Yoko Sasano in Yoko Sasano —— Memory of Growing Up

More than 60 years later, she has already attracted the attention of the island country: her books can sell 6.5438+0.5 million copies; Her works have been incorporated into Japanese primary school textbooks; Because of her outstanding contribution to picture books, the Japanese emperor awarded her the Purple Ribbon Medal. She has a Japanese surname and nationality, and she has become a Japanese wife and mother. She can't remember the beautiful Beijing dialect when learning English, and she can only pronounce it in Japanese.

However, she never admitted that Japan was her hometown. In 2007, the 6-year-old child who watched the sky alone in the courtyard of Beiping was nearly old. She has an incurable disease. Without help, she can't travel far. This summer, at the age of 69, she packed her bags and asked her friends to accompany her across the ocean to the west-at the end of her life, the "daughter of Beiping" wanted to see her hometown again.

The story is simple. It's hard to forget after hearing it. So in the last few days of May, in Beijing in early summer, the days are getting longer and longer. We followed Yoko Sasano's footsteps in the fierce wind and scorching sun: the quadrangle where she lived as a child had a fish tank and a grape trellis; Shunyi, a suburb of Beijing, is the village her father visited when he did a rural survey. Pocket Hutong, she painted the streets and lanes in her memory so far, but she has never seen the yard and neighborhood of her childhood; There are also the Forbidden City and Shichahai. In her childhood, those moonlit nights, flower mornings and snowy nights, she was held by her parents and saw many beautiful scenery there. ...

"The old lady wants to see something old." People in her industry said. But what is the "antique" of this city, so beautiful that she still misses it? What was Beijing like in this world many years ago? What are some things that we don't cherish and no longer have? It suddenly occurred to me that I really want to know for the first time after so many years.

The old man stayed in Beijing for six days.

Two days after the old man returned to China, I received an email from Japan. The old man gave me a photo of her childhood. Five photos, yellow, I can't speak-old Beijing at that time, people at that time, time at that time. A colleague saw it and said, "I suddenly miss Liang Sicheng."

Seventy years. One city and one person, lost beauty and old homesickness.

It was dusk when the car drove to Ping 'an Avenue. She suddenly began to cry when she saw the blue bricks and gray tiles on both sides of the road. On the 24th, the sky in Beijing was dusty.

Yoko Sasano walked out of the airport with a straight back, neat short hair and white clothes. We were all secretly surprised when we were going to see a sick old lady. This is not the first time she has returned to Beijing since she traveled at the age of six. The first time was 1999, marking the 50th anniversary of its establishment. "That time we also came out from the airport and drove to Ping An Street. It was dusk. As soon as she saw the bungalows with blue bricks and gray tiles on both sides of the road, she suddenly began to cry and cried very sadly. We all don't know what to say and dare not ask. Don Yaming is a friend and a Chinese translator of her books. The moment eight years ago, in Mr. Tang's memory, is as clear as yesterday.

Twice, Yoko Sasano looked out of the window with no strange eyes. The first question I asked her was about the weather: "Do you remember such a dusty day when I was a child in Beijing?" She said yes, yes, she remembered those windy days, no matter how tightly the doors and windows were closed, dust would get into the cracks and wipe the windows and chairs with hands, and there was a thin layer everywhere. She especially remembers that the streets were "full of camels" and the eyes of those huge animals were always covered with dust and sand.

Some camels bring water to the city. "When I was a child, there was no water in Beijing. People use cars to pull wooden barrels into hutongs to sell water. " At that time, when she was young, she pulled out the plug of the barrel because of naughty, and the water seller who lost water pretended to chase it in the alley of Huaiyin.

"Ask me about old Beijing!" In the evening, the welcome banquet was held in Gegewu, a beautiful old courtyard house with three entrances. This arrangement makes Yoko Sasano feel as good as "finding home". "When I was a child, Beijing and now are completely another world. Today, the big cities in the world are very similar, and Beijing is almost the same as Tokyo and Los Angeles. But my Beijing has walls, and people need to go out through four doors. My memory is very good. I remember everything when I was a child. Have you ever seen that kind of open-air barber shop? In summer, there are sleepy afternoons and dusk. The steel fork of the barber walking in the street vibrates and makes a pleasant sound, and people go to have a haircut when they hear it. And that shovel bowl. Do you still have it? Did you see it? " I wanted to "answer first", but in the end I was a little discouraged. Yes, I have "seen" shoveling bowls, which is an ancient and somewhat magical craft. But it was Zhang Yimou's film My Mom and Dad and Acheng's prose. This, can be regarded as "seen"? "I remember that Beijing was completely gone. It is really the most beautiful city in the world. " That night, welcome to Yoko Sasano, and finally her sigh hovered in my mind, saying goodbye to her and going home. Moved by the warmth of a foreigner who loves his city, why are you still a little "lost"? Is it because she proved that she had so many irreparable "mistakes"?

"Beiping is a spectacle arranged by fate and a relic of the Middle Ages. In this wonderful city wall, there are treasures and plunder for centuries. In this city, there are civil and military officials of the previous dynasty, literati landlords, monks and craftsmen, and graceful foreign drivers. The city has lively hot springs, lush autumn fruits, and the winter sun shines on frosted trees and frozen lakes. This city has permanent concession and relaxed laughter, leisure and affection, poverty and suffering, and indifference to dirt. However, this place also has unexpected feats, and innovative students create slogans for the whole nation. The strong wind blowing from the Gobi Desert has covered the resplendent temples and resplendent temples with the dust of the oldest life. " This is another foreigner Si Nuo's impression of Beiping, which I met in the urban monsoon of Yang Dongping. When I was studying, the night wind in Beijing was very strong, as if there were old dust and sand, which rushed to my window lattice 70 years later.

The countryside has been ruined, but the farmer visited by his father is still alive, and the boy of 18 years old is already an old man in his 80 s.

On the 25th, it was windy. The destination is Shunyi manhole. A journey to find my father.

"I was born in Beijing, Beijing is my hometown, and I am from Beijing." This is the prologue that Yoko Sasano often introduces himself to readers in China. My father, Kenichi Sano, is the reason for all this. "My father likes China very much, studying the history of China in the university, studying the China Revolution and Sun Yat-sen. He came to China before the war and became a visiting professor in Peking University. Later, he joined the investigation department of Manchuria Railway, followed the example of Mao Zedong, and devoted himself to the rural investigation in China. Their investigation team of seven or eight people lasted for seven or eight years and investigated six villages around Beijing and Hebei Province. " Kenichi Sano 1947 left Beijing and returned to Japan. In 1950s, he published six monographs, Investigation of Rural Areas in China, which caused a sensation in Japan. At that time, no one in the world had made such a detailed survey of rural areas in China.

At that time, Yoko Sasano didn't understand what meaningful work his father was doing. At that time, she was just a little girl born in Beijing Siheyuan. She was protected by her mother and grew up playing with her younger brother. In my impression, that tall, thin and handsome father often leaves home, but every time he comes back from work, he will bring her many gifts, often snacks that are not seen in Beijing, and he has never delayed repairing motorcycle toys for his little brother.

Their family should be well-off by then. In those days, Peiping was an outstanding person, a professor at national universities such as Tsinghua and Peking University, with a monthly salary of more than 300 yuan. At that time, the living standard and price level in Beiping were: "A family of four, with monthly food expenses 12 yuan, can maintain a well-off level."

"My father likes to hold flowers and parties at home on August 15. Many people come to enjoy the moon. Therefore, when I was a child, the beauty of the sky and the beauty of the moon in Beiping will never be forgotten. " Such a father went through many hardships that a Japanese had to leave China to return home (because he needed to rebuild his life completely without property and occupation), and finally died of illness at the age of 19. Half a century later, when Yoko Sasano indulged herself, she had a wish: to see the village where her father worked. Shunyi Shajing Village is not far from the northeast of the Capital Airport. Today, all the way there is a thoroughfare. Seventy years ago, Sano Yili was almost blind because his truck overturned on the way to work. Yoko Sasano was quiet all the way, and the dream land she was about to reach was a huge suspense, hanging over everyone's head. Finally, where the wheel stopped, it was a building. Shajing village has become a commercial housing base. Everyone was shocked, but Yoko Sasano got out of the car with a smile and took a picture of the building. She said, "I thought it would be like this."

But then things turned around again. In that complex, Sano and his party actually visited the farmers who were investigated by Sano Yili and them. Yang Qingyu, 83, pointed to the names of his father Zheng Yang and his uncle Yang Yuan on the copy of his father's manuscript brought by Yoko Sasano. After each name, he listed in detail the population, land and property of his family, such as a donkey and a cart. His 86-year-old wife, Liu Yuying, is kind-hearted, and recalls that she used to cook for Japanese people who came to visit, "giving them all white flour". Xiuqin Yang, a 59-year-old daughter, saw a photo of Yang Jiazu's grave in a Japanese manuscript. The four graves under that big locust tree have long since disappeared today. When he left, Yoko Sasano solemnly left this page and gave it to these simple people to help them catch up on their memories. In another house, Zhang, 18 years old, the youngest parents among the respondents, is still alive, and now he is an 84-year-old man. His wife took out the gift that the Japanese gave them in those days, and the stainless steel western-style soup spoons still work well after 66 years.

This is the most tiring day in Yoko Sasano, and people need help to walk the rest of the journey. But it was also the happiest day for her to chat with the elderly in every household. What she cares about is whether the people who helped her father investigate in those years suffered from it in the years to come. She is worried about their future life after losing their land. She asked, "How many children do you have?" "Has the countryside changed a lot since the Japanese left?" "What did you plant later?" "Are you happy now?" At that moment, there was a complex warmth in her eyes, staring at the eyes that looked at her father more than 60 years ago.

At the end of the day, when we were about to get on the bus and leave, we turned around and suddenly saw that 83-year-old Yang Qingyu had put on her hat and asked her daughter to help her grope downstairs, standing quietly at the entrance of the building, ready to meet the guests from afar. Yoko Sasano let people hold hands with him again, and the two old people who couldn't talk were blown away in the afternoon.

Yang Qingyu and Yoko Sasano, 83.

Poplar quivered in the howling summer breeze and nodded with a smile. A China farmer and a Japanese writer still have such an intersection in the depths of their lives. Separated in the vast sea for more than 60 years, they searched, met, and now they want to leave. That little bit of fate is like a meteor, but they still cherish each other.

The long lane under the shade of jujube trees seems to be shrouded in smoke, and I don't know whose flute is playing in the sunset. "I will make this my home."

The highest temperature on the 26th is 37 degrees two. Xisi small pocket hutong. The way home.

No.0/6, Pocket Hutong, Xicheng District. This is the address taken away by my parents when I was 6 years old, and it is also Yoko Sasano's home in Beiping. It is also the place she wanted to find when she came home for the last time at the age of seventy. Looking online, there are eight places in Beijing called Pocket Hutong. And there are 63 years of urban changes in the middle. What we can rely on is the memory of a 69-year-old man before he was 6 years old. For example, "There are four jujube trees growing side by side in the yard".

The first place to go is Qiankou Hutong, starting from Xisi North Street in the west. At the end of the hutong, Yoko Sasano met an old friend, 78-year-old Bai Yingkui, and recognized the Japanese woman who came here eight years ago. She looked for a home here when she was a child. At that time, the old man also let Sano and his party sit in a small house. This time, he stood in the shade of the ginkgo tree when we left, and waved kindly and said, "Don't worry, you will find it this time."

The childhood spent in the quadrangle in Beiping was the best time in Yoko Sasano's life. She remembers her father's grape vines and morning glory in autumn, which are the most common enjoyment of Peiping people in quadrangles. "Get up in the morning, make a bowl of strong tea and sit in the yard. You can also see the high green sky and hear pigeons flying in the blue sky. From the bottom of the locust tree leaves, counting a trace of sunshine leaking to the east, or in the broken waist, facing the morning glory blue like morning glory, you can naturally feel autumn. "

She remembers being led by her parents to buy a small goldfish. The endless fish market is covered with fish tanks, and she is happy to take small fish home. "In that place, there are pomegranate trees and goldfish bowls in ordinary people's homes, which are no worse than the luxury gardens of the rich." "Peiping is natural among people, and almost no place is crowded and not very quiet; The houses in the smallest alley also have yards and trees, and the most empty places are not far from commercial streets and residential areas. The advantage of Peiping is not that everything is fully equipped, but that there is free time everywhere, which allows people to breathe freely. There are not many beautiful buildings, but there are idle places around the buildings to make them beautiful. "

Yu Dafu, Lin Yutang, Lao She and Yoko Sasano could not understand these beautiful China people, but only she witnessed the beauty of that life.

She remembered that the alley where her home was located was paved with pebbles, which reflected moonlight on a moonlit night. A beautiful mother who loves shopping and goes to Wangfujing every day, a gentle and obedient nanny who treats her like her own, a foreign coachman in Beiping who likes telling jokes and is famous for her manners-

"Their life is hard to describe, but no matter how much he sweats, no matter how tired he is, he will never extort a copper coin from you with a discordant attitude; If you are willing to give him one or two more, he will make a sound from his abdomen and express his sincere thanks to you. Don't be surprised if you see a foreign rickshaw puller reading a book and reading a newspaper during a break and planting flowers and plants in front of his dilapidated house. "

And those hard-working vendors, especially in winter, will hear their shouts of selling sweet and round frozen persimmons and her favorite candied haws as a child. She still misses the string of bright red sweetness, although she can't name it.

That day, the blue sky was blue and the sun was scorching. Yoko Sasano insisted on walking, remembering all the way. When she was sitting on the roadside of the hutong in Dahong, she was also drawing a map according to her own impression. She remembers that there seems to be a girls' middle school not far from home, and there is a tram outside the hutong. Finally, when we walked into the small pocket alley on the east side of Taipingqiao Street, the noise of the city suddenly became far away. At four or five o'clock in the afternoon, the long lane under the shade of jujube trees seemed to be shrouded in smoke. Running back and forth, eager to ask around to help her find "home", once we stopped to listen to whose flute it was in the sunset. "I have a feeling that this should be it." Everyone held back their excitement and waited for the answer.

However, in the end, the miracle did not appear. "A 16" hospital has long since ceased to exist. Yoko Sasano seems very satisfied. She looked at the hutong: "This is it. I will make this my home. " On May 29th, Teacher Sano left happily. When she left, she told me that she had no regrets about going to Beijing for the last time.

She wants to live in a quadrangle again. There are so few quadrangle hotels in Beijing that she can only stay for two nights. The bedding color and room decoration there are more like shabby movie sets, but she is already very happy. She said that when she came back, she would write a book about old Beijing, which might be the last picture book in her life. It will be called Fang Tian, which is what the sky looked like in her eyes when she was a child in a quadrangle in Beiping.

She went to visit the Forbidden City. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is being repaired, so she can only sit in a wheelchair. She looked at the swift between the blue sky, yellow tiles and red walls, and was proud of the pride of China people: "China culture is so rich and brilliant. You see, Japanese palaces are so monotonous and simple. Japan is really stupid and stupid. Why did it think of invading China? How can it think that it can beat China! " She went to Shichahai on the eve of leaving Beijing, and the moonlight was bright that night. "In Japan, I always feel that I am a person who has no hometown. There has been such an unfortunate past between China and Japan, but I only have Beijing in my heart. I know what old Beijing looks like. What a beautiful home ... "

"If only I could speak Chinese like you, I wouldn't go, I would stay ..." At the airport, Yoko Sasano smiled and said goodbye to us. Childhood has passed and my hometown is far away. The feeling of being as faint and fragrant as cherry blossoms, full of nostalgia, and being able to leave quietly and calmly is as serene as divinity. Yoko Sasano was translated into Chinese, and its title was Cats Living for One Million Years. That famous picture book tells the story of a cat who lived 1 10,000 times and finally died peacefully beside his beloved.

That is the picture book she made for the children. But I heard that more adults will cry.