"Tsukemonoya" (lost Japanese commercial reporting the death of a Japanese performer; existence unconfirmed; early-1980s)
A screenshot from a 1985 Shin-Shin commercial.
Status: Existence Unconfirmed
Tsukemonoya (「漬物屋」, translation is "Pickle Shop" or "Pickle Manufacturer") is a commercial currently being searched for by the Japanese lost TV commercial community.
Origin
On December 14, 2010, the following post was made on the Japanese anonymous message board website 2ch. The post was originally reposted from another social networking service, mixi.
205 ：提供：名無しさん：2010/12/14(火) 15:33:59 "mixiのトピより ちなみにボクは子供の頃のボンヤリとした記憶で、とある漬物屋のＣＭで、画面に向かって話している男性の下に、「このＯＯさんは、先日ＯＯのため、お亡くなりになりました」というテロップが入った怖いＣＭを記憶してます。その後、そのＣＭは、その男性の顔を隠すように、手もとだけをＵＰした拡大画像に処理され、やがて、男性のナレーションは消えて、別の声に変わり、やがて流れなくなりました。 」
The following is a translation.
Post #205: Poster: Anonymous: 2010/12/14(Tue) 15:33:59 From a mixi topic. Incidentally, I have a vague recollection from my childhood of an eerie commercial for a pickle shop with the subtitle "This (man's name) passed away the other day due to (cause of death)" displayed below a man speaking from the screen. The commercial was edited to hide the man's face and show only his hand, and eventually the man's voiceover disappeared, replaced by another man's voice, and the commercial itself went off the air.
Speculation and Testimony
The commercial caught the attention of other users in the community, who began speculating about where the commercial came from and who the man was.
One user mentioned that Kyu Sakamoto, who died on Japan Air Lines Flight 123 on August 2, 1985, had appeared in a commercial for a product of Tokai Pickling, a well-known Japanese pickles manufacturer. However, another user speculated that the "pickle shop" that aired the commercial was a small company, since the commercial was reused and aired after the performer's death.
On August 26, 2020, a 2ch user reported finding a tweet on Twitter with some promising information. Shin-Shin Foods, a pickles manufacturer, used to feature actor Arihiro Fujimura in its commercials. According to the original tweet, after Fujimura died of diabetes in 1982, Shin-Shin Foods began airing commercials with Fujimura's face cropped and a different voiceover for a while[1]. In addition, other Twitter users testified (the original tweet have been deleted, but can be seen in TheTsuburo's video) that commercials with his face cropped out were aired after Fujimura's death.
Commercial found?
On June 26, 2023, Twitter user Syo Uyama reported finding a recording on YouTube containing a Shin-Shin pickles commercial featuring Fujimura[2]. The commercial appeared to have Fujimura's face cropped, leading one to believe that this was a commercial that aired after his death. However, the main TV show in the video, "Watashi no Ongakukai," (私の音楽会, translation "My Concert") was aired on NTV in 1973, when Fujimura was still alive. Therefore, the Shin-Shin commercials included in this video were not commercials edited after Fujimura's death. The commercials were probably staged that way originally, but there is an oddity as to why Fujimura's face was cropped even though he is still alive.
Availability
The community is saying that the commercial that carried the performer's obituary was most likely Shin-Shin. However, since the only testimonials currently available for the relevant commercial are those that were edited after Fujimura's death, and the only testimonial for the version with the obituary subtitle is the mixi post that started the search, it is currently impossible to determine whether the commercial exists or not. In addition, none of the commercials edited after Fujimura's death have yet to be found.