\nAlthough there is no longer a subway station called \u201cNishiginza,\u201d the name remains with \u201cNishi Ginza,\u201d a shopping mall beneath the elevated highway. It is a part of a larger commercial establishment, which is divided into several blocks, with the block in 5-chome, behind Taimei Elementary School, called \u201cGinza Five,\u201d and the block spreading across 3-chome and 1-chome, \u201cGinza Inz.\u201d The only block whose name has not been changed its since its opening is Nishi Ginza in 4-chome (Ginza Five used to be called \u201cSukiyabashi Shopping Center\u201d and Ginza Inz was called \u201cYuraku Food Center\u201d), and in that sense, too, the shopping mall brings back old memories.\n<\/div>\n
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<\/p>\n\nIt was in 1953 (Showa 28) that the project to fill in the Sotobori-gawa River running below Sukiyabashi Bridge and construct a highway. I was surprised, as had thought it was a more recent project. Therefore, Kimino-na-wa (Your Name) (a soap drama starring Keiji Sata and Keiko Kishi), which was sensationally popular 1952 and 1953, was staged in Sukiyabashi Bridge in its last days.
\nReading Masaichi\u2019s book, the following excerpt was an eye-opener.
\n\u201cWe had initially planned to construct a much larger building. It was supposed to be a twelve-story building with four basement floors, which would all be used as a garage [\u201cgarage\u201d according to the original text, but perhaps warehouse]. The first and second floors above ground would be parking space, the next two floors would have a two-lane highway running through them (!), and the upper floors would have offices.\u201d
\nIt was called the \u201cSky Building Plan.\u201d If a long building resembling the Great Wall of China had been constructed in the former Sotobori-gawa River area, the landscape of the western side of Ginza would have been significantly different from what it is today.\n<\/div>\n
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<\/p>\n\nKyukyodo, Motoki, Midoriya, Erien, Oonoya, Bunmeido, Seigetsudo, West, Tenichi, Homeishun\u2026 I also found a \u201cNishi Ginza News Caf\u00e9.\u201d
\nAn introduction of the caf\u00e9 says \u201cUnwind and watch the news drinking coffee or juice,\u201d so I would imagine that they showed newsreels on a large screen.
\nThe coffee shop \u201cBridge\u201d, which is still in business today, had a copy that said \u201cPaid Waiting Room\u201d followed by a description of \u201cvarious melodies to be heard through your personal earphones.\u201d Therefore, this shop must have specialized in music. \u201cBridge\u201d is famous as the shop that Kuniko Mukoda used for meetings.\n<\/div>\n
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<\/p>\n\u3000Enjoying night and day
\n\u3000Famous stores welcome you at Nishi Ginza
\n\u3000Introducing a new stylish way
\n\u3000After Sukiyabashi Bridge and attracting the talk of the town<\/p>\n
They might have had a lady make such commercial announcements out to the streets, and it is evidence that the Nishiginza area was the trendy spot of Ginza at the time. The highway (Tokyo Highway) running above the building was partially opened between Dobashi (Ginza 8-chome) and Johenbashi (Ginza 1-chome) the following year in June 1959 (Showa 34). Toward the end of 1957 (Showa 32), Nishiginza Station of the Marunouchi Line opened, and in 1958 (Showa 33), Nagai Frank released \u201cNishiginza ekimae (In front of Nishiginza Station)\u201d as a sequel to his earlier song \u201cYurakucho de aimasho (Let\u2019s meet in Yurakucho).\u201d The song was arranged into a movie released by Nikkatsu. Nishiginza had become quite a popular area when Nishi Ginza opened.
\nWhen I was compiling a book of intriguing articles that had been published in the Tokyo edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, I found an article in the January 13, 1961 paper titled,
\n\u201cNo Pedestrian Entry. Who cares? The highway is an observation deck.\u201d The article was accompanied by a photograph of Nishi Ginza taken from Yurakucho (probably the Asahi Shimbun building) and the lines: <\/p>\n
The highway running over the roof of Nishi Ginza: the perfect spot to view Ginza\u2019s townscape, Shin-Sukiyabashi is clustered with people on a sunny weekend. With people standing there after parking and people walking up just to see the waves of people, sometimes the highway is busier with people crossing than it is with cars.\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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<\/p>\n\nI recall seeing somewhere, celebrity portrait photographs of Nikkatsu movie stars, Yujiro Ishihara and Asahi Kobayashi, posing in front of imported cars parked in this area.
\nAs indicated in the article, even after the highway was constructed, there must have been few cars in th streets. The highway was an \u201cobservation deck\u201d as the title notes, and most nightscapes of Ginza then were taken from the spot.
\nIn an album that they showed me at the office of Nishi Ginza (located inside the Tsukamoto Suyama Building across Nishi Ginza Street), I found a few pictures of celebrities playing storeowner for the day at an event celebrating the fifth anniversary of the establishment in 1963 (Showa 38). The photos showed Nana Kinomi, Kayoko Moriyama, Sanpei Hayashiya and boxer Hiroyuki Ebihara, celebrities who would often appeared on T.V. just when became a T.V. fan. It was when was in first or second grade, when I was happy being treated to a pudding or chocolate sundae next door, at Fujiya.
\nIt might also have been around then that Nippon Broadcasting launched a satellite studio facing the small square on the Ginza side of the building. Then, a Takarakuji lottery ticket booth moved from Nihon Gekijo and is known as the Nishiginza Chance Center today. Another old store is the Sanrio store which has covered quite a large floor area from the 1980s. Including the Sanrio store, most of the stores carry items for women. \u3000
\nNishi Ginza offered many ladies\u2019 stores from the beginning, but I have heard that the \u201cNishi Ginza News Caf\u00e9\u201d and \u201cBridge\u201d were used by journalists from Asahi Shimbun to write or deliver their articles.
\nAfter the interview, I went to \u201cBridge\u201d on the basement floor. I asked the waitress where Kuniko Mukoda used to sit and ordered a glass of iced coffee. Looking around, rugged-faced newspaper journalists were not to be seen, now that the newspaper was no longer in the area. Instead, there were two or three groups of young girls.
\nGlimpsing at their table, I could observe that they were not having tea or coffee, but a green round something\u2026 It must be the \u201cmelon pancake\u201d on the top of the menu. It had a half-circle shape and the grid-like lines of a cantaloupe. It was indeed the \u201cinstagrammable\u201d pancake.
\nIt was not the kind of item that a 62-year old man would ordinarily order, but I felt somewhat relieved to see that a coffee shop that has survived sixty years since the opening of the building was adapting to the \u201cnew stylish way\u201d of the times\n<\/div>\n
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There is a special place in my heart for \u201cNishiginza.\u201d I should note that \u201cNishiginza\u201d is not an address found … Continue reading