Noto Earthquake Report / Considering the Future: 4th Generation Owner of Wajima’s Traditional Confectionery Hesitates After Factory Damage (Source: Mainichi Shimbun, Feb. 5, 2024)
Wajima City has a tradition of consuming winter specialties such as mizu-yokan and rice cakes during the winter season. On the day of the earthquake, around 4 pm, after finishing the production of these confections, Yoshino was relaxing at his home in the same town. Suddenly, the strong shaking prompted him to jump up. After enduring several minutes of intense horizontal shaking, even more violent vertical shaking ensued, forcing him to crouch down.
Noto Peninsula Earthquake Report
Considering the Future: 4th Generation Owner of Wajima’s Traditional Confectionery Hesitates After Factory Damage
Source: Mainichi Shimbun, Feb. 5, 2024
English Translation by Walter Tsushima in Fukui Prefecture, Japan
The approximately 100-year-old established Japanese and Western confectionery shop, “Yoshinoya,” located in Hiroe, Machino-cho, Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture, is facing an existential crisis. The manufacturing factory collapsed during the Noto Peninsula Earthquake on January 1, and the entire area continues to suffer from water outages. Hiroshi Yoshino, the fourth-generation owner at the age of 48, expresses uncertainty about the future, stating, “Having lost the place for creating things, I can’t see ahead.”
Wajima City has a tradition of consuming winter specialties such as mizu-yokan and rice cakes during the winter season. On the day of the earthquake, around 4 pm, after finishing the production of these confections, Yoshino was relaxing at his home in the same town. Suddenly, the strong shaking prompted him to jump up. After enduring several minutes of intense horizontal shaking, even more violent vertical shaking ensued, forcing him to crouch down.
As soon as the tremors subsided, Yoshino rushed to his shop. The walls of the retail store had cracks, and the two-story wooden factory and office attached to it were completely crushed on the first floor. The vital recipe book for wagashi was buried, and the newly acquired manufacturing machinery from a few years ago was also damaged, with estimated losses reaching several tens of millions of yen.
Founded in 1926, Yoshinoya has been in business for 98 years. After graduating from high school, Hiroshi Yoshino gained about ten years of experience working in a Tokyo wagashi shop after attending a confectionery school. He returned to his hometown in his 30s, emphasizing the importance of locally grown “Noto Daio-nan-Kan” azuki beans, known for their large size and vibrant red color, in the homemade sweet bean paste used for dorayaki and monaka. The shop also became popular for manju and pie confections using local Noto salt and sweet potatoes, as well as seasonal wagashi tailored to events, even conducting candy-making classes for local children.
In the aftermath of the disaster, Yoshino distributed mochi and dorayaki rescued from the damaged factory to lift the spirits of evacuees. He laments, “Every year around this time, we would be making uguisumochi and ichigo daifuku. People say, ‘We want to eat Yoshinoya’s anko (sweet bean paste),’ but I can’t make what was always in front of me.”
Despite the expectation from the community to continue as the fourth-generation owner since childhood, Yoshino encouraged his own children to “do what they love.” Meanwhile, his eldest son, Daiki, 24, pursued studies at a confectionery school in Tokyo after high school, working in a wagashi shop in Tokyo and demonstrating commendable efforts as a wagashi artisan.
Due to the earthquake damage to the factory, the main store and three other locations in the Okunoto region are forced to close temporarily. The entire region is still experiencing water outages, and Yoshino and his family continue their evacuation life at a nearby elementary school. Over a month after the disaster, surrounding houses remain collapsed, and roads are still marked with significant cracks. Staring at the fallen sign of the collapsed factory, Yoshino murmurs, “Even in a region already suffering depopulation, even if the lifelines are restored, will customers come to this place, where aftershocks still persist? I want to somehow continue here, but I still can’t decide what to do.”
「ここでやりたいが…」工場損壊 ためらう輪島の和菓子老舗４代目（毎日新聞、2月5日）
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/94fea62c77fa9fdc39eaa90ea122ced06524d7df?source=sns&dv=pc&mid=other&date=20240206&ctg=dom&bt=tw_up
