The Spread and Development of Jazz in Pre-War Nagoya (2): On Cinema Music—Osu Sekaikan and Kozo Akasaka (Part 3)
(Continued from the previous issue)
The Success of the Sekaikan Jazz Band
Following their first performance on June 10, 1926 (Taisho 15), the Sekaikan Jazz Band held their second jazz band performance on July 8, and on August 4, they performed three foxtrots—"Who," "Harmonirada," and "Silver-Shining Stream"—on a JOCK radio broadcast. It is believed that they continued to build practical experience through intermission music and radio appearances, mastering jazz performance techniques and feeling. In the movie column of the Nagoya Shimbun on July 19, 1927 (Showa 2), a fan letter was published comparing the music at Sekaikan to jazz, in contrast to the Chitose Theater and Minato-za, which were known for their music among Nagoya's permanent theaters.
Three-Theater Music Review: Chitose—Feels like a quiet serenade; while it has a slightly high-class air, it is truly a first-class theater with the composure, dignity, and authority expected of one. Sekaikan—Feels like cheerful jazz; its popular appeal is this theater's strength. The Japanese-Western ensemble and medleys are all good, and it is likely the best of the three in terms of song selection. Minato—Has a relaxed, theatrical, Japanese feel; the sentiment of the shamisen, which is appropriate for period dramas, is delightful. It is perfect for a family movie outing, offering relaxed and friendly music.
Furthermore, movies at this time increasingly incorporated the customs of trendy cafes, bars, and dance halls, and the accompaniment by the Sekaikan Jazz Band likely played a major role in adding color to these cinematic worlds. In the Shochiku Kamata film "Modern Wife Reform" (directed by Yoshinobu Ikeda, starring Sumiko Kurishima), released in August 1927 (Showa 2), there is a scene featuring a Filipino jazz band [Note 1], and it is said that the accompaniment by the Sekaikan Jazz Band was highly effective in that scene [Note 2].
(August 19, 1927 (Showa 2), Nagoya Shimbun)
Then, in April 1928 (Showa 3), the following year, the "Dotonbori March," which had been performed at the Osaka Shochiku-za and caused a huge boom, came to the Nagoya Shochiku-za. The "Dotonbori March" was a short play by the Yoshiko Okada troupe performed during movie intermissions, and the theme song "Dotonbori March" (lyrics by Shigesaburo Hibi, music by Seihachi Shiojiri) became such a massive hit that it spread the popularity of jazz nationwide at once, and it also became an opportunity for jazz to be recognized by the general public in Nagoya [Note 3].
(April 3, 1928 (Showa 3), Nagoya Shimbun)
At the exact same time as this Nagoya Shochiku-za performance, the film version of "Dotonbori March" (directed by Hotei Nomura, starring Chieko Matsui), produced by Shochiku Kamata, was being screened at Sekaikan. While this was likely a bandwagon business tactic capitalizing on the popularity of the Dotonbori March, Aoto Tonoshima of the Nagoya Shimbun, after watching both the live performance at the Shochiku-za and the film version, gave the edge to the film version, and in particular, gave the highest praise to the role played by Kozo Akasaka in the accompaniment.
Kamata's "Dotonbori March"—How could such a vacuous Shinpa play be made, and yet how could it so well capture the contemporary cafe mood in a cinematic way... (omitted) Even in such moments, Sekaikan conductor Mr. Kozo Akasaka, with sweat dripping from his armpits and forehead, conducts the band, which had been reduced to eight members for cost-cutting, as if beating them with his baton, stroking them gently, or suddenly narrowing his eyes like a cat basking in the sun when he looks at them with a sharp gaze, coaxing them with gestures like "good boy, good boy," arms spread wide, standing stiffly, changing in a thousand ways, exhausting all his secret techniques—the music that emerges is the sorrowful melody of the Dotonbori March! This is what I dare to highlight. What a great director Kozo Akasaka is; even for the accompaniment of a mediocre little song film, his obsession and master-craftsman spirit erupt like a great oil gusher appearing in the dreams of an oil tycoon. One wonders if Hotei Nomura made this picture with Kozo Akasaka's presence firmly in mind; it is so convincing that one feels it must be true. The "Dotonbori March" owes more to Kozo Akasaka's accompaniment than Owari Nagoya owes to its castle. Moreover, since Kozo Akasaka does not rely on the "Dotonbori March" itself, he is a master director.
Even if we discount Tonoshima's favoritism toward Akasaka, there was likely no one in Nagoya better at jazz than Kozo Akasaka to breathe new life into the "Dotonbori March," which was nothing more than a trivial little song film. In that sense, it can be said that it was fated for this film to be screened at Sekaikan. Moreover, the level of emotion that led people to say the film "Dotonbori March" was made for Kozo Akasaka was something only the citizens of Nagoya, where Akasaka was, could experience, and I even wonder if this film would have been given such high praise outside of Nagoya.
Even so, what was the performance of the Sekaikan orchestra led by Kozo Akasaka, which excited Tonoshima so much, actually like? It would have been nice if there were recordings of the Sekaikan Orchestra by the local Asahi Phonograph (Tsuru Record), but as far as I have seen, they do not exist, and it is a pity that they cannot be confirmed.
Hofukukan Orchestra
Around this time, Akasaka served not only as the conductor at Sekaikan but also as the conductor at the Hofukukan in Nagoya's Endoji district. The Hofukukan was opened on October 31, 1920 (Taisho 9), after Kiyoji Suzaki bought the Daiun Theater (opened in March 1918 (Taisho 7)), which was formerly the Shofuku-za theater from the Meiji era, and rebuilt it into a movie theater [Note 4]. However, on August 11, 1924 (Taisho 13), it burned down completely due to a fire starting in the film preview room, and it was rebuilt and reopened on March 15, 1927 (Showa 2). At this time, Akasaka was appointed as the conductor of the Hofukukan Orchestra. At the opening showcase, they livened things up with a joint performance with the Sekaikan Orchestra. When performing jazz, they called themselves the Hofukukan Jazz Band.
(September 15, 1927 (Showa 2), Shin Aichi)
The Hofukukan was a reinforced concrete building, which was rare for a permanent theater at the time, and it was touted in the newspapers of the day as having "new interior facilities that are no less impressive than its magnificent exterior; there are few permanent theaters in Tokyo as splendid as this" [Note 5]. It escaped war damage, and after the war, Kiyoji Suzaki's own son, Kikuo [Note 6], became the owner and took over the management, and it was long loved as a famous movie theater in Endoji, but the building was demolished in 1982 (Showa 57) [Note 7].
(March 11, 1927 (Showa 2), Nagoya Shimbun)
In this way, while Kozo Akasaka had been increasingly raising his presence in Nagoya's movie theaters by riding the wave of the jazz craze, a crisis that threatened to reduce the reputation he had built to ashes was already looming before him. It was the rise of sound film, the so-called talkies.
The Beginning of the Dismissal of Musicians
The suffering of movie theater musicians first appeared in 1929 (Showa 4). On May 30 of that same year, the Shin Aichi newspaper reported on the dissolution of the Tokiwa Theater's orchestra under the headline 'Musicians: The Era of Panic Arrives'.
In Tokyo's permanent movie theaters, along with the sound film issue, the use of phonograph accompaniment has become popular, and movie accompaniment musicians are facing a major crisis. At a time when it was expected that this trend would also affect major regional cities, the Tokiwa Theater in the precincts of Banshoji Temple in Nagoya City decided to be the first in the Tokai region to adopt this method. This involves using Victor Electrola to play world-famous music records as accompaniment while projecting films. As the musical common sense of modern audiences has developed, this has been very well received, and since it is also economically advantageous for permanent theaters, it is being used one after another in various theaters in Tokyo. The Nagoya Tokiwa Theater also immediately made plans to adopt this method and notified the existing orchestra members that they would be dismissed within this month. However, after further consultation between the orchestra representative, Bandmaster Itatsu, and the management, it was decided to postpone the dismissal until June 15 and to switch to record performances immediately. Once this is realized, it will surely cause a great sensation in the Chukyo film world, and on the other hand, the unemployment problem of musicians when this method becomes popular is also being taken quite seriously.
According to Ichiro Kataoka's 'Katsudo Shashin Benshi' (The History of Silent Film Narrators), around this time in Tokyo, starting with the Asakusa Eikikan installing a phonograph and beginning accompaniment music via records, the movement for other theaters to follow suit was intensifying. Also, in May of the same year, the first talkie film was screened at the Shinjuku Musashinokan. Buffeted by the Showa financial crisis, the dismissal of musicians by movie theater owners for the purpose of cost-cutting began in Nagoya as well. The Tokiwa Theater had just opened two years prior as a high-class permanent theater comparable to the Musashinokan, and since bandmaster Bunichi Itatsu was from the Sekaikan Orchestra, this must have been a painful matter for Kozo Akasaka as well, not something he could view as someone else's problem. Incidentally, after this, Itatsu retired from being a musician and opened a musical instrument and sheet music wholesale business in Oike-cho, Naka Ward [Note 8].
(May 28, 1927, 'Nagoya Shimbun')
Furthermore, following the Tokiwa Theater, the Bunmeikan in Osu, a pioneer among Nagoya's movie theaters, also dismissed its music department members on June 16 of the same year and switched to phonograph accompaniment [Note 9]. However, the movement to introduce phonographs in Nagoya's movie theaters seems to have stopped there and did not become a major trend. It seems that the audience's need to hear live performances by bands at movie theaters remained deeply rooted.
(This installment continues to Part 4)
[Note 1] In Manabu Aoki's 'Modern Japan's Jazz Sensation', this band is shown to be the Alcantara Jazz Band by citing the magazine 'Kamata', but in the September 8, 1927 issue of 'Nagoya Shimbun', an article introducing the Carlton Jazz Band performance at the Chitose Theater states, 'The dance hall band that appears in the Kamata production 'Modern Wife Reform' is this group,' showing a discrepancy.
[Note 2] August 24, 1927, 'Nagoya Shimbun'
[Note 3] Following the boom of the 'Dotonbori March', the 'Hirokoji March' was also produced in Nagoya (co-authored by Choko Hirai and Shizuki Kitajima, composed by Toshiyuki Morishita) and was broadcast on JOCK on June 12, 1928, performed by the Pierrot Orchestra.
[Note 4] August 12, 1924, 'Nagoya Shimbun'
[Note 5] October 30, 1927, 'Nagoya Shimbun'
[Note 6] According to 'Taishu Jinji Roku, 22nd Edition, East Japan Volume', Kikuo Suzaki was born on January 2, 1923. He graduated from Keio University in 1948. After becoming the owner of the Hofukan and Kasadera Shochiku Theater, he opened a classic film theater on the site of the Toho Osu Theater (established by his father, Kiyoji Suzaki, who died during construction), which had been destroyed in the war. In 1950, he established Shin-Sekai Kogyo Co., Ltd., became its president, and was involved in film exhibition management for a long time. In his later years, he lived in Kasugai City. Incidentally, the classic film theater was the last movie theater remaining in Osu, but according to the website 'Memories of Vanished Movie Theaters', it closed in 1988 following the death of Kikuo Suzaki.
[Note 7] Endoji Shopping District Promotion Association, 'The History of Endoji Shopping District: Celebrating 50 Years of the Arcade'
[Note 8] July 11, 1929, 'Shin Aichi'
[Note 9] June 12, 1929, 'Nagoya Shimbun'
<Headline Image>
'Dotonbori March Song' promotional flyer, from the author's collection
<References>
Manabu Aoki, 'Modern Japan's Jazz Sensation', 2020, Seikyusha
National Theatre Modern Kabuki Chronology Compilation Office (ed.), 'Modern Kabuki Chronology: Nagoya Volume, Vol. 10', 2016, Yagi Shoten
'The History of Endoji Shopping District: Celebrating 50 Years of the Arcade', Endoji Shopping District Promotion Association
Teikoku Himitsu Tanteisha (ed.), 'Taishu Jinji Roku, 22nd Edition, East Japan Volume', 1962, Teikoku Himitsu Tanteisha
Sadahiro Kobayashi, 'History of Movie Theaters in Nagoya 1907-2018', 2019, Kawai Institute for Culture and Education
Ichiro Kataoka, 'Katsudo Shashin Benshi', 2020, Kyobunsha
Soichiro Tanaka, 'History of Japanese Film Development II: From Silent to Talkie', 1980, Chuokoron-Shinsha, National Diet Library Digital Collection
'Shin Aichi', Shin Aichi Shimbunsha
'Nagoya Shimbun', Nagoya Shimbunsha
<Reference Web>
Kanta, 'Memories of Vanished Movie Theaters'