\n\u3000The famous phrase, \u201cI miss the old days – Ginza\u2019s willows\u201d reminds the listener of the willows that were burnt down in the Great Kanto Earthquake. The record was released in 1929 (Showa 4) and it is said that the song\u2019s hit gathered momentum for the restoration of Ginza\u2019s willow trees.\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n\u3000Saijo wrote several songs about Ginza including \u201cTosei Ginza-bushi\u201d and \u201cGinza no yanagi\u201d (about the restoration of the willow trees). This got me interested in Ginza\u2019s record stores. Spreading out the \u201cDainippon shokugyo-betsu meisai-zu: Kyobashi-ku (Detailed commercial map of Japan: Kyobashi-ku),\u201da map of stores in Ginza published in 1931 (Showa 6), just around the time \u201cTokyo Koshinkyoku\u201d was popular, I started with Ginza 1-chome and spotted Tsubame Records, the Columbia Phonograph Company, and other stores that were likely to have sold records back then. Yamano Music was also already on the map, in Ginza 4-chome. A frequent shopper since my early teens, I checked Yamano Music\u2019s corporate history on their website to find that the company was originally established as Matsumoto Music, a manufacturer of organs and pianos. It was in 1915 (Taisho 4) that it started business under the name Yamano Music. What interested me was the event introduced for the year 1928 (Showa 3), when that it became \u201cretailer (jobber) for Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. \u201cTosei Ginza-bushi\u201d was released in the same year, followed by \u201cTokyo Koshinkyoku\u201d the next year and \u201cGinza no yanagi\u201d in 1932. These songs were all sold by Victor, so I would imagine Yamano Music ran major campaigns to promote them. Perhaps, Chiyako Sato and Yaso Saijo, or maybe even Shinpei Nakayama, the composer showed up at the store events.
\n\u3000I wanted to interview Yamano Music to learn more and that is how the idea for the current volume originated, but I was told that all materials from before 1945 (Showa 20) were lost in the fires caused by air raids and that so much time had passed that no one would remember the events of the early Showa period.
\n\u3000Disappointed, I decided to change my approach. As I mentioned earlier, I first started to stop by Yamano Music when I was in junior high school, so I came up with a new idea to interview people who would be familiar with my place of teenage memories (mainly from the early 1970s).
\n\u3000Next to Wako Department Store, on the corner of Ginza 4-chome, stands Ginza Kimuraya, Yamano Music, and Mikimoto, unchanged from the map from the early Showa period. I found my way to the back of the first floor, walking through shelves of recent J-pop music and \u201cnew music\u201d that reminds me of my youth, displayed as if to compete against each other. I took the elevator in the back to the meeting room on the eighth floor. My interviewees were Vice President Susumu Ikeda and Mr. Yoshiharu Ishii, a former employee who had been in charge of floor sales for a long time. Vice President Ikeda joined the company in 1966, and Mr. Ishii, now 82 years old, had joined in 1956, the year I was born.
\n\u3000The store is famous for musical instruments, but to me, Yamano Music stands for the American and European music on LP. In my early teens, I would come to look for imported LPs of pop music that I had been inspired by, listening to midnight programs on the radio, as well as those of folk rock bands that I had learned of from my extreme friends. <\/div>\n
\n\u3000I wanted to interview Yamano Music to learn more and that is how the idea for the current volume originated, but I was told that all materials from before 1945 (Showa 20) were lost in the fires caused by air raids and that so much time had passed that no one would remember the events of the early Showa period.
\n\u3000Disappointed, I decided to change my approach. As I mentioned earlier, I first started to stop by Yamano Music when I was in junior high school, so I came up with a new idea to interview people who would be familiar with my place of teenage memories (mainly from the early 1970s).
\n\u3000Next to Wako Department Store, on the corner of Ginza 4-chome, stands Ginza Kimuraya, Yamano Music, and Mikimoto, unchanged from the map from the early Showa period. I found my way to the back of the first floor, walking through shelves of recent J-pop music and \u201cnew music\u201d that reminds me of my youth, displayed as if to compete against each other. I took the elevator in the back to the meeting room on the eighth floor. My interviewees were Vice President Susumu Ikeda and Mr. Yoshiharu Ishii, a former employee who had been in charge of floor sales for a long time. Vice President Ikeda joined the company in 1966, and Mr. Ishii, now 82 years old, had joined in 1956, the year I was born.
\n\u3000The store is famous for musical instruments, but to me, Yamano Music stands for the American and European music on LP. In my early teens, I would come to look for imported LPs of pop music that I had been inspired by, listening to midnight programs on the radio, as well as those of folk rock bands that I had learned of from my extreme friends. <\/div>\n
\n![\"\u5507\u306e\u58c1\u9762\u306e\u5916\u89b3\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Column_04_01.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nThe fa\u00e7ade depicting lips\u5507\u306e\u58c1\u9762\u306e\u5916\u89b3<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\u3000The fact that Yamano was very positive about importing import records is also discussed in \u201cGinza Hyakuten\u201d (August 1966 edition).
\n\u201cYamano Music is also focused on importing records. Many fans may be decided that they will only purchase import LPs, according to the store, it will take two months for American LPs and three to six months for European LPs to be delivered after placing orders.\u201d
\n\u3000Of course, it was a time when Japan did not yet have retail stores like Tower Records. I still remember that sensational feeling of making a small hole with my nails or scissors in the tightly sealed cellophane overwrap to peel it off. Then, the strong smell unique to import LPs made me feel for a moment that I had status.
\nMr. Ishii said, \u201cWhen I joined the company, Elvis Presley represented Western pop music. There was also Hawaiian music, American pop music and French pop music. Then came The Beatles.\u201d
\n\u3000The August 1966 edition of \u201cGinza Hyakuten\u201d also starts out as follows, reflecting the times:
\n\u201cThe Beatles typhoon came and went in a whisk, but their records are selling even better after their departure.\u201d
\n\u3000The year 1966 was the year Vice President Ikeda joined the company. The following year in 1967, Yamano Music built a new four-story (partly five-story) building. They showed me a picture of the building shortly after its opening and I was confident that this was the building that I first shopped at. However, the fa\u00e7ade was decorated with a peculiar collage of lips.
\n\u201cThis was part of our opening campaign. If I recall correctly, the lips were Judy Ongg\u2019s.\u201d
\n\u3000In 1966, Judy Ongg had just begun to be casted in a TV dramas like \u201cGu- choki-pa\u201d and music programs. Later that year, after The Beatles came, Japan welcomed a GS (Group Sounds) boom. Judy sang in many GS programs, too. They had a picture taken inside the store with panels of GS bands: the Wild Ones, The Tempters, The Edwards, The Spiders\u2026. I wondered if the picture was from around 1968 when they were most popular. Then I remembered Morinaga\u2019s globe-shaped advertisement on the roof the Fujikoshi Building that used to stand only a few buildings away from Yamano Music. There was a TV commercial where The Tempters stood side by side and sang on the ring that read \u201cMorinaga Chocolate.\u201d\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cYamano Music is also focused on importing records. Many fans may be decided that they will only purchase import LPs, according to the store, it will take two months for American LPs and three to six months for European LPs to be delivered after placing orders.\u201d
\n\u3000Of course, it was a time when Japan did not yet have retail stores like Tower Records. I still remember that sensational feeling of making a small hole with my nails or scissors in the tightly sealed cellophane overwrap to peel it off. Then, the strong smell unique to import LPs made me feel for a moment that I had status.
\nMr. Ishii said, \u201cWhen I joined the company, Elvis Presley represented Western pop music. There was also Hawaiian music, American pop music and French pop music. Then came The Beatles.\u201d
\n\u3000The August 1966 edition of \u201cGinza Hyakuten\u201d also starts out as follows, reflecting the times:
\n\u201cThe Beatles typhoon came and went in a whisk, but their records are selling even better after their departure.\u201d
\n\u3000The year 1966 was the year Vice President Ikeda joined the company. The following year in 1967, Yamano Music built a new four-story (partly five-story) building. They showed me a picture of the building shortly after its opening and I was confident that this was the building that I first shopped at. However, the fa\u00e7ade was decorated with a peculiar collage of lips.
\n\u201cThis was part of our opening campaign. If I recall correctly, the lips were Judy Ongg\u2019s.\u201d
\n\u3000In 1966, Judy Ongg had just begun to be casted in a TV dramas like \u201cGu- choki-pa\u201d and music programs. Later that year, after The Beatles came, Japan welcomed a GS (Group Sounds) boom. Judy sang in many GS programs, too. They had a picture taken inside the store with panels of GS bands: the Wild Ones, The Tempters, The Edwards, The Spiders\u2026. I wondered if the picture was from around 1968 when they were most popular. Then I remembered Morinaga\u2019s globe-shaped advertisement on the roof the Fujikoshi Building that used to stand only a few buildings away from Yamano Music. There was a TV commercial where The Tempters stood side by side and sang on the ring that read \u201cMorinaga Chocolate.\u201d\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n![\"\u30b0\u30eb\u30fc\u30d7\u30b5\u30a6\u30f3\u30ba\u6642\u4ee3\u306e\u5e97\u5185\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Column_04_02.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nInside the store during the \u201cGroup Sounds\u201d boom<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\u3000I started going to Yamano Music with my friends from school in 1969, when the Group Sounds began to lose popularity. Many of my friends at school lived in the Shitamachi area (in Ningyocho or Asakusa). Since I lived in the direction of Shinjuku, we would go home in opposite directions from Mita, where Keio Chutobu Junior High School was located. However, they would often have me get on the Toei Line with them to go to Ginza.
\n\u3000As I mentioned before, I would look for LPs of folk music and rock and roll music at Yamano Music. I remember purchasing Neil Young\u2019s \u201cAfter the Gold Rush\u201d and a few albums released by Chicago, with their logo on the cover. What I vividly remember from the store is a campaign that they held for a particular Japanese song. As in the photo of the store I introduced earlier, they displayed LPs of popular music from Japan as well as Europe and the U.S. on the first floor, and in a corner to the left of the entrance, they promoted debuting singers.
\n\u3000It was in the summer of our third year of junior high school that we encountered the campaign. The four of us were on the soccer team, if I remember correctly, one day during summer recess, we went to the store after soccer practice. Ginza-dori was a Hokosha Tengoku (Pedestrians\u2019 Paradise). The campaign that they were running was for a new artist named Junko Nakajima. We didn\u2019t even purchase her record and yet she gave us an autographed poster of a song called \u201cChiisana koi (A small love)\u201d and shook hands with us.
\n\u3000By the way, I recall that our main purpose of going to Ginza that day was to go to Mc Donald\u2019s (the first store in Japan) that had just opened on the Ginza-dori side of Ginza Mitsukoshi Department Store. According to my research, Mc Donald\u2019s opened on July 20 and Junko Nakajima\u2019s debut song was released on August 1, so it does make sense.
\n\u3000We purchased the hamburgers that we had always seen Wimpy eating as he walked in \u201cPopeye\u201d the cartoon and raced each other drinking milkshake as we strolled through the Hokosha Tengoku on Ginza-dori. Junko Nakamjima, who helped make my \u201cGinbura\u201d as a fifteen-year old a special event, later changed her name to Mari Natsuki and became a top star who have the spotlight in Yamano Music\u2019s popular Japanese music corner.\n<\/div>\n
\n\u3000As I mentioned before, I would look for LPs of folk music and rock and roll music at Yamano Music. I remember purchasing Neil Young\u2019s \u201cAfter the Gold Rush\u201d and a few albums released by Chicago, with their logo on the cover. What I vividly remember from the store is a campaign that they held for a particular Japanese song. As in the photo of the store I introduced earlier, they displayed LPs of popular music from Japan as well as Europe and the U.S. on the first floor, and in a corner to the left of the entrance, they promoted debuting singers.
\n\u3000It was in the summer of our third year of junior high school that we encountered the campaign. The four of us were on the soccer team, if I remember correctly, one day during summer recess, we went to the store after soccer practice. Ginza-dori was a Hokosha Tengoku (Pedestrians\u2019 Paradise). The campaign that they were running was for a new artist named Junko Nakajima. We didn\u2019t even purchase her record and yet she gave us an autographed poster of a song called \u201cChiisana koi (A small love)\u201d and shook hands with us.
\n\u3000By the way, I recall that our main purpose of going to Ginza that day was to go to Mc Donald\u2019s (the first store in Japan) that had just opened on the Ginza-dori side of Ginza Mitsukoshi Department Store. According to my research, Mc Donald\u2019s opened on July 20 and Junko Nakajima\u2019s debut song was released on August 1, so it does make sense.
\n\u3000We purchased the hamburgers that we had always seen Wimpy eating as he walked in \u201cPopeye\u201d the cartoon and raced each other drinking milkshake as we strolled through the Hokosha Tengoku on Ginza-dori. Junko Nakamjima, who helped make my \u201cGinbura\u201d as a fifteen-year old a special event, later changed her name to Mari Natsuki and became a top star who have the spotlight in Yamano Music\u2019s popular Japanese music corner.\n<\/div>\n
\nGinza Hyakuten runs a mini column on items bought or found by Mr. Izumi\u3000during his interviews for his monthly column \u201cGinbura Hyakunen.\u201d
\nGinza Hyakuten is available at member stores.
\nOr, have your personal copy delivered every month by subscription.
\nPlease refer to our website for details: http:\/\/www.hyakuten.or.jp\/<\/a>\n<\/div>\n
\nGinza Hyakuten is available at member stores.
\nOr, have your personal copy delivered every month by subscription.
\nPlease refer to our website for details: http:\/\/www.hyakuten.or.jp\/<\/a>\n<\/div>\n
\n![](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Column_izumi.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\n\u6cc9 \u9ebb\u4eba Asato Izumi<\/span><\/h4>\n
\u6cc9 \u9ebb\u4eba Asato Izumi<\/span><\/h4>\nBorn in Tokyo in 1956 (Showa 31).
\nAfter graduating from the Faculty of Commerce at Keio University, he joined Tokyo News Service, Ltd. While editing \u201cWeekly TV Guide\u201d he had articles published in Studio Voice and Popeye. In 1984, he became a freelance columnist and author. He has published many works on Tokyo, among which is Tokyo 23-ku Monogatari (the story of Tokoy\u2019s 23 wards). Kanreki Sharehouse (sharehouse at sixty) will be published soon. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u3000Last month, when I covered the Okuno Building in Ginza 1-chome, I mentioned that in its early days when it wa … Continue reading
\nAfter graduating from the Faculty of Commerce at Keio University, he joined Tokyo News Service, Ltd. While editing \u201cWeekly TV Guide\u201d he had articles published in Studio Voice and Popeye. In 1984, he became a freelance columnist and author. He has published many works on Tokyo, among which is Tokyo 23-ku Monogatari (the story of Tokoy\u2019s 23 wards). Kanreki Sharehouse (sharehouse at sixty) will be published soon. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n