Marubell Bromides

Asakusa has always been my favourite destination from the first time I visited it a decade ago. Ever since then, I would always make a trip there whenever we were in Tokyo, and this time was no exception.

It's an old part of town, but somehow, the 10 year-old me took to the comfortable air there and found the giant red gate that is Sensoji Kaminarimon a wonder - perhaps I just found the giant straw slipper amusing, I don't know. As the years progressed and I became the nutso kayo fan that I am now, Asakusa became more than just a place to reminisce good memories, watch daredevil pigeons brave the onslaught of feet in attempts to find crumbs on the stone pavements, and have a choco-banana from one of those pop-up stands by the temple. It became the place I knew with a guaranteed stash of most things related to the old(er) Japanese music industry. That only made me love that place more than I already did.

Besides Miyada Records and Asakusa Star Plaza that had been checked off my list last year and revisited this year, there were a couple more places I had yet to check out during my Asakusa conquest. One being the fabled record shop Oto no Yorodo (音のヨーロー堂), and the other being Marubell-do (マルベル堂), the one-stop-shop for bromides or promides, the latter being described as finished photographs in the Wikipedia page, of popular celebrities from the bygone era. Both pronunciations refer to the same thing now, apparently. And the types of celebrities include singers, actors, theater actors, sports heroes, and even geishas and rakugo talents. From the title, I will be focusing on Marubell-do in this article.

Disclaimer: I'd be lying if I say that there won't be at least some fan-girling involved in the following bit. So, you have been warned.

I first heard of Marubell-do - well, more like its products - quite a long time ago, even before getting to know about enka, while watching this pet variety show I only know as "Pochi & Tama". In one segment hosted by this overly excited host and his overly excited Labrador, Daisuke, Asakusa was featured. Along with an old kabuki theater, the next area of interest that mildly caught my attention at the time was this outlet selling old photographs of every celebrity under the sun.

I kept this information at the back of my head last year as somewhere new to explore, but because of my hunt for Miyada Records, I never took the time to sniff it out. But when it came to this year, I stumbled upon a website that sold something similar before the trip. Long story short, I discovered that this online shop and the Pochi-Tama-featured shop, which I later learnt was called Marubell-do, were the same thing, and that it wasn't too far away from Miyada and the Star Plaza - just a block away (to the left if you're facing Kaminarimon) from the main Nakamise Shopping Street and not far from the Asakusa train station.

With that settled, and after perusing Marubell's site to check out what they had in stock, and being absolutely *ahem* shook over my finds, I made a list of what I hoped to get:

- 5 of Hachiro Kasuga (春日八郎)
- 2 of Haruo Minami (三波春夫)
- 1 of Hideo Murata (村田英雄)
- 1 of Michiya Mihashi (三橋美智也)
- 1-2 of Yoshio Tabata (田端義夫)

As you can already guess from the pattern, I intended to get the Yonin Shu set. And then depending on my mood, I might've gone for a Wakadaisho or Yujiro too.

When I was finally at Marubell-do, the first thing that struck me was how tiny it was. It was literally just a hole in the wall with half a flight of stairs up to the cashier, and an underground den where most of the goods were hidden. All the walls were covered from top to bottom in bromides, a good number of which were familiar faces.

The stuff I was searching for were in the aforementioned den that could probably fit a maximum of only 9 people at a time. I needed a little assistance at first to get myself oriented with the surroundings and to get my hands on my main priority, but I soon got to know its system of the portraits being stuffed in phonetically arranged boxes. There was this middle-aged lady doing her own bromide shopping who found it amusing to see me holding the stack of Kasuga bromides while asking for Mihashi's. No, ma'am, they ain't for grandma.

As I soon noticed, it seemed like the online stock and in-house stock were different as there were fewer Hachi bromides than I expected, and there weren't the ones I planned to get. But, no matter, as you might've seen in my Top 12 list for him, I managed to find some that were close to my expectations: one taken around the mid-60's, and four cute ones from the 50's. It was when choosing the pictures that a question I never thought would ever cross my mind popped into my head, "Which one is better: Hawaiian Hachi, Madorosu Hachi, or Matatabi Hachi?" I went with madorosu with the reason being that he sang more of the madorosu style of songs rather than matatabi. The Hawaiian one was, well, cute, plain and simple. The photo on the extreme left gave me Teruhiko Saigo (西郷輝彦) vibes - it's the eyebrows - but I was fine with it. And the one next to it... that was the best of the lot with that dreamy look (I warned you).

There were also fewer Minami ones than that projected on the site (400+!). From documentaries, I became aware that he was very much more charming in his younger days, and these photos only magnified that, especially in those like the one above. He was elegant in a kimono, but he was just as spiffy in western wear.

Here's the venerable 4. I was considering whether to get one of Muchi's portraits with him in a suit because one doesn't see that all that often, but I was good with this one where he wore a black (?) kimono. And this bromide of Michi was the most apt with him in a kimono and holding a shamisen - matched the theme of the other 3 too. He looked rather odd in the others, so I kept to my target.

Next was getting one of Batayan's. It was a simple decision: Get the one that looks most Batayan. In other words, one with him and his trusty guitar, which I did. Then I thought, "Wouldn't it be great to not just have the Yonin Shu on display, but have the Sengou Sanba Garasu too?" And that's why Haruo Oka (岡晴夫) and Toshiro Omi (近江俊郎) are present. If only Oka had a guitar, or maybe even an accordion.

In the end, I left Marubell-do satisfied with 12 bromides that served as my birthday present... Hmm, I just realised how awfully spot on that number is, considering that day's date and occasion. Well, but that's not very important. Since I was talking about Asakusa, I'd like to round up the article with one of the very few songs I know that are specific to my favourite place in Tokyo, "Asakusa Nagashi" (浅草ながし). It's got a retro feel that fits this old part of town nicely, so it would do.

Over at my corner of the globe, it's the day already, but not yet in the other half. Either way, I'll take this chance to wish you guys a Merry Christmas!