“Buck wheat-roll (soba noodles) house” deliveryman, c. 1920, standing in front of the shop’s noren. Signage on the right indicates “tempura” is also served there, so it is a good guess that the soba shop also makes tenzaru soba, a summertime cold noodle dish (zaru soba) with tempura served on the side.
See also:
Soba culture, c. 1910.
“Eating with chopsticks”, c. 1910.
Tokyo, Friday, February 28
“The other evening we went out after dinner and took a walk to a lively street not far off — booksellers with their things spread out on the sidewalk or rather road, little lunch wagons, crowded streets and shops — they have electricity everywhere, and some geisha girls trotting along with maids to carry their samisens.
“We went into a Japanese movie beside rubbering at everything and then went into a Japanese restaurant. Their eating places here are specialized — this was a noodle shop, and we tried three kinds, one wheat in a soup, one buckwheat with fried shrimps, and another cold with seaweed.
“For the entire lot for the two of us it cost 27 cents American money, and the place, which was an ordinary one, was cleaner than any American one, even the best.”
– Letters from China and Japan, by John Dewey & Alice Chipman Dewey, 1920