museum ミュージアム

Winter ほろ酔い物語

W-1

はじめて正式に覚えたお酒は「ウォッカ」。二十歳のお祝いに、ロシアレストラン「スンガリー」の常連だったおじさんが教えてくれた。
 まずは右手にグラス、左手にフォーク。右手のシングルグラスに冷凍庫で冷やした40度のウォッカをなみなみと注ぎ、左手のフォークにトマトかピーマンかきゅうり、一口で食べられるものを一切れつきさす。
 ウォッカは一人でチビリチビリと飲むお酒じゃない。気のあった人と目と目を合わせ、腕を交叉して一気に互いのグラスを空にする決意の酒。火を燃やすほどのウォッカをのどに放り込んだら天に向かって「ハーッ!」と息を吐き出す。横隔膜の底から全ての気を空に放り出すように吐き出したら、今度はバリバリと野菜を食う!不思議なくらいケロッとして何杯でもいける。
 はじめての夜、私はこれで10杯を飲みほした。おじさんすごく感動して、やおら立ち上がると居合わせた男たちに向かってこう言ったのだ。「おいっ!お前ら嫁をもらうなら、こういう酒の強い女にしろよ!」
調子にのって20代は我を忘れて飲みほうけた。けれど舞台の上でお酒を飲んだのは1971年12月、日劇ミュージックホールで開いた深夜のコンサートが初めてのこと。 
 「TOKIKO22時」と名付けたこのコンサート、ストリップショーの終わった後、酒だるをロビーで開け聴衆に振る舞って、さて幕を開けたら、客席を埋め尽くした酔っぱらい達が舞台の上にまであぐらをかいている始末。しらふで歌いはじめた私もさすがに我慢出来ず、「私だって飲みたいよ」とお酒を要求。以来「ほろ酔いコンサート」は年末の恒例となり、2005年で33回目となる。
 年々歳々人同じからず。日劇ミュージックホールも今はなく、酔っぱらいも昔ほど過激でなくなりはしたけれど、「ほろ酔い」なしには年が越せないと言ってくれる人が多い。

The first alcohol I was formally introduced to was vodka. Celebrating my 20th birthday, my uncle, a regular customer of the restaurant Sungaly, taught me how to drink vodka. First hold a glass in the right hand and a fork in the left. Then fill the single glass with freezer-chilled vodka, 40% alcohol, while taking a slice of tomato, green pepper or cucumber with the fork. You shouldn’t drink vodka alone, nor in small sips. Rather, you should drink it with good friends, keeping your eyes on the others’, linking arms, and drinking off one’s own glass in a gulp. Vodka is a liquor requiring decision. After pouring the burning vodka down your throat, you exhale to the ceiling, “Huush.” You have to breathe out all the air from the bottom of your diaphragm; then, eat the vegetable. This way, you can drink without getting drunk at all.
That first time, I gulped down ten glasses following his directions. He was really impressed with me and suddenly stood up to speak to the guys in the restaurant: “If you want to marry, choose a woman like her who can hold her liquor!”
In my 20s I often drank a lot. The first time I drank alcohol on stage, however, was December 1971, during a midnight concert at Nichigeki Music Hall. The concert was named “TOKIKO 22.” Following a strip show, and before our concert, we entertained the audience with a barrel of sake in the lobby. When the curtain rose, we found the audience mostly drunk, some even sitting cross-legged on the stage. I began to sing sober, but I couldn’t stand it and asked for sake, saying, “I want to drink, too.” Since then I have had annual “Horo Yoi (mellow) Concerts” at the end of each year. This has continued for over 25 years.
People do not remain in the same place. Nichigeki Music Hall is gone, and so are the extreme drunkards of before. Yet there are many people who enjoy coming to the concerts, saying that they can’t end the year without “Horo Yoi.” So I have these annual concerts in six cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Yokohama and Kanazawa.