LastUpDate: December 8, 2020

Hakata Culture vol.166


Yukichi Tanaka: Hakata’s Idea Man

Illustration image


Shudanyamamise: The one time during the Yamakasa festival period that the floats are carried over the Nakagawa River into central Fukuoka. The giant otafuku mask erected at the Sakuramon gate of Kushida Shrine for Setsubun. Kyokusui no en ("winding stream party”): A reenactment of an elegant Heian era poetry composing festival next to a stream at Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine. All of these events, which are now part of the fabric of Fukuoka, were all dreamed up by one man, Yukichi Tanaka (1901- 1970), who was born in Kawabata in Hakata Ward.


At age 27, Yukichi joined the Fukuoka Nichinichi Shimbun (now Nishi-Nippon Shimbun), and during his time at the newspaper, he was involved in a wide range of events. In 1942, in the middle of the war, he successfully organized the Greater East Asia Construction Exposition, which led to the development of then-undeveloped Momochi pine groves into the neighborhood of Nishijin. In 1945, after the war ended, he proposed the creation of a shopping arcade where a mountain of rubble stood just west of what is now Nishitetsu Fukuoka Station—what we know as Shintencho Shopping Street today.


In 1961, he retired from the newspaper and took a job at an advertising agency, and there he continued to find new ways to promote Hakata’s local culture. This is when he conceived the aforementioned shudanyamamise, giant otafuku mask, and the kyokusui no en. Yukichi, who always loved to draw, taught himself how to paint, and his first job at the newspaper was in the illustration department. They say that no matter how tough the situation may have been, he was persistent in arguing for his proposals, which he crafted by drawing on his strong suits of painting and writing.


Yukichi also loved to make people laugh. He started balding at a young age and had an inferiority complex about this, but he used this attribute to humorously refer to himself as a kotomukei (a word meaning absurd, but which can be read as bald-headed with different characters that sound the same) cultural property. Yukichi also founded the Hakata Niwaka Promotion Council and the Kyushu Association of Manga Artists. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Yukichi’s death, and his relatives are in the process of creating a digital archive to commemorate his life and work.




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時代を明るくしたアイデアマン、田中諭吉

博多祇園山笠が期間中に一度だけ那珂川を渡って福岡部まで走る「集団山見せ」。節分の時期になると櫛田神社の楼門に登場する巨大な「お多福面」。平安時代の衣装に身を包んで雅な宴を再現した太宰府天満宮の「曲水の宴」。今ではすっかりおなじみとなったこれらの行事は、実は一人のアイデアマンが発案したもの。博多の川端に生まれた田中諭吉(1901~1970)です。


諭吉は27歳のときに福岡日日新聞社(後の西日本新聞社)に入社し、さまざまな企画に関わっていきました。戦争中の42年には「大東亜建設博覧会」を実現し、当時は何もなかった百道の松原が西新町として発展するきっかけをつくりました。また終戦後の45年には、現在の西鉄福岡駅の西側に広がっていたガレキの山を商店街にするべく発案。これが現在の新天町商店街です。


61年に新聞社を定年退職した後は広告代理店に勤め、さらに博多の文化振興に貢献していきます。先の「集団山見せ」「お多福面」「曲水の宴」などを実現させたのもこの時代でした。もともと絵を描くのが好きだった諭吉は独学で書画を学び、最初に新聞社に採用されたのも絵画班として。得意の絵や文字を生かした企画書を作り、どんな困難にも粘り強く交渉したといいます。


また人を笑わせるのが大好きだった諭吉は、若い頃からコンプレックスだったはげ頭を逆手に取って、「光頭無毛(荒唐無稽)文化財」と名のるようなユーモアの持ち主。諭吉が発起人となって「博多仁和加振興会」や「九州漫画家協会」なども設立され、ユニークな活動を続けました。2020年は諭吉が亡くなってから50年、親族による記念のデジタルアーカイブなども準備中です。