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What's In A Name

I was driving through the city of 窶ケテ仰青カ(Kiryu) in ナ嘆窶拵ナ陳ァ (Gunma prefecture) this afternoon. Kiryu is located just west of Ashikaga and I go there quite often on my days off.

I was at a stop light and I saw this.

yapoo.jpg


It is a restaurant that specialises in ニ築ニ停?ケニ停?堡停?慊湘??堋ォ, BBQ'd pork intestines. What caught my eye was the name of this place. It is called ニ停?榿致ー (Yapoo)!!!

There is this Science Fiction-S/M novel titled 「窶ーテ??几人ニ停?榿致ー」 (or "Yapoo,The Human Cattle" in English). It was written by 湘? 青ウナスO (Shozo Numa) and first published in the 1950s. It is considered a cult classic and ナスO窶懌?。 窶燃窶ケI窶「v (Yukio Mishima) was among the writers who expressed their deep admirations for the novel.

Anyway, the meaning of the word Yapoo would not be appropriate to be described here so if you are not familiar with this novel, you will have to do a little googling yourselves.

It is by no means a main stream literature so I am sure the word's meaning is lost to the good people of Kiryu.

I just thought it was so bizarre to see the word up there on the sign.... AND it is the name of a horumon-yaki restaurant!!!

I just had to pull out my cell phone and snap a photo. lol

I have GOT TO visit this restaurant one of these days and confirm with the owner how it came to be named Yapoo.

There IS a band by the name of Yapoos, whose name was taken from the novel. A GREAT band as a matter of fact. Maybe the owner is a fan of the band like I am.

The novel has been made into manga a couple of times but you manga fans should be warned. It is not for everyone. Certainly not for children. The book was VERY controversial when it was first published, and still is today.

Comments

Hmmm even with some googling it is hard to find an english source about this particular book. I tried reading some sources in Japanese but I became rather confused. Although I can see what you mean by inapproppiate...some of the kanji describing the story raised a few eyebrows. I have always been curious about Yukio Mishima-san's books...the 豊饒の海 tetralogy. His Life also intrigues me as well...and the circumstances surrounding his suicide. Interesting stuff Ashikaga-san ^^
 

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Ashikaga
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