The Spread and Development of Jazz in Pre-War Nagoya (3): A History of the Dance Craze and the Battle Over Regulation (Part 5)
(Continued from the previous installment)
The Sudden Order to Close Dance Halls
On April 9, 1928 (Showa 3), the Nagoya Shimbun reported the first news that Aichi Prefecture Governor Obata would carry out the closure of dance halls, under the headline "Ban on Dancing: Eradication of Dancing Halls."
Recently, dancing has become extremely popular in Nagoya, and there are already more than three grand dancing halls in the city. Every night, modern boys gather in droves, embracing beautiful dancers and losing themselves in sweet, dreamy pleasures. This trend is exerting a tremendous influence, attempting to seduce young men and women, including those from the gentleman class, and is creating an undesirable situation regarding public morals. Therefore, Aichi Prefecture Governor Obata has decided to resolutely carry out the eradication of dancing halls from the perspective of social morality. He reached this decision on the 9th and will immediately investigate the actual situation to take concrete measures. Regarding this, Governor Obata speaks with indignation: "Recently, because they were banned in Osaka and Kobe, that crowd has flowed into our Nagoya. There is a limit to how much they can look down on Aichi Prefecture. What do they think I am doing here?"
"It is absolutely unforgivable for bobbed-hair girls to run wild, and for modern boys in sailor pants, red ties, and silk handkerchiefs to be dancing while embracing each other in high spirits. For Japanese girls to have beautiful black hair and yet imitate foreigners by bobbing it is something that harms the essence of our nation."
He is in a formidable mood. Furthermore, Police Chief Ochiai, acting on the Governor's orders, inspected the 'Vina' Dancing Hall on the night of the 7th and reported on the actual situation.
Toyoji Obata, the Governor of Aichi Prefecture, was a man feared as a 'demon prosecutor' who, in 1912 (the first year of Taisho), was in charge of the investigation into the bribery case involving the relocation of the Osu Asahi pleasure district to Inanaga Shinden, which led to the indictment of 25 people, including the then-Governor of Aichi Prefecture and major figures in the business world. What Obata took issue with was the fact that dancers were flowing into Nagoya one after another from Osaka, Kyoto, and other places where the ban on dancing had become strict. Driven by a sense of crisis that leaving things as they were would disrupt public order and morals, he attempted to close the dance halls and drive these dancers out of Nagoya.
April 10, 1928 (Showa 3), Nagoya Shimbun, Evening Edition
Acting on the Governor's orders, the Aichi Prefecture Security Division ordered the Chief of the Shin-Sakae Police Station, which had the Vina Dance Club and the Showa Dance Research Institute under its jurisdiction, and the Chief of the Sasajima Police Station, which had the Nakamura Dancing Club under its jurisdiction, to issue warnings for the immediate closure of the dance halls on April 9. That same day, the Shin-Sakae station summoned the managers of both the Vina and Showa dance halls and warned them, 'It is not good for public morals, so how about closing the halls starting tonight?' The manager of the Vina Dance Club, shocked by this bolt from the blue, spoke to the press, unable to hide his bewilderment, as follows:
I am at a complete loss for words and am just standing here stunned. In places like Osaka, they were banned after repeated warnings, but I think this sudden order without a single prior warning is too cruel. However, we were cautioning each other to ensure there was no behavior that would disturb public morals. Even when we asked them to tell us if there was some reason why it was not allowed, the police would not say anything and just gave a strict order that it would be better to stop. Our hall just moved to this Riku Building from Osu recently, and we have spent over 3,000 yen on this hall alone. If it was going to be like this, why couldn't they have warned us sooner? We, and of course the dancers, will be in trouble starting tomorrow. I cannot even cry.
Similarly, the manager of the Showa Dance Research Institute commented as follows:
We have been closed since the 27th of last month, and as you can see, the hall is under renovation. Today, I even went to Kyoto to hire three or four dancers. As the name suggests, this hall is a membership-based dance research institute, so I wonder what it means to tell us to stop even the members' research. In the first place, there are no regulatory clauses in the prefectural ordinances regarding these dancing halls, which are a product of the new era, and they are not treated as a business. In what way is it bad for public morals? It is true that the idea of young girls and men dancing might be thought of as strange, but it is not as unhealthy as it is conceptually thought of from the outside. Regarding the conduct of the dancers, we were supervising them strictly, more than parents supervise their children. We are truly in trouble.
The fact that the Showa Dance Research Institute was also in the middle of hall renovations at this time might mean that, like the Vina Dance Club, they were planning to introduce jazz band performance equipment. One can sense their resentment at the sudden closure order amidst such circumstances.
Let us also introduce the statement from the manager of the Nakamura Dancing Club.
This hall is being operated as preparation for opening stage dances like those at Takarazuka, as the Nakamura Radium Hot Spring will be built in the future. This hall is owned by Nagoya Land, and prominent businessmen in the city are special members, so we intend to pay special attention to the issue of public morals and strive to ensure there are no points that could be criticized. And yet, why must we receive a warning of prohibition?
From all these statements, it is clear that the instruction to close the dance halls was a sudden event without any warning. Moreover, as the manager of the Showa Dance Research Institute stated, there were no regulatory rules regarding dance halls, and thus it can be seen that the police were unable to clearly explain the reasons or grounds for the closure. In other words, it was an unreasonable demand, and since there was little logic to force a closure, the strategy was to take the form of a warning to encourage voluntary closure.
Vina and Showa, having received the warning, managed to get permission to operate for that day due to the suddenness of the request, and reached an agreement with the police to close temporarily starting the following day, the 10th. As for the Nakamura Dance Club, they received a closure order from the local Sasajima Police Station later, on the 11th. However, although the Vina Dance Club accepted the temporary closure, on the night of the 10th, the manager took the dancers to meet with the Chief of the Shin-Sakae Police Station and was granted a 10-day grace period until closure on the grounds that they were in trouble regarding what to do with the many dancers. The Nakamura Dancing Club also obtained permission for a grace period until the end of the month for the same reason. The Showa Dance Research Institute, being in the middle of a suspension for hall renovations, had no room to obtain a grace period from the start. With this, all dance halls in Nagoya met their end during the month of April.
The newspaper reports that the Vina Dance Club held a grand farewell dance party on the 20th, their final day of operation.
The Bina Club dance hall, located in the Riku Building in Higashishin-machi, Naka Ward, which was ordered to close after the 20th, will hold its final grand dance party from 6:00 PM that day as a farewell, and since they say you can dance to your heart's content for a 2-yen admission fee, it will likely be a very grand event. The club was the first of its kind to open within the jurisdiction of the Monzen Police Station in Nagoya, and despite facing numerous pressures since then, it has continued to this day and has been celebrated as a paradise for the 'mobo' (modern boys).
From this point on, throughout the pre-war period, Nagoya became a land where dance halls were prohibited. For the Bina Dance Club and the Showa Dance Research Institute, this happened just as they had installed jazz bands and were about to be reborn as full-fledged dance halls, so one can imagine how regrettable this must have been.
Less than a year after the first dance hall was opened, dance halls in Nagoya had vanished, but the name 'Bina' lived on; four years later, in 1932 (Showa 7), the 'Bina Dance Orchestra,' which had been the exclusive jazz band for the Bina Dance Club, appeared on a radio program. Although that, too, was eventually forgotten, it is a historical fact worth remembering that there was a time before the war when dance culture blossomed in Nagoya as well.
(April 6, 1932 (Showa 7), 'Shin Aichi')
The Beginning of Crackdowns on Cafés
Although dance halls in Nagoya were wiped out, dancing itself was not prohibited. The writer Shiro Kunieda, who lived in Shin-Maiko on the outskirts of Nagoya at the time and was known as a dance fanatic, stated in 'Hyoman Nagoya' that even after the dance hall ban, dancing in member-based organizations at restaurants like the second floor of Higashizushi, Asahiken, and Corner Nabeya was overlooked for a while. Additionally, on January 4, 1929 (Showa 4), a dance party hosted by the Sawa Morino Dance Troupe was held at the Nagoya Hotel Entertainment Hall.
To clearly play the march of the Nagoya social scene for the New Year of Showa 4, the Sawa Morino Dance Troupe will host, with the support of the Nagoya Hotel, an 'Evening of Dance and Jazz' at the hotel's entertainment hall starting at 6:00 PM on the 4th of January. The performers will be Morino Sawa, Hiroshi Nemoto, Aya Sawa, Katsuko Sawa, Hiroshi Shimada, and over a dozen other dancers. The program consists of each performer presenting their specialty dance poems, dances, and performances until 8:30 PM, followed by an hour of tea time mingling with the attending members, and from 9:30 PM, they plan to dance the night away to a lively jazz band until 11:00 PM. It is a fitting plan for the New Year, and since such a fun and large-scale gathering is a first for Nagoya, the night will surely manifest a great scene of revelry (omitted).
(August 25, 1933 (Showa 8), 'Nagoya Shimbun')
However, the authorities, claiming that services involving dancing with customers were being conducted even in restaurants, began to strengthen crackdowns, especially on cafés, which were considered the hotbed of such activities. On April 28, 1928 (Showa 3), when the closure of dance halls was in sight, the Shin-ei Police Station summoned the managers of 35 cafés within its jurisdiction. They announced that the Regulations for the Control of Restaurants and Eateries, which had not previously been applied to cafés, would now also cover them, and notified them that business permits would not be granted if lighting and ventilation inside the shops were insufficient, and that waitresses would also be required to obtain licenses as hostesses.
Furthermore, it is said that in Osaka, after dance halls were completely banned, cafés took over their role as workplaces for jazz bands. In Nagoya, from 1928 (Showa 3) to 1929 (Showa 4), cafés that held jazz band performances inside their shops included Osu Shokudo [Note 1] and Seieiken in front of Tsuruma Park [Note 2], but the most famous was 'Parisien' in Atsuta Temma-cho.
(From the author's collection)
The Jazz of Parisien and Its Demise
Parisien was a café opened on December 28, 1928 (Showa 3) in Atsuta Temma-cho by Kozaburo Kato, who had been running the Minami Shokudo across the street. Kozaburo Kato was a figure who led the pre-war Nagoya café scene, starting with the opening of Minami Shokudo, a pioneer of Nagoya cafés, in 1923 (Taisho 12), and going on to manage many cafés such as Salon Ginza, Palace Monaco, and Metropolitan [Note 3]. Like Minami Shokudo, Parisien claimed to be a French-style bar and made listening to top-class jazz band performances its selling point. According to a newspaper advertisement at the time of opening, the members of the Parisien jazz band were as follows.
Piano: Kiyotada Nagai
Violin: Kotaro Ozawa
Saxophone: Suzuo Kojima
Saxophone: Yutaka Okuno
Banjo: Yoshiyuki Goto
Drums: Yonezaburo Suzuki
Cornet: Meihou Hirate
Cornet: Mutsu Watanabe
Trombone: Harumitsu Nishie
Regarding these members, there is no one who can be identified by name. There are stories that they were brought from Osaka, and I also think they might be pseudonyms for musicians from Nagoya movie theaters [Note 4], but the details remain shrouded in mystery.
(December 25, 1928 (Showa 3), 'Nagoya Shimbun')
The jazz band performances at Parisien attracted considerable attention and became a topic of conversation for a long time. It is said that when they played 'Habu no Minato,' 'Arabian Song,' 'Valencia,' or 'Hoo' upon customer request, tips of ten or twenty yen would fly [Note 5]. At times, they would invite top-class jazz bands from Shanghai [Note 6], and it was very lively as a music bar representing Nagoya.
(Nagoya Shimbun, February 17, 1929)
However, the security authorities also extended their regulatory reach to jazz band performances in cafes. On May 16, 1929, the Aichi Prefectural Security Division established regulatory policies for cafes, coffee shops, and restaurants, and notified each police station in Nagoya the following day. The regulatory policies were as follows.
1. Matters concerning business premises
(A) Business hours shall be until 12:00 midnight; however, this does not apply in cases of special circumstances.
(B) Establishments with strange or unusual trade names shall be required to change them.
(C) The area of the business premises shall be at least three tsubo, and the combined use of tatami-mat seating shall not be permitted as much as possible.
(D) The number of tables within the business premises shall be at a ratio of no more than one per tsubo.
(E) In cases where booths (individual seats) are provided, they shall be within one-third of the area of the mixed seating, and no partitions or the like shall be placed between them and the mixed seating.
(F) The interior of the business premises shall be kept bright enough to read a newspaper by light or electric lamp, and the lighting shall be white.
(G) A price list for food and drinks shall be displayed on tables or in a visible place within the business premises.
(H) No music rooms, dance floors, or the like shall be created.
(I) Establishments deemed to have insufficient ventilation shall be required to install ventilators.
(J) Basements of buildings and rooms on the second floor or above shall not be used as bars as much as possible.
2. Matters concerning waitresses
(A) The number of waitresses shall be at a ratio of no more than one for every two tables.
(B) Waitresses who have previously worked as prostitutes, dancers, etc., shall not be licensed.
(C) Waitresses shall not be allowed to commute as much as possible; however, for those who do commute, the business owner must obtain approval from the business premises (excluding those commuting from their own homes).
(D) Waitresses shall not be allowed to go out accompanied by customers.
(E) Waitresses shall not be shared between main branches, branch stores, or other locations.
(F) Acts that may disturb public morals, such as dancing, shall be prohibited within the business premises.
(G) Waitresses shall not be allowed to wear strange clothing and shall be required to wear white aprons.
(H) A register of waitresses shall be kept on the premises.
The content of these regulatory policies can be said to be a more detailed version of the notification issued in April of the previous year. As a result, the cafe atmosphere—a hallmark of Nagoya's cafes, where one could quietly chat in dimly lit rooms with waitresses in glamorous Western-style clothing—was completely lost, and dancing in cafes and restaurants, which Shiro Kunieda described as being "overlooked," was also eliminated [Note 7]. In particular, the rule "No music rooms, dance floors, or the like shall be created" made even the jazz band performances within shops, which had been permitted in Osaka, impossible, imposing extremely strict limitations.
Following this regulatory policy, the jazz band performances at Parisian were soon discontinued. The same must have been true for other cafes. The role of the jazz band at Parisian was replaced by a phonograph, and the newspaper reported on the subsequent state of Parisian, including recollections of the time when the jazz band was performing actively, as follows.
(Omitted) It was only recently that the orchestra band disappeared from Parisian due to the authorities' crackdown. At the same time, it seems that major internal renovations were carried out, and the traces of that are vividly visible, and it has been renovated in a cramped manner.
Actually, back when that orchestra was there, I was stunned by the musicians, who looked just like those in the movies, playing their instruments with busy gestures without even a moment to moisten their throats with coffee. I wondered what was the point of making such a big fuss in such a small place.
What appeared in its place is the Victor, which is second to none in terms of being noisy. The records of popular songs go round and round without knowing where to end; it would not be a mistake to say that the air at Parisian is composed of this and the chorus of drunks. (Omitted)
(Shin Aichi, August 21, 1929)
With jazz band performances not only in dance halls but also in cafes being prohibited, the only places left in Nagoya city where jazz could be performed were movie theaters. Even those movie theaters, with the advent of talkies, soon began laying off musicians, and the places to perform jazz in front of people were lost one after another. Although there were opportunities to perform jazz on record recordings and radio programs, they were only managed by gathering musicians each time, and the soil for cultivating professional jazz bands did not grow. It can be said that this is the reason why jazz culture did not develop in pre-war Nagoya as it did in Tokyo and the Kansai region.
Nagoya became a region where one could neither dance nor perform jazz satisfactorily, but no matter how much the regulations were strengthened, the desires of those who wanted to dance could not be suppressed. For some time to come, a fierce tug-of-war would continue between those seeking the lifting of the dance ban and the regulatory authorities.
(This installment continues to ⑥)
[Note 1] A cafe exploration report published in the Nagoya Shimbun on December 14, 1928, states: "A man was touching a two-go bottle at a table in the corner of the Osu Cafeteria, and was finally carried away by the melody of Nagoya's only cafe jazz band, raising his voice in a gravelly tone."
[Note 2] An advertisement for Seieiken in the Nagoya Shimbun on February 10, 1929, states: "First-class jazz band and trio performance, every evening at 6:00 for two days on the 10th and 11th."
[Note 3] Kozaburo Kato started a cafe business in Nagoya, influenced by his experiences seeing cabarets and cafes in Europe and America while working as a steward for Nippon Yusen on overseas routes. In addition to cafes, he managed Chinese restaurants such as Shanghailou and Nisshinso, the Western-style restaurant Grill Scott, and Suihoen, a high-class Japanese-style restaurant created by purchasing the former residence of Kinnosuke Jinno, and contributed to the development of the industry by holding key positions in industry organizations even after the war.
[Note 4] Musicians at movie theaters in Nagoya sometimes used different names depending on the band they participated in or the venue. For example, it is not impossible to infer that Kotaro Ozawa was a pseudonym for Kurataro Onozawa (Shochiku-za), Yoshiyuki Goto for Yoshiyuki Goto (Chitose Theater), Yutaka Okuno for Yutaka Okumura (Sekai-kan), Kiyotada Nagai for Tadao Nagai (Sekai-kan), and Shuho Hirate for Shiho Hirayama (Sekai-kan), but there is no definitive proof.
[Note 5] Nagoya Shimbun, September 6, 1936
[Note 6] According to the introductory article "The Great Development of Parisian" in the Nagoya Shimbun on February 5, 1929, a first-class jazz band was invited from Shanghai starting February 1, and on the 4th, they appeared at the Shinmori-za as the Parisian Jazz Band troupe, gaining great popularity.
[Note 7] Kunieda himself was picked up by the police for dancing in the shop with over 20 customers in the heat of being drunk at Corner Nabeya on November 20, 1929, and for dancing with a waitress at Nami-koshi Kaikan on April 12, 1932.
<Headline Image>
Shin Aichi, June 26, 1927, "Impressions of Osaka!" illustration (Art by Oten Shimokawa)
<References>
Aichi Prefectural Police History Compilation Committee (ed.), "History of the Aichi Prefectural Police, Vol. 2," 1973, Aichi Prefectural Police Headquarters, National Diet Library Digital Collection
Yonosuke Shima (ed.), "Million Nagoya," 1932, Nagoya Cultural Association
"New Japan Economy, Vol. 17, August Issue," August 1953, Shin Nihon Keizai-sha, National Diet Library Digital Collection
Tsunetoshi Mizoguchi (ed.), "Walking Through Aichi's Taisho and Pre-War Showa Eras," 2023, Fubaisha
Shin Aichi Shimbun-sha, "Shin Aichi"
Nagoya Shimbun-sha, "Nagoya Shimbun"