【Translation】Izumi Jinghua and his cleanliness

Although the name Izumi Jinghua sounds very elegant and lovely, and in Japanese animation, it is also drawn as a girl with double ponytails.

But in reality, the real thing is a male writer. (I thought it was a woman when I first heard the name) Arguably one of the most misunderstood writers in the history of Japanese literature.

Izumi Kyoka is a writer from the late Meiji to the early Showa period. Influenced by Edo art and literature, her works have a strong romanticism and are regarded as the pioneer of Japanese fantasy literature. Representative works include: "Night Patrol", "Surgical Room", "Takano Saint". (Although what I know is "Yaksha Pool" and "Poseidon Villa")

The following content is mainly translated from Japanese Wiki (with reference to other webpages), please indicate the source when reprinting.

Spring Mirror Flower - Wikipedia
Mirror Flower's Cleanliness Laughing えない Red Dysentery
Literary ゴシップニュース No. 3 Junichiro Tanizaki and Izumi Kyoka's benevolence and righteousness

Izumi Kyoka's serious cleanliness is quite well-known in Japanese literary circles.

First, he definitely doesn't eat raw food.

Although it is a sweet tooth, the wagashi given by others will be roasted with an alcohol lamp before eating, and the wine will be boiled before drinking (is the alcohol volatilized?), never drink unheated wine. Therefore, the literary world called him " Quanyi ".

燗 (かん, kan) = means to heat wine.

If you pick up food with your fingertips, the part that your fingers touch will definitely be thrown away . Even if you have an iron bottle that has been boiled and clanked, you will be apprehensive about whether it has been properly disinfected.

When I go out, I always bring an alcohol lamp, a small pot and a steel wheel stand with me. Even if I go to a first-class high-end food kiosk, I will cook everything before eating it.

When traveling on the railway, because I wanted to drink tea and boiled water with an alcohol lamp, other passengers mistakenly thought that "the seat is on fire!!!" and called the driver of the car, causing a commotion. (Quan Jinghua, "Hot Tea", 1927)

Secondly, Quan Jinghua also hates the word "rot" in tofu, so they always call it "doufu". (Maybe it's associated with "rotten"?)

But because I used to rely on bean dregs to survive hunger during the poor period, I like tofu very much in my diet, especially the soup tofu that is boiled to bubbling.

(I also have no idea about bubbling tofu, so I looked for it: the left is normal tofu, and the right is overcooked tofu ↘↘↘)

It is said that once, Izumi Kyoka, Tanizaki Junichiro and Yoshii Nagai ate chicken hot pot together. Tanizaki, who is well aware of Kyoka's cleanliness (and eats very impatiently and does not avoid raw or cooked food), said, "Half-cooked chicken is better! ”, and then kept eating chicken. ( Don't call this kind of bad friend when you eat mixed vegetables! XDDD)

Izumi Kyoka, who was afraid of undercooked meat, couldn't wait until she could move her chopsticks, so she had to draw a line in the middle of the hot pot and said, " From here on out, it's my territory, and it's not allowed to cross the border! " (Tanaka Jun " Writer's Yokoyan", 1955)

(Me: Brother Jinghua, you need a pot for Yuanyang Pot wwww)

In addition, Quan Jinghua not only avoids raw food, but also does not eat anything with strange shapes such as shrimp, mantis shrimp, and octopus.

Once, Izumi Jinghua was taken to Chinese food without knowing it, and ended up eating fried frogs. Quan Jinghua was taken aback when she found out: "What's wrong? (How can this happen!)", and swallowed the whole bag of Baodan (gastrointestinal medicine) into her stomach .

( I've seen people swallow sleeping pills in anger, and this is the first time I've heard of people swallowing stomach pills in anger )

In terms of daily life, when Izumi Jinghua bows to people on a tatami mat, her hands will get dirty when touching the tatami mat, so she will not flatten her hands on the tatami mat like ordinary people, but will definitely put her fingernails down. put. (Water Taro, "Mr. Izumi Kyoka に見ゆるの記")

Afraid of flies and mold, the gaps in the ceiling will be filled up. Afraid of rabies, so extremely hate dogs.

(A friend shared with me: Tanizaki also broke the news that Kyoka was going to go out to shoot the scene, and the newspaper would send a dog guard to protect him.)

Because Izumi Kyoka likes to smoke with a pipe, she avoids getting the mouth dirty, and uses the pipe cover made by her wife (using Chiyo paper). It is said that the speed of closing the lid is quite skilled and fast, so fast that it will make people around them admire it. ( what juggling? )

However, according to the book "One Day in the Mirror" ("One Day in the Mirror", 1943), a disciple of Izumi Jinghua, Izumi Jinghua said that Izumi Jinghua was not born with a serious cleanliness addiction, but suffered from dysentery (1904). Years) made him a well-known serious clean-obsessed in the literary world.
(Note: The time here is a bit controversial, and the wiki wrote 1902 should be a mistake)

"You eat bread with your fingers, but the part that touches your fingers is thrown away."
"In my later years, I didn't eat meat or anything named after it, only fish."
"Sashimi feels uncomfortable just by looking at it."
"The extreme eating addiction started around the age of 30, and before that, I actually ate everything."
"Large bowl of rice bowls, with a lot of pickled vegetables, with pickled raw squid, no matter how unhygienic or digestible it is, I ate it in big mouthfuls."

In April 1904, on the car returning home from Kanazawa, Izumi Kyoka also bought the famous "sandwich" of Ofuna Station, took it apart, ate it while enjoying it, and wrote the scene as a postcard and sent it home. (Izumi Jinghua, "Zuo の 窓")

According to another Japanese illustrator Komura Yukidai's "About Mr. Izumi Kyoka" ("Mr. Izumi Kyoka のこと"), it is further mentioned that Izumi Kyoka was suffering from dysentery, so that he could only eat porridge for four or five years. , will be so cautious later.

Although I have a more spiritual interpretation myself, it was only a year away from the death (1903) of Izaki Kyoka's most beloved teacher, Ozaki Momiji. Izumi Kyoka, who originally lost her spiritual support, later suffered from such a serious illness, and she was born. It is not necessarily that it will cause the subsequent increase in cleanliness.

However, maybe not only dysentery, but only porridge for four or five years, which is also one of the reasons for deepening the trauma. (For me, it's scary to imagine)

How can I say it, it's really great to be born in the era of advanced medicine~! (chew)