2002/09/28 Enter the world of Kurosawa via food SCENE1 Akira Kurosawa's fame will probably linger on forever in all manner of forms. Fans still flock to cinemas around the globe whenever retrospectives of the director's works are held. Kurosawa's enduring fame has also spawned a DVD series of his 23 works, which will be released on Oct. 25. Less than two years since its opening, Restaurant Kurosawa in Nagatacho, Tokyo, seems to have grown into a mecca for actors, directors and, of course, fans of this legendary cinematic artist. International celebrities who visit the restaurant, meanwhile, jump at the chance to write eulogies to the director in the restaurant's guest books. Also known as a gastronome, Kurosawa (1910-98) had sufficient interest in food to have established a restaurant during his lifetime, although he never did. Restaurant Kurosawa, therefore, is not another creation of the late director, but rather the brainchild of Takayuki Sakurai, an executive at a restaurant planning company who came up with the idea of opening a restaurant featuring Kurosawa's favorite dishes. Sakurai opened Restaurant Kurosawa in December 1999, having obtained permission from the director's family to serve several recipes Kurosawa enjoyed at home. Originally, Sakurai had wanted to transform a 40-year-old, first-class Japanese restaurant catering to political figures into something novel and with its own particular style. Located in the heart of the nation's political center, the restaurant was expected to have high-profile customers from the day it opened, so Sakurai's vision was to create a restaurant serving authentic Japanese cuisine, using top-quality ingredients, in a cozy atmosphere, but not for exorbitant prices. With this in mind, Sakurai hit upon the idea of introducing a Kurosawa theme to the restaurant, even though he admits that at the time he was still not a big fan of the director's films. "He is a big international name with a reputation for being something of a meat-loving gourmet," Sakurai explained, adding that once the idea had occurred to him he went out and saw all of Kurosawa's works, becoming an aficionado of the director in the process. To Sakurai's surprise, artists and designers who used to work closely with the director generously offered to help design the interior and exterior of the restaurant. The restaurant's facade brings back memories of the 1961 film Yojimbo, which featured a scene depicting a lone samurai (Toshiro Mifune) trudging down a street in a desolate post town. The gray structure is reminiscent of one of the run-down buildings lining the street featured in the movie, and some restaurant customers may even enjoy a sense of elation at being "on the set" of that famous movie. "With the shoji sliding doors open, the latticework of the building becomes visible, creating the same visual feel (of the entrance) from which Mifune as a samurai would gaze at the outside world, while sitting to the side of the window of the shabby tavern," Sakurai said, pointing at one of the windows of the building. "The pine motif you see at the restaurant entrance is a reproduction of what was used on the outer wall of a brothel also featured in Yojimbo." The indigo uniform of kimono like shirt and loose-fitting pants worn by the restaurant staff is based on an outfit worn by Mifune in Akahige (Red Beard, 1965), in which he plays an old doctor serving impoverished patients. But perhaps more important than the extravagant attention to visual detail at the restaurant is the authenticity of the menu. Indeed, Kurosawa's daughter, Kazuko, provided many of the recipes. "He didn't like to eat too many ingredients at once," Sakurai said, "So, most of the recipes are quite simple. For instance, the shabu-shabu recipe makes use only of sliced pork and leafy vegetables." Kurosawa also liked to dress steak with a miso-based paste cooked with sliced garlic. This condiment is available for many of the steak dishes. Soba buckwheat noodles were another favorite of Kurosawa, who served them at home parties he often threw, making them another obvious choice for the restaurant. The soba is prepared in precisely the same way as it was by the charismatic soba restaurateur in Yamanashi Prefecture who supplied soba to Kurosawa's family. The soba is made of a mixture of 20 percent flour and 80 percent buckwheat flour and served with a strong, salty soy-flavored fish based broth. This is the very way Kurosawa liked his soba. The lunch soba course (3,500 yen) includes an appetizer, tempura, soba and the dessert of the day. A more casual lunch course is available at 2,200 yen, while dinner courses range from a 5,000 yen shabu-shabu course to a 10,000 yen nabe pot dish course. All of the courses are named after Kurosawa films. Other restaurant decor features worth mentioning include the studio-like atmosphere of the far end of the second floor, where the walls do not extend up to the ceiling. This leaves the ventilation pipes between the wall and ceiling clearly visible. "I want patrons to feel as if they were on a film set while wining and dining," Sakurai explained. Another of Kurosawa's artistic talents that is represented at the restaurant is his painting. Kurosawa painted thousands of storyboards for his movies and a selection of 14 of these panels from Kagemusha (1980) and Yume (Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, 1990) currently adorn the walls of the restaurant's dining rooms. These pictures will be replaced with different ones in December. Meanwhile, at the corner of a large dining space on the second floor is the feudal helmet worn by Tatsuya Nakadai in Kagemusha. Rare posters and even a wind-chime modeled on those hanging in a window of the set used in Akahige are details that can easily be missed although they undoubtedly add to the overall ambience of the interior. Another novel idea is complimentary postcards given to patrons that feature reproductions of Kurosawa storyboards and are accompanied by comments from the director. "After I pinned one of Kurosawa's messages to a wall near the entrance to the restroom, I noticed that many patrons wrote the message down," Sakurai said. The message reads: "Everybody, find something you really love. I advise you to look for something that is truly important to you, something that matters and has most significance to you. Once you find it, try to channel all your energy into it." Early last year, Sakurai decided to print a different postcard each month using the image of a Kurosawa painting and message. The September postcard bears an image of Kurosawa's drawing "Moonlit Garden," a sketch he drew for Hachigatsu no Kyosokyoku (Rhapsody in August, 1991) accompanied by the message: I believe I am a citizen of the world because wherever I go, I feel at home. If we all felt that way, we would see the absurdity in the things we let happen and put a stop to them. "We happened to choose this message for September," Sakurai said. "Especially after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I felt this message was just right (for the month)." These postcards have proved popular not only among patrons but also Kurosawa's former staff, some of whom ask for sets whenever they go to overseas film festivals. "They say Kurosawa's postcards are a good souvenir for many people in the film industry," Sakurai said. Sakurai's next target is New York. "I dearly want to serve truly authentic Japanese cuisine to Americans," Sakurai said. "Some Japanese traditional dishes, such as sushi, have strayed too far from their classic recipes. But, if we can present Japanese cuisine, saying this is the way Kurosawa enjoyed his food, non-Japanese people will at least listen to us." For those wishing to heighten their enjoyment of a visit to the restaurant, 16 Kurosawa films, including Kagemusha and Yojimbo, will be shown from Oct. 29 to Nov. 15 at the Shin-Bungeiza, a repertoire theater in Ikebukuro, Tokyo (03-3971-9422). 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	Appear in Daily Yomiuri 2000/09/28 Restaurant Kurosawa is a short walk from Exit 5 of Kokkai-Gijidomae or Tameike-Sanno subway stations. Open daily 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5 p.m.-11 p.m. On Saturdays and national holidays, it opens at noon through 10 p.m. Closed Sundays. (03) 3580-9638 For more information and reservation Call 03-3580-9638 info@9638.net
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