ひょんなことから実家でカフェを始めて５年目に入りました。多くの方とお出会いしこんなにも楽しい時間をいただくとは想像もしていなかったことです。曽祖母や祖母が一時期、土産物店をしていた頃の屋号をそのままカフェの名前にし、小学校の恩師、北村百合子先生に「多賀あさひや」の文字を書いていただき、その字と我が家の外観を見ながら永源寺の染色家、野田浩二さんが和モダンの暖簾を作ってくださいました。一体何人の方がその暖簾をくぐってカフェに入ってくださったことでしょう。３、４年経ったら色が褪せますよと野田さんに言われていたのですが、残念なことに野田さんは他界。困っていたところ野田さんの奥様の紹介でお二人の友人でろうけつ染をなさっている北島桂子さんに出会いました。お忙しい北島さんが我が店の暖簾作りを快く引き受けてくださったのです！山科から何度も足を運んで去年の１０月に多賀あさひやに暖簾二世が誕生。新年からカフェの新しい顔としてお目見えです。大きな大きな朝日が湖面をゆっくり上っていきます。大胆なデザインが大らかで優しい北島さんと重なります。皆様には今年も新しい暖簾をくぐってカフェで寛いだ時間を楽しんでいただければと願っております。It has been five years since I opened a cafe at my family's house unexpectedly, and I didn't expect that I could meet so many people and have such a wonderful time with them. Taga Asahiya is the name of the souvenir/liquor store that my great grandmother and grandmother were running for a while in the past and I took it as my cafe's name. I asked my elementary teacher, Ms. Yuriko Kitamura, to write the name of the cafe. Looking at the calligraphy and the appearance of the house, Koji Noda, a fabric-dyeing artist who lived in Ehgenji made a modern Japanese shop curtain for my cafe. I wonder how many people came into the cafe through the curtain. Mr. Noda said that the curtain will not last for many years and fade in three or four years. Sadly Mr. Noda passed away two years ago, and I had no idea about what to do about a new shop curtain without him. Kohko Noda, wife of Kohji Noda introduced me to Keiko Kitajima who is a batik artist and she agreed to make a new shop curtain. She came to me several times from Yamashina near Kyoto, and completed the original shop curtain last October. I put it on the first day of the new year. It is a very important image of the cafe. It is the image of a big sun rising from the surface of Lake Biwa. It's a dramatic design and it expresses Ms. Kitajima's accepting and kind character. I hope that many people come through this new shop curtain to the cafe and enjoy their relaxing time.
