「I thought that I could do business」

Momoko Yonemoto (May 24, H21, 81 years old) (born in 1933) Yonemoto

The coffee shop "Yonemoto" facing Harumi-dori is always crowded with men and women of all ages, from people working in Tsukiji to shoppers. In addition to the delicious coffee that "doesn't start or end without drinking Yonemoto's coffee," the bright and cozy atmosphere of the master Kenichi Yonemoto's family is also a big attraction.

Kenichi's mother, Momoko Yonemoto, stands at the counter after noon.

A youthful and modern woman who cannot be considered 78 years old. He has a very friendly personality, so he can have conversations with regular customers sitting at the counter.

Yonemoto started in 1960 when Momoko, a full-time housewife, sold bread in the corner of her wife's fruit shop.

The reason for this may be as far back as Girls' Generation. I can nod a lot when I hear the story. The half-life that Momoko talked about in a hurry seems to remind me of some novel that I read someday, so that it seems that life is connected by a single line rather than the accumulation of accidental points. I felt nostalgic.

Momoko's parents' house ran a fresh fish shop in Omori. After graduating from a girls' school, I got a job as a secretary at Isuzu Motors, where I met my husband, Kiyonosuke Yonemoto. The story will be described later, but my memory during the war was that I lived in a temple in Himi City, Toyama Prefecture, as a dormitory mother for the evacuation of school children of my younger brothers who were in the sixth grade of elementary school in 1945.

"You can survive because your parents can die," was the earnest feeling of the parents at the time. Neighbors said, "I'm relieved if Momoko goes with the children," and Momoko decided, "I'm an older sister. Let's take care of these children." We headed to Himi City together.

At the terakoya, I was in charge of 28 school children in the sixth grade of elementary school, and had a busy life of teaching study, carrying firewood, and doing laundry. In March of the following year, the sixth grader graduated, so he returned to Tokyo, but Momoko remained in Himi with the fifth grader. Then, in April, the Keihin area became a burnt field in Omori due to a large air raid. At that time, my parents' house was also burnt, but Momoko, who was in Toyama, had no way of knowing that her family was safe.

"I was in Toyama, and at one point I was out of touch with my family. I thought Japan was over, lonely for the rest of my life. Two months later, I was scared in Tokyo for three to six years. Children up to the age came here. The third grade was so small that I cried. I lived with them for about a year thinking that I wouldn't let them die. "

Shortly after returning from Toyama to Omori after the end of the war, I met Isuzu's boss at Kamata station. When I was asked to come back to Isuzu, I went to Isuzu again. Mr. Yonemoto, who had been detained in Siberia, returned safely there and will meet again in Isuzu. This led to the marriage of the two, but just before that, his father died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage.

I wanted to close the fishmonger that lost the Lord for a while, but Momoko continued to operate with her younger brother.

"I went to buy by bicycle and my brother sold fish to the other side of Omori station and walked. My father died and sympathized. Thanks to everyone's coming, I can continue the store. I was able to do it. I took an order for New Year's supplies at the end of the day and sent my younger brother to go around. I think the business was interesting here. My husband can stay at his parents' house for four years. I helped out at my parents' house. "

The story goes back and forth, but the reason why Yonemoto, the current location, was born goes back to before the war. Momoko's husband, Kiyonosuke's father, opened a shipping shop on the banks of the Daine River in Kyobashi, but in 1945, with the relocation of the market to Tsukiji, the shipping shop also moved to Tsukiji. Then, I moved to Minato-cho, but because there was a land readjustment during the war, when I was looking for land around my current location, the landlord's kelp shop said, "Because the rented house is vacant and it is noisy, I got an answering machine. I moved to my current location after being told "Give me". There are four and a half tatami mats and a kitchen on the first floor, and four rooms on the second floor. By the time Momoko married, her father-in-law, who had retired from her shipping company, was selling her fruits.

Kenichi, the eldest son who started attending elementary school, said, "I want to eat bread." However, there was no bakery in the neighborhood. He suddenly came up with the idea, "Let's sell bread," at a small part of the storefront that sells fruits. He said that he could sell it while working as a housewife without considering profits, so when he ordered it from a bakery, he delivered it. Momoko started selling bread at her store. She has anpan, jam bread, cornet, cream bun, and melon bread. This was a great hit.

"The bread sold like an interesting thing, and it was fun. I made a cutlet sandwich with cabbage and fried cutlet sandwiched between dock bread and put it in the store, and it sold immediately. Fried bread Anpan alone 100 The pieces sold well. They sold out in the morning. Bread was useful because there wasn't a lunch shop yet. I was serving customers with a second child. "

There is also a funny episode in which Kenichi, an elementary school student, hung two large bags of jam and buttered koppe-pan and delivered them to a local customer in the early hours before going to school.

Eventually, Kenichi, who had graduated from college, said, "I'm having a hard time alone, so I'll help the store." Momoko was surprised and she advised her to "go out into society," but her son's will was firm. She also started a coffee shop.

"I decided to leave it to her son. My husband also quit Isuzu and started helping the store, and her son got married and went out to the store as a couple, and the family got excited. "

It was 22 years ago that I made the current "Coffee Yonemoto" style. Around that time, a big adventure of offering coffee of about 400 yen at a low price of 200 yen. By the way, cheap coffee shops are flooding, but it's a sign. The customer was worried that he could do it for 200 yen, but he concentrated on delicious coffee because it was cheap.

"When I tried to run a fishmonger myself after my father died, I felt like I could do business. So, even if I get married, I can do something. I thought it might be. I tried selling bread in a corner of a fruit shop and never thought it would sell like that. It was a good experience. "

Momoko talks plainly, "Now, my granddaughter is coming to help," she said with a smile on her face.

(2006 by Keiko Tatsuda)