The judges of the WiK Sixth Annual Kyoto Writing Competition once again extend their heartfelt congratulations to Hans Brinckmann, who was awarded Third Prize for his piece “Restaurant Boer”. This is a lovely and generous narrative, full of interesting details about the first Dutch restaurant in Kyoto, and told with humor and warmth. The author seems to be right before us, telling his personal story. While there were cultural factors in the business enterprise which caused confusion, the happy ending brings delight.

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Restaurant Boer

In the spring of 1958, I assisted a close friend, Shoko Fujii, in setting up a small Kyoto eatery in Kiyamachi, Shijo-sagaru, in a rented space owned by a gynecologist, right on the narrow Takasegawa. From the options I offered, she chose the name Restaurant Boer (meaning Farmer), the first Dutch restaurant in Kyoto, if not in Japan.  It featured smoked eels, hearty soups, and – as the house specialty – very tasty veal-and-bacon rolls known in Holland as ‘blinde vinken’, blind finches. The approximate translation, mekura-no-suzume, blind sparrows, sounded so intriguing that we were sure this would guarantee the success of this start-up.

Besides fresh vegetables, they were served with potatoes, jaga-imo in Japanese, introduced by 17th century Dutch traders from the Indonesian capital Jakarta, jagatara in old-Japanese, thus named jaga-imo, imo meaning tuber. Other meals were also served, such as cheese dishes and Jachtschotel, a hunter’s stew.

But after a brief spell of bookings, customer numbers declined fast, perhaps in part because of the shock caused by the mekura-no-suzume, not the taste, but its appetite-destroying name. And the term Boer didn’t help either: what was a “farmer restaurant” doing in Japan’s sophisticated, ancient capital? The restaurant closed its doors within a year.

But at least there was a happy ending: it was in front of Boer that in October 1958 I was introduced in mi-ai style to my future wife, Toyoko Yoshida. Why “in front”? Because although we had planned to meet at Boer, a funeral procession had just crossed the bridge to Boer. “Bad omen!”, she called out. “I avoid that bridge!” Instead, I crossed to her side, and from then on, everything went well. We clicked, found common interests, and married four months later. We had a happy marriage.

Born in Holland in 1932, Hans Brinckmann – though keen on writing – joined an international bank. Assigned to Japan in 1950, he stayed 24 years. He returned to Japan intermittently and since 2003 as a permanent resident and writer of seven works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, including Showa Japan (Tuttle) and The Call of Japan (Renaissance Books). See his website https://habri.jp