depicted as a symbol of good and healthy things. During World War II, crystals of Rochelle salt, made by combining tartaric acid with potassium and sodium, were used to make sonar, which converts sound waves in the ocean into electrical signals to detect the sound of enemy ships. (This is why tartaric acid was collected from wineries.)
Wood distillation, once thought to be obsolete, is now an essential method of extracting wood-based and fossil-based essential oils, and tea distillate, made from chanoki trees, is used to eliminate pet odors.
There is no good or bad in nature, it is up to us to use it.
Nevertheless, alcohol is harmful to humans. Of course, we have to admit that alcohol is harmful to humans. What I like about his response to that is this phrase that Christophe used to say in an interview.
"For me, alcohol is not a serious thing. I love to make Eau-de-vie from fruit. If I could, I wouldn't need alcohol. Alcohol is needed to extract the aroma, and alcohol has the power to bind the aroma molecules together. So, alcohol has nothing to do with the distillation of fruits."
And another one that ISSY has been sending me lately is also quite good.
"I am not drinking alcohol. I am drinking distilled liquor (spirits). So I am not an alcoholic, I am a noble and sublime spirit."
Now what kind of square can we have? I'm getting more and more confused, but please come to mitosaya square.
