A Japanese salaryman leaves his office late at night, exhausted from the grueling hours. He’s running on very little sleep. The night air is cold, and the train station is not too far away. But he turns in the opposite direction, through the labyrinthine alleyways of Tokyo—he has one stop in mind before heading home. He walks a couple of blocks to a small establishment that one could very easily miss. He opens the door and is embraced by warmth and the steady lull of music on vinyl. The owner greets him, and he takes a seat at the bar. He’ll have the usual, he says. He takes a sip of his beer. The rhythm from the record player eventually takes him away, into a trance he shares with the few other patrons who had also come in to enjoy the magic that is jazz.

“Maybe that’s their one moment of freedom,” says Tony Higgins of BBE music in an interview with Philip Arneill, the photographer behind Tokyo Jazz Joints, a project that captures these unique establishments. Arneill, an Irish photographer who lived in Tokyo for 19 years, was not only drawn to the charm of jazz bars, but also worried about their longevity. “The original raison d’être for the project was that jazz joints were disappearing all over the country, due to rising rent, aging owners, and a dwindling customer base,” he says.

Arneill first discovered this subculture of jazz bars and cafés when he visited Hello Dolly, a jazz bar in Kyoto. He immediately knew he’d found something unique that he needed to document. He called up his friend James Catchpole, a broadcaster and writer based in Yokohama, with the idea for the photo series. At the time, Catchpole ran the Tokyo Jazz Site, a blog indexing every jazz-related establishment in the Tokyo area, which proved indispensable as Arneill plotted his itinerary. The venue that kicked off the project was Pithecanthropus Erectus in Tokyo’s Kamata district, which they photographed back in 2015. Since then, the duo has documented over 160 different establishments throughout the country. Their genuine respect for jazz may be why they’ve never been refused to photograph a bar.

The duo plan on publishing a photography book with the best of the project once they pass the 200 mark. Though Arneill is now based in Dublin, he is planning a few upcoming trips back to Japan to document 50 to 60 more locations.

Jazz arrived in Japan after the First World Two and was very popular in the 1920s and 1930s, until it was outlawed during the Second World War. After the war, Japan’s occupation by U.S. forces revived the genre. Many jazz bars that opened at the time were even dedicated to specific artists. The most notable may be Basie, named after the legendary American musician William James “Count” Basie. The current owner, Shoji “Swifty” Sugawara, has collected over 10,000 jazz LPs and, countless items of Basie memorabilia. He even became good friends with the man himself—a portrait that Sugawara took of Basie still hangs in the venue today.

“Every jazz joint is different, and that always makes for exciting visits,” says Arneill . “It’s very hard to categorize concisely, but I would say the quintessential jazz bar features are a very high-end sound system with large bespoke handmade speakers, vinyl of course, and a simple menu that consists of coffee and/or alcohol.” He also notes that the sound system is often placed in a central location, which is  an arrangement similar to the structure of most Japanese shrines.

Arneill captures the establishments as they are, without flash or additional lighting. This can sometimes be challenging, as many of these places are dark and open only in the evening. He says he’s gotten more confident over time in documenting each location, which requires not only photographic skill but also the ability to make chit-chat with the owners. Through his conversations, he’s come to better understand how these places have aged, how the spaces reflect the owners’ personalities, and how they’re influenced by the surrounding neighborhood: “The bars very much represent a subculture now, as many Japanese are unaware of their existence, or have never visited one.” He notes that there is little incentive for owners’ children to carry on the family businesses because of the odd working hours and minimal profits.

Japanese jazz bar owners would be more keen to pass on their businesses to another generation if they knew how incredibly rare their spaces are. Arneill says that owners are often surprised when he tells them that in their particular form such places exist only in Japan. “It’s ironic that so many of these places are vanishing, as there now seems to be a trend in other countries for vinyl-centered listening bars, many of which take the whole look and style from Japanese bars.” He mentions Spiritland in London and Rhinoceros in Berlin as examples.

Not long after the Second World War, a fledgling pianist found herself in Chigusa, a famous jazz bar in Yokohama. At first she detested the genre, but after a record collector played Teddy Wilson’s “Sweet Lorraine” for her, she changed her mind. She sought out the only place she could listen to more, returning again and again, asking the owner to replay a particular section from her favorite albums or recommend new music. Toshiko Akiyoshi’s love for jazz deepened, and she went on to become one of the most influential jazz pianists of all time.

In the years to come, the only trace of what salarymen or aspiring musicians felt in these niche establishments may be relegated to photos like Arneill’s. The chatter of drunken conversation and the communal experience of listening to your favorite records in a room filled with like-minded jazz lovers is impossible to replicate in a still image, but as more of these bars and cafes begin shutting their doors, Arneill’s photography serves as a time capsule of sorts, preserving their memories.

A selection of prints from the project will be on exhibition at the Rhinoçéros jazz bar in Berlin from June 7th to June 29th.

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Website: www.tokyojazzjoints.com
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Contributor: Eugene Lee