On March 19 this blog wrote that Sports Nippon, in the Mainichi Newspapers group, had launched the weekly manga tabloid “MANGA ARCHIVOS” (24 pages, 200 yen). The first title was “Ashita no Joe.” Do you know Joe’s hometown?
It is the Iroha-kai shopping street (Nihonzutsumi, Taito Ward), about two kilometers north of Asakusa. The other day I went out from Takebashi by subway to Asakusa for a drink and looked in. A Joe figure at the shopping-street entrance (photo above) is the landmark.
A little more: nearby was Yoshiwara, Edo’s greatest pleasure quarter, and the laborers’ town of Sanya is a stone’s throw. It was already dark when I went, and the street felt lonely, but daytime must be different; photos online look lively.
Past the shopping street from the Asakusa side is Namida-bashi crossing. As fans know, the Tange Boxing Club, which Joe belonged to, was under Namida-bashi (photo at upper right). The Omoigawa that the bridge once spanned has all been culverted, so nothing of the bridge remains but the name on the crossing and a bus stop.
The street is hung tight with banners and pennants for “the hometown of Ashita no Joe”
(photo at upper left). A side note: a short detour and Tokyo Skytree came into view (photo at center left).
Once a year the street holds an “Ashita no Joe Hometown Festival,” said to be quite a crowd (photo at right). It seems to have begun around 2010; in November 2012 it was timed to the unveiling of that figure. The draw is, as ever, “Isao Bito on stage” — the singer of the “Ashita no Joe” theme. Younger people may not know him. Clips go up on YouTube every year; the 2011 one is the most
fun, I think. The “Tange Boxing Club” sign behind him is good too, isn’t it? (photo at lower left).
♪ Toward the hated face that floated and vanished on the sandbag, hit! hit! hit! … ♫
Do listen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKPqqFS-2nU).