Memories of Gekkoso and Dried Sardines

　Last month, visiting Taimei Elementary School for an interview for this series reminded me of the art supply store “Gekkoso.” When I was in junior high school, our sketchbooks and oil paints all came from Gekkoso. The store currently stands on Hanatsubaki Dori in Ginza 8-chome, but back then, it was right near Taimei Elementary School. Having recently met my classmates from junior high school at a reunion, I missed Gekkoso all the more.
　I might have previously mentioned that I went to Keio Chutobu Junior High School. My memories of Gekkoso art supplies are always accompanied by Mr. Yo Kato, our art teacher. I guess that at any school, the art teacher is unique; and Mr. Kato also had that wild artist-like atmosphere that as different from my other teachers who taught the core subjects. He was chubby with long tousled hair and black rim glasses. He always wore a corduroy jacket whose elbow had thinned out. Writing up to here, I tried to reconfirm this memory by checking my graduation album, but perhaps because a graduation album would be kept for years, he wore a suit and tie.
　The first episode with Mr. Kato goes back to before I was even in junior high school – to the entrance exams. The art exam that we took as a part of the second-stage exams is not to be forgotten. As we walked into the classroom, we were distributed a piece of dried sardines with a straw string tied to its mouth. As I recall, we were told to sketch the dried sardine with a thick pencil. The time I spent sketching a piece of smelly sardine at an exam for Keio, which I had had a cool image of, became an indelible memory, which is always remembered with Mr. Kato.
　Curious to find out what kind of relationship my teacher had had with Gekkoso, I headed for Gekkoso Gazaiten in Ginza 8-chome. It is the second store from the intersection of Komparu Dori and Hanatsubaki Dori, with the impressive classic brick façade. On the first floor, they sell paints and canvases, sketchbooks…. all displyed closely together. Going downstairs to the basement floor, there is a small salon and gallery space.
　What I miss the most are the sketchbooks with colorful covers, available in blue, red, yellow-green, pink….They come in a variety of sizes, but our junior high school probably used size 5F (36×27cm). The boys’ were blue, and the girls’, red. I guess they were made to match our school colors of red and blue, because I remember the blue to have been a little closer to navy than I what is currently sold
　As I gazed at the art supplies nostalgically, the owner, Ms. Nanase Hibi came out. The second owner after the founder, she is around ten years elder than me, but what a young spirit she has. Then, learning that she also went to Keio Chutobu Junior High School (as well as the affiliated Keio Yochisha Elementary School), the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. She also had Mr. Yo Kato for art, but it turns out her father, the founder, and Mr. Kato had been close friends before she was in his class.

　These episodes indicate how Heizo was loved by everyone. In his late years, he was called “Master of Gekkoso” or “Uncle Gekkoso” and he was especially kind to poor artists whose works were not selling well. The store website introduces a store legend.
“Back then, not all stores had registers like we do today, and at our store, too, we had a basket of change hanging from the ceiling, like the ones that were commonly seen in the greengrocer’s or fish store. The customers would place their payment in the basket and take their own change. Young artists with little money would take more change than they were entitled to but Heizo let such things pass.”
Although they have stopped using the basket method now, Heizo’s spirit is still alive in their policy of not putting their products in bags to save costs and provide art supplies for as cheap as they can.
　The store is now run by his daughter Nanase, who was married into the Hibi family. Her son, Kozo Hibi, is currently Gekkoso’s total producer. What I mean by “total” is that he has been producing new business locations, such as an atelier and a café in the Ginza 8-chome block. (He calls the area “Komparu Eight.”)
　Kozo-san is around twenty years younger than I am He was dressed stylishly. His chic way of wearing jeans was somewhat different from the ordinary young master of a traditional long-established store. He guided me to “Gekkoso Atelier M’zo,” a short walk along Komparu Dori towards Shinmachi. The atelier, located on the fourth floor of a building, has a low table with paints, brushes, pallets and drawing paper roughly arranged on it so that anyone can come in and enjoy drawing. There are small chairs for small children that create the atmosphere of a kindergarten.
“It’s not exclusively for children. My aim is for adults to also enjoy spontaneous drawing. Young women frequently come to draw after work, too.”
　You are welcome to just come in and draw, but you can also print your work on T-shirts or have it framed. I decided to spend some time concentrating on drawing “my memorable dried sardines.”

　And the other location was behind this building, to its west. Kozo-san ran up the stairs of a shabby building on Kenban Dori.
“The building does not have an elevator.”
　We walked up the stairs, going past floors with signs for small bars (run by proprietresses). “Tsuki-no-Hanare” (Moon Villa), Gekkoso’s salon, is located on the uppermost fifth floor. A dim corridor suddenly opens up to the courtyard, beyond which is a bar-like space with tables and chairs and a shelf with liquor bottles. It is the perfect hideout, decorated with good paintings and sculptures and selected antique chairs and tables.