On February 27, at the Hirosaki Municipal Hyakkokumachi Exhibition Hall (Hirosaki Municipal Hyakkokumachi), a lecture "Watokumachi neighborhood drawn by the Chataro newspaper" was held.

The lecture was held in the panel exhibition "Watoku Archive" sponsored by the citizen group "Watoku History Detectives". The Watoku Archive is a project to display about 50 materials such as photographs of Watokumachi and old maps so that you can look back on the old townscape and festivals. Many people other than Watokumachi also visited.

The "Chatarou Shimbun" featured in the lecture was published in Hirosaki from 1920 (Taisho 9) to 1940 (Showa 15). According to Hideaki Tonosaki, the director of the Tonosaki Nihonsha news department, he posted many articles about the city, popular votes on paper for geisha, and articles about social satire. It is also known among modern literary researchers that the novelist Osamu Dazai published a tanka under the pseudonym "Soji" when he was in the old system Hirosaki High School.

In the lecture, he introduced "Dissecting Watokumachi," which was serialized seven times in 1931 (Showa 6). He prefaced it with "abuse and gratitude," and described it as "the town of erotic grotesque (erotic, grotesque, nonsense)," while clearly depicting the city at that time, such as "the heart of Hirosaki's business world." Mr. Tonosaki said, "There was a division in Watoku-cho, but when it comes to problems outside the town, there is something that can be said about uniting and forming a joint front."

The publisher of "Chatarou Shimbun", Hitoshi Furuki, was a former newspaper reporter and was also the central figure of "Donki Club" who started cherry blossom viewing in Hirosaki Park. It is said that it was the forerunner of the Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival, which began in 1918 (Taisho 7). Mr. Tonosaki continues his research activities on Furuki's name and "Chatarou Shimbun" apart from his press activities, and says, "It may be the first time for me to appear in this way."

Regarding "Chatarou Shimbun", "Although it was a newspaper published in Hirosaki at that time, it has first-class value in clarifying the Japanese society, and it is a record that reflects information dissemination with the central and local areas and the world situation. It will also be, "says Tonosaki. "There are many missing issues, and some of them are not there anymore because they were before the war. They may be sleeping in warehouses or chests of drawers, so if there are any, please leave them as historical materials."