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  • This story ended up being more complicated than I thought.

    到頭來,這個故事比我想象的還複雜。

  • It is generally accepted that the oldest business in the world,

    公眾認可世界上最古老的企業,

  • the oldest that's still operating, anyway,

    目前仍營運中最老的事業,

  • is the Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan.

    是西山溫泉慶雲館。

  • Which is this hot-springs hotel, about three hours west of Tokyo.

    就是這家溫泉旅館,位於東京以西約三小時車程。

  • For one thousand three hundred years,

    一千三百年來,

  • people have been coming here for the natural, crystal-clear hot water baths,

    旅客絡繹不絕,前來尋求天然、清澈的溫泉。

  • and until recently, the owners have 52 generations of the same family.

    而直到最近,此事業已在家族中傳承 52 代。

  • This hot spring was discovered, and opened to the public, in 705 AD.

    此溫泉是公元 705 年間被發掘並開放的。

  • A man named Mahito Fujiwara was hunting in the mountains,

    藤原真人於山里打獵途中,

  • and he found a natural spring with hot water.

    發現了一個天然溫泉泉水。

  • And he thought, why not make this into hot-spring baths?

    並想,為何不把這變成溫泉呢?

  • That's when and how our history started.

    這便是一切的開端。

  • There are other people staying here tonight, by the way,

    順便說一句,今晚還有其他人住在這,

  • it's just we're not filming them for obvious privacy reasons.

    只是顯然的,由於隱私原因,我們沒有拍攝他們。

  • The hotel's not empty.

    旅館不是空的。

  • Anyway, I assumed that I'd be staying in something like a living museum here,

    總之,我以為我會住在像博物館的地方,

  • because that's what I've come to expect from the sort of historical attractions you'll find in Britain.

    因為這就是我對英國歷史景點的期望。

  • That's what tends to happen to anything centuries old where I'm from:

    在英國,具有數百年歷史的事物往往是這樣的:

  • a kind of preservation

    保存舊址,

  • that means that everything must be held at a certain point in time,

    一切都保持得與過去相同,

  • funded by tourists who want to visit the old thing and see history.

    並由那些想參觀舊址和看遊覽歷史的旅客資助。

  • Which is great if you're running a museum,

    對博物館來說這樣當然很好,

  • but for a hotel business that needs to survive in the 21st century:

    但對一個需要在 21 世紀生存的旅館來說,

  • well, customers will change with the times.

    客戶需求會隨時代改變。

  • There are four original hot-water springs, located in small caves.

    有四個原始的溫泉點,坐落於小山洞中。

  • That's the original location of Keiunkan.

    那是慶雲館的原址。

  • It was simple wooden buildings, which were built and rebuilt over a long period of time.

    由簡陋的木造結構構成,經過長時間修建與重建。

  • People here kept renovating and rebuilding the baths, while operating them.

    人們在經營浴場同時,不斷翻新和重建。

  • I can't imagine what the buildings looked like hundreds of years ago.

    我無法想像那裡幾百年前的樣子。

  • In the 17th and 18th centuries, people took a healing bath and cooked for themselves.

    在 17 和 18 世紀,人們會沐浴療傷並烹煮食物。

  • People simply took a bath in the hot spring itself.

    人們會在溫泉源泉中沐浴。

  • There was no proper bathtub, but it was surrounded by natural rocks.

    當時沒有浴缸,周邊只有天然岩石環繞。

  • The earliest proper buildings were constructed in the late 19th century.

    最早能被稱為建築的房屋興建於 19 世紀後期。

  • In 1997, all the buildings were converted into a half-board, tourist ryokan business.

    至 1997 年,所有建築都改建為半食宿旅館了。

  • There's still tradition here. It's not a Western-style hotel.

    這裡仍有傳統氣息,並非西式飯店。

  • You sleep on futons, dinner is served at a low Japanese-style table.

    旅客睡在被褥上,晚餐也是在低矮的日式餐桌上享用。

  • But this place has been updated, again and again and again,

    但此處已被一次又一次翻新,

  • this building is only a few decades old,

    這座建築只有幾十年歷史,

  • the exact location has moved around this area many times over the years.

    旅館確切位置多年來也在此區域內移動了多次。

  • It's only been a hotel in the English sense for a few decades.

    此地成為西方意義上的「旅館」只有數十年時間,

  • Before, that it was just a place to stay and take the waters.

    在這之前,這只是個留宿沐浴的地方。

  • Now, there's very fast wifi and, of course, a gift shop.

    現在,這裡有非常快的 WIFI,當然還有禮品店。

  • They excavated new hot springs in 2005,

    他們在 2005 年挖了新的溫泉,

  • which gave them five times as much hot water,

    讓他們能提供比以往熱五倍溫泉,

  • and there are modern pumps and systems to check water temperature and quality.

    並附有現代泵和供水系統來檢查水溫和水質。

  • The water's drinkable, by the way.

    順代一題,這邊水是可以喝的。

  • It's a hot spring after all, it's mineral water.

    畢竟這是溫泉,是礦泉水。

  • From historical documents, we know that Tokugawa Ieyasu and Takeda Shingen stayed here, centuries ago.

    歷史文獻顯示,幾世紀前,德川家康和武田信玄曾留宿此處。

  • The current Emperor of Japan has stayed here too,

    日本現任天皇也曾住在這,

  • in 1987, back when he was the Crown Prince.

    1987 年,他還是太子時。

  • He had a hundred people accompanying him.

    當時有百人陪同。

  • The previous owner didn't want to publicise that visit, though!

    不過前代當家不想公開那次來訪!

  • Hot springs can have a problem with "over-tourism",

    溫泉會有「旅遊超限」的問題,

  • and he didn't want visitors who just followed trends.

    而前當家不想接代追隨潮流的旅客。

  • So that was going to be the story.

    本來故事就到這了。

  • This is the world's oldest business because it changes with the times.

    這是世上最古老的商業機構,它與時俱進。

  • Problem one with that:

    這方面有問題一:

  • the modern English-language concept of "business"

    現代英語中的「商業」概念

  • doesn't quite map correctly onto Japanese culture from more than a millennium ago, obviously.

    顯然無法正確反映一千多年前的日本文化。

  • There is a school of flower arrangement in Kyoto called Ikenobō,

    京都有個插花流派,叫池坊,

  • that was founded a couple of centuries before this.

    創立與此前幾個世紀。

  • But that school probably counts as an "organisation" in English, rather than "business",

    但是池坊在英文里大概算是「機構」,而非「企業」

  • as best as I can tell from translations and my local team here.

    就我從翻譯和我在這裡的團隊瞭解到的情況而言是如此。

  • If you do count that school,

    如果算上池坊,

  • you kind of have count much older like the Catholic Church as well!

    可能連更古老的天主教會也得算進去!

  • This has always been a definite business.

    而此處一直確定是營業場所。

  • So problem two:

    接著,問題二:

  • this has only been the oldest business in the world since 2006,

    此處是從 2006 年才成為世上最古老企業的,

  • when the former record holder, a construction company called Kongo Gumi, fell on hard times.

    此前的紀錄保持者,金剛組建築公司當時陷入了困境。

  • But Kongo Gumi didn't close or go bankrupt,

    但金剛組並沒有倒閉或破產,

  • it was bought by a bigger construction company.

    而是被更大的建築公司收購了。

  • It had been a family business for nearly 1500 years,

    作為一個家族企業它已有近 1500 年歷史,

  • but now it's just a subsidiary of a modern company,

    但現在,它只是一家現代公司的子公司。

  • still operating, but arguably just a name on an organisation chart.

    仍在營運,但可說只是組織圖上的一個名字了。

  • Should Kongu Gumi still count? I don't think so, but...

    該將金剛組算進去嗎?我不這麼認為,但…

  • if it doesn't count,

    如果金剛組不算,

  • that brings me to problem three with this story,

    這就牽扯到了第三個問題,

  • which all the English-speaking sources I found seem to have missed.

    我看過的所有英語資料似乎都沒有提到這一點。

  • When I took over running the business,

    我接管這家公司時,

  • my predecessor was more than 80 years old.

    前當家已經 80 多歲了。

  • But none of his relatives were interested in running a ryokan business in the mountains.

    但他的親戚中,沒有一個對經營深山中的旅館感興趣。

  • There was no-one to take over.

    沒有人可以繼承這份家業。

  • I'd worked closely with the former president, since I was 25 years old.

    我從 25 歲起就一直跟在前當家身邊工作。

  • And I've not said this to many people,

    這件事我不太與人提起,

  • but I was scolded and shouted at almost every day!

    但我幾乎每天都被罵!

  • I never thought I might become company president.

    我從沒想過自己會成為社長。

  • One day about almost five years ago, he calls me and says,

    大約五年前的某一天,他叫我過去說:

  • "Kawano, you should be the next president."

    「河野,你當下任社長吧。」

  • I said, "What?! Me?"

    我回:「什麼?!我?」

  • He said, "I don't want to pass on this ryokan, which has survived for 1,300 years,

    他又說:「我不想讓這家 1300 年歷史的旅館流入別人手中,

  • to someone I don't know."

    來路不明的外人。」

  • But I'm not related to him, so I can't legally inherit a family company like this.

    但我和他沒有血緣關係,所以我不能合法繼承這樣的家族企業。

  • So I founded Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan Limited, and as presidentof that company,

    於是我創立了西山溫泉慶雲有限公司,並作為該公司的總裁,

  • took over the shares of the original company.

    接管了原公司的股份。

  • There was no practical change to what was happening here,

    這裡其實沒有任何實質上的變化,

  • that seems more like a restructure than a takeover?

    這似乎更像重組,而非收購,是吧?

  • The new owner is the old general manager,

    新社長是老總經理,

  • so while it's not in the family, there is continuity.

    雖然他不是家族中的人,也還是有延續性。

  • And I hate to say "I'm not sure",

    我不想說「我不確定是不是有」

  • but if there's been one theme through this channel over the years I've been making videos,

    但我多年來製作影片這段期間,如果說這個頻道有個主題,

  • it's that the world is complicated

    那就是這世界很複雜,

  • and it doesn't fit in neat little categories.

    不是所有事都能被歸類。

  • If you've got a list like "oldest businesses" that's a millennium and a half old...

    如果有個「最古老企業」列表,一千五百年的歷史長河中…

  • of course it's going to have a few asterisks on it.

    當然會有些不完美的地方。

  • As for me...

    至於我…

  • I'm just going to go and take the waters.

    現在要去泡溫泉了。

  • When I became president of the business, as the first outsider,

    我成為公司社長時,作為第一個外人掌管者,

  • my predecessor said to me:

    前當家這麼對我說:

  • "Be the master of the ryokan, only."

    「做旅館的主人,僅此而已。」

  • "This is your job; do not be distracted."

    「心無旁騖的經營是你的職責。」

  • It's not quite a family motto, but the word have been passed down through generations.

    這不算是家族格言,但這些話代代相傳。

  • We have come this far because we've focused on just one thing,

    專心致志是我們能走到今日的原因,

  • only the ryokan business.

    全心全意,只有溫泉。

  • I believe that's one of the main reasons why it's continued for 1,300 years.

    我相信這就是這份事業能經營 1300 年的主要原因。

This story ended up being more complicated than I thought.

到頭來,這個故事比我想象的還複雜。

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