In the future, when some oddly inclined academic sits down to pen the definitive history of the broom in Japan, several key years will stand out like piles of dust littering the corridors of time. One of them could be 2009.
But before the historian's saga sweeps into our eco-minded and econo-chastened 21st century, it will first have to revisit the year 680. That was when, as Tokyo broom-seller Junichi Takano informed me last week, there was the first recorded mention of the broom in this country.
"The term hahaki is used in the 'Kojiki' ('Record of Ancient Matters')," Takano said. "That was what they called a hoki (broom) at the time."