Handsome guy from 160 years ago?

Koi is a freshwater fish that is very familiar to both Vietnam and Japan.
There is a park near the ARIGATOU Cafe.
When I go out for my morning walk, there are always Vietnamese women selling carp at a certain place.
Everyone is so energetic.
They are chopping a large carp into pieces with a knife, with a, “Bam! Bam!”
Whenever we meet, we greet each other with, “Xin chao”, so we are familiar with each other now.
Everyone was hard at work from the morning. Carp must have been an indispensable fish for the Vietnamese people as a source of valuable protein.

Look at the picture.
There are many famous carp dishes such as ‘ca kho – stew fish’, ‘ca hap – steamed fish’ and ‘lau ca – fish hot pot’.
When eating steaw fish on Tet holiday, not only Vietnamese people, but even Japanese people can't help but exclaim that "so delicious".

In Japan, there is a phrase, ‘Koi no takinobori’ [Carp climbing a waterfall].
I think the term probably came from China.
A lot of koi try to climb towards the waterfall.
It seems that only a few Koi can go up the waterfall after many attempts.
Still, the carp does not give up and continues to challenge.
For this reason, in Japan, the term “Koi no takinobori” has become a metaphor for “success in life”.

Please look at the picture.
It depicts a man catching and lifting a giant carp.
The face of the man who jumped into the river to catch the giant carp climbing up the waterfall, it’s a surprisingly huge carp, has a proud look that says, “How do you like it?”
A man's courage to jump into the river and his struggle with carp.

Actually, there are no such giant carp in Japan.
This is an exaggeration by Toyokuni, the ukiyoe artist who painted this picture.
By drawing the carp in a large size, the picture becomes specular and dramatic.
160 years ago, when Japanese people saw this picture, they thought, “Cool!!”,
“I want to be a man like him.”

The man in the painting who jumped into the river is a carpenter, who was everywhere in the Edo period. His name - Rokusan, is written on the left side of the picture.
The fact that the carpenter was so familiar to Japanese people at that time probably inspired people eager to become like him.

160 years ago, a young man from Vietnam may have dived into the Song Hong River in Hanoi, wrestled with a giant carp and lifted it up with a shout like, "Eek!"
Let's see how handsome he was.

There is an ukiyoe of a woman next to the man. Please read the description.

This is the beauty of 100 years ago.
This would be a popular celebrity poster today.

“Standing like paeonia lactiflora, sitting like paeonia suffruticosa and walking like lily.” This proverb is very famous in Japan.
Beautiful women are symbolized as flowers.

In Vietnamese, paeonia lactiflora flowers are called “hoa thuoc duoc”, paeonia suffruticosa flowers are called “hoa mau don”, and lily flowers are called “hoa ly”.
The same flower can be found in Vietnam.
See the photo on the left.
When standing, it looks like the picture in A.
When you are sitting, it looks like picture B.
When walking, it looks like picture C.
What do you think?

Look at the picture on the wall of the cafe.
It shows a cold peony (hoa mau don) and a lily flower (hoa ly) in front of a beautiful woman.
The picture is composed on the premise of the "proverb" explained earlier.
In addition, behind the proverb, there are plum trees with red and pink flowers.

In Japan, the plum blossom is considered to be the flower that heralds spring.
Beautiful women wear a collar. When it is extremely cold, I think of the plum blossoms that herald in spring.
In the language of flowers the meaning is elegant, noble, patient, and faithful.
The plum blossoms also show the mentality of this beauty.

The ultimate beauty of a hundred years ago. Her eyes, nose, small lips and tied hair around her forehead are very shiny..
The red hairpin is very striking.

Every month, the ARIGATOU Cafe receives a fashion magazine that is released in Japan.
Many models representing the current beauty of Japan are featured in the magazine.
Why don't you take a look and compare?