Tokyo's bustling places have their own characteristics and labels, such as Shibuya, a gathering place for young people, who, in anthropomorphic terms, is a thriving youth. Shinjuku is the center of business and administration, combining reason and desire. Asakusa is a lively tourist destination that exudes the atmosphere of life of a commoner. Roppongi's cosmopolitan and extravagant taste makes it a place of pleasure for the entertainment industry and the affluent. Ginza, on the other hand, is an eclectic mix of tradition and fashion, a gentle gentleman, and a lady of style.
Ginza
Ginza: It's here
400 years ago, the area from present-day Ginza to Nihonbashi was still a reeded beach, but in 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was named the Great Shogun of Seiyi, founded the Edo shogunate, moved mountains and reclaimed the sea in order to expand the cityscape, and moved the silver coin mint (Ginza Service Office) in Suruga (present-day Shizuoka Prefecture) to this "New World", named "Shin-Yoshitsune Street", commonly known as "Ginza". Ginza in the Edo period undertook the minting and circulation of silver currency on the one hand, and on the other hand, gathered imperial craftsmen who served the shogunate, and developed and prospered under the canopy of privileges and interests. This period lasted for nearly 200 years, and during the liberal reforms, the shogunate rectified and relocated the silver coin minting office on the grounds of tax delays and a series of improper incidents. The remaining common name for "Ginza" was officially adopted when the Meiji government changed the name of the town.
Ginza's grand debut in modern history was caused by a devastating fire in the early Meiji period, when the official residence of the governor of Tokyo, Yuri Yoshinari, was also affected by this fire, and many important documents were reduced to ashes. He lamented that Tokyo had suffered heavy losses from multiple fires since the Edo period and was determined to build a non-combustible city. Two years later, a one-kilometer stretch of Western-style brick houses was inaugurated on Ginza's Central Avenue. Tokyo boiled over, various propaganda reports praised this unprecedented feat, and Ginza became a symbol of civilization. Of course, the Japanese, who were accustomed to living in wooden buildings and tatami mats, initially rejected brick houses, and there was also a movement of opposition from the residents. Later, the government introduced various preferential policies to attract investment and investment, and Ginza regained its vitality.
In 1872 (Meiji 5), Japan's first railway was opened between Shinbashi and Yokohama, and Ginza was the main thoroughfare of the Keihin Line, serving as the front gate of Tokyo. In addition, the adjacent Tsukiji was inhabited by many missionaries as a residence for foreigners at that time, and Ginza, a new Western-style commercial street, naturally became a place for them to shop and walk. One night in the summer of 1882, Japan's first arc light was lit in Ginza 2-chome, and the city of non-combustion had another title: "The City That Never Sleeps". Subsequently, night markets operating imported products and various Western-style restaurants, clothing, clocks, and furniture stores also sprung up, and Ginza became the forefront of spreading Western civilization.
In addition, the influx of newspapers has also opened up an unprecedented trend of the times for Ginza. In the middle of the Meiji period, more than 30 newspapers gathered here, and the trend-setting culture and the fashionable neighborhood complemented each other. Just the thunderous names of Mori Oguchi, Ozaki Momiba, Hirauchi Takashi, Natsume Soseki, Ishikawa Pecking, and Seiko Seno are enough to glimpse the pomp and circumstance of the time.
In March 1911, Japan's first café with waitresses opened in Ginza, named after the French Printemps (Spring), which aims to provide a place for cultural people to communicate and rest. The Spring Cafe was originally a membership system, and literary celebrities such as Mori Ouwai, Nagai Hokaze, Junichiro Tanizaki, and Izumi Kyokazu of the famous literary history, as well as famous literary and artistic celebrities such as the famous painter Kishida Liusheng and the Kabuki actor Ichikawa Zuo Tuanji were all registered members. Ginza is the source of Nagai's creation, and most of the geisha and café waitresses he describes in his novels come from his own experience. In an essay titled Ginza, he claims to be an observer of Ginza. Facing the rapid changes in Ginza with nostalgia, I lament that Japan's decade is equivalent to a century in the West.
"Ginza Style"
In December of the same year, Ginza opened a new café called São Paulo, which attracted a large number of shy but fashion-conscious young people (Ryunosuke Wasagawa was one of them) due to its relatively cheap price positioning. As everyone knows, it is this coffee that is "as black as a ghost, as sweet as love, as hot as hell" (the advertising slogan of the São Paulo store) that has brought a new atmosphere to Ginza. Since the Edo period, the Nihonbashi generation, which is adjacent to Ginza, is famous for Hanayanagi Street, and in the early Meiji period Ginza also appeared geisha halls and custom shops called "ambiguous houses". At this time, these places that require high-priced consumption are being replaced by restaurants and cafes, and the consumption of ordinary cafes is lower than that of high-end restaurants such as "buckwheat houses". Therefore, it can be said that the coffee culture has promoted the tendency of mass consumption in Ginza. It was during this period that the term "Gin Bura", which was later incorporated into the Cantonese Garden, became popular.
At that time, many Ginza nomads, including literary tycoons like Nagai Hefeng, regarded "visiting Ginza" as a daily lesson, as if it had become an indispensable ritual in their lives, and when they did not walk around Ginza one day, they felt lost and fidgety. In his novel Ginza Revival, Mizutaki Taro refers to this kind of "ginza disease" that has no purpose, just rubs shoulders, walks through the crowd, and walks through the crowd, and is useless and absurd. At that time, Ginza's representative landscapes were: "coffee, bars, Western food, Chinese cuisine, event photo (movie), Western goods store, kimono shop, jeweler, art supply store, cosmetics store, Western pharmacy, musical instrument shop." Looking at pedestrians on the street, "from hairstyles and shaving styles to clothing taste, umbrellas, handbags, and even crutches are all Ginza style." If you use the Beijing dialect to describe it, it is "Ginza style".
It is not difficult to imagine that Ginza was prosperous at that time, but a sudden earthquake made all this a reality. In 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake, which nearly destroyed the entire city of Tokyo, did not survive the Western-style brick houses in Ginza. Later, the reconstruction and revival in the ruins once again gave Ginza a makeover.
At this time, large department stores such as Matsusakaya, Matsuya, and Mitsukoshi were inaugurated on Ginza's Central Avenue. At the same time, banks, franchise stores, and long-established brands have also opened and rebuilt on a large scale. In 1927, the Ginza Line, which connects Asakusa and Shibuya, was opened, which was known as the only subway in Asia at that time. So more people flocked here, bustling and buzzing during the day, and illuminated and neon at night. The sense of impermanence of life and the uncertainty of fate after the earthquake plunged people into the hedonism of drinking and drinking today, and Ginza ushered in the heyday of coffee and bars. As a result, Ginza, which belonged to the emerging bourgeoisie in the Meiji period, completed its transformation into a popular neighborhood, and the "Ginza style" of the former striding streets was replaced by modern men and women.
Revival: Timeless
In 1937, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China, and in 1939, World War II broke out, and Ginza was once again disfigured in the US air raids. After the defeat, the remaining large buildings such as hattori watch shops and Matsuya department stores were taken over by the U.S. military as their dedicated shops and clubs. Later, ginza business owners worked together to draw up a revival plan, and held the "Ginza Revival Festival", and each store reopened. Subsequent post-war construction projects, including the landfilling of the outer moat and the addition of subways, and the opening of Ginza Stations on the Marunouchi, Asakusa, Hibiya, and Yurakucho Lines, created conditions for the further development of Ginza.
Ginza at this time has a very vivid record in Naruse's film Ginza Makeup (1951). Tanaka plays a single mother who works in a bar, with no sensationalism, no accusations, only helplessness hidden behind the chaos and prosperity of Ginza. Nine years later, Naruse brought his love and understanding of Ginza to a higher artistic level through "When a Woman Walks Up the Stairs." Lead actor Hideko Takayama told the audience in a voiceover: There are 700 bars in Ginza, and 15,000 or 6,000 women work here.
Kidd the Thief in Magic Fight 1412, in the episode "Kidd the Thief Kidd's Teleportation", Kidd shows his magic in Ginza.
Today, in the minds of Japanese people, Ginza itself is a brand, and its maturity, style and taste that have been tempered over the years are so unique. Look at the Ginza Charter (1884) formulated by the Ginza Neighborhood Federation:
Ginza is a traditional neighborhood that shines with creativity
Ginza is a cultural district with supreme taste and sensibility
Ginza is a pleasant cosmopolitan neighborhood
In order to maintain the image of the neighborhood and the characteristics of Ginza stipulated in the Charter, the Ginza Design Consultative Conference strictly examines the appearance of emerging buildings, the coordination of advertising content and the atmosphere of the neighborhood, and so on. In recent years, in addition to a large number of international famous stores, cheap brands such as Uniqlo, MUJI, GU, GAP, and ZARA have also occupied a place in this bustling street where the land price has ranked first in the country for 34 consecutive years. Ginza presents a unique and inclusive look.
Of course, this is not only a shopping paradise, when you have seen the dazzling and luxurious design of fine art in the jewelry stores such as Dior, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Tiffany and other jewelry stores, you may wish to feel the vicissitudes and thickness of history in the old brand with more than 100 years of history. For example, the stationery store "Hatojudo" (the name of the store is taken from the "Book of Poetry"), from Meiji to Showa, there are many literati and inkers who have left footprints here. Nagai's diary records that he met Mori Ouwai at the entrance of Hatojudo Hall, and it is said that Kishida Liusheng and Uchida Luan were also regular visitors here, as well as Nobel Prize writer Yasunari Kawabata also liked to buy manuscript paper here.
Not far from Hatodo is Japan's first bakery,"Kimuraya" (founded in 1869), which invented stuffed bread by replacing the yeast that was scarce in Japan at the time with the fermentation of the exclusively developed "sake seed" and trying to put the red bean paste commonly used in Wagashi into bread. Former Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka also had a fondness for this, and for this reason, on the occasion of Tanaka's visit to China in 1972, Premier Zhou Enlai specially arranged for an airlift from Kimuraya to Beijing, leaving a good story in the history of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Japan.
The charm of Ginza has endured through the joint efforts of these "Ginza people" who are proud of Ginza.
Author 丨 Gai Hyosung
Editor 丨Li Yang Anye