[Series] Wanting to Ride Inamura Jane (1) - In Search of Kuwata Keisuke's "Summer" -

This is the Shonan Culture Research Laboratory at Chigasaki City Brandin University.
As a professor, I conduct research that may not benefit society or people, focusing on the music culture of Shonan, using both historical and intellectual history approaches.
With the summer exams grading over, I was looking forward to finally enjoying a leisurely "summer in Shonan" this year, when... some shocking news came in.

"The big wave of that summer is back."

Ami : Teacher, it's awful that you summoned me to the lab during summer vacation!
Oz : And what's with that email? It says, "It's a pine tree! It's a pine tree!"...
Professor : I'm sorry. But there's something I really need to ask of you this summer.
Ami : What is it you want me to do?
Professor : Actually... I want to ride Jane.
Oz : Huh?

① Emotional moments after 30 years
Professor : Were you able to go to the Chigasaki Film Festival?
Oz : Yes! We both managed to get tickets and see it.
Professor : Oh, I see. It was my first time seeing it on a big screen with loud sound too.
Ami : So the teacher was there too!
Professor : Yes, I was completely absorbed by the remastered footage. I didn't even notice the poster for "Hawaii no Wakadaisho" on the VHS. I'm a failure as a professor; I've written my resignation.
Oz : Hey! Just a moment.
Ami : Wow, Sensei, that's so emotional...
Professor : So, as my final task, I'd like you two to help me with this research this summer.
2 people : (gulp...)
Professor : What exactly is "Inamura Jane"?!

*1 On June 25, 2021, the 43rd anniversary of Southern All Stars' debut, it was screened as a special invited film for the 10th anniversary of the Chigasaki Film Festival.

[Research Notes]
On June 25, 1988, Southern All Stars celebrated their 10th anniversary with their 24th single, "Minna no Uta" (Everyone's Song), marking their return after a three-year hiatus. Looking at Keisuke Kuwata's statements around this time, the theme of returning to their roots is frequent. Their band activities, which began in their student days, had grown to a size that "could no longer be contained within the band members alone," suggesting that he was searching for a way to enjoy (and live) their work in line with his own life's work.
It was a situation where they loudly declared, "Southern All Stars, who were thought to have died three years ago, are still alive and full of energy, and we will show you that," while also stating, "However, we don't want to cling to the brand of the band Southern All Stars" (non-no, July 1988).
Ahead of this single and the "Grand Revival Festival" tour starting in the summer, music critic Kenta Hagiwara, a friend of Kuwata's since their university days, stated, "It seems that Kuwata now wants to return to his high school and university days when he enjoyed music the most in his own personal world (omitted)... The keyword is '70s pop'" (GORO, May 1988). For Kuwata, his youth was indeed in the 70s, and 1965, the setting of Jane, was not yet in his real time.
Here, we can see one aspect of Keisuke Kuwata's longing for the 1960s. After all, it was the era of the Beatles. For his 27th single, "Furi Furi '65," released the following year in 1989, Kuwata said that his reason for liking 1965 was that it was the year the Beatles' "HELP!" was released, and he liked how natural John looked wearing a straw hat in that song.
For Kuwata, the turning point between the 1960s and the 1970s was extremely significant. The 1970s began with the breakup of the Beatles, and he recalls that as a second-year junior high school student, "my values were completely shifted." These values were such that the world of pop music, which had previously seemed wholesome, shifted from pure love songs to songs about infidelity, and he felt like he had witnessed the world becoming a bizarre place where "infidelity was allowed (omitted) and anything went" (Cosmopolitan, October 1988).
The student movement era was long over, and he couldn't be either a delinquent or a model student. He spent his time at Aoyama Gakuin University like that, and made his debut in 1978. While living a hectic life in the entertainment world of the 80s, Kuwata loved pop music and universal themes. He wanted something more innocent and simple. In 1987, he went to New York with Matsuda Hiroshi and was touched by the purity of the musicians there, and he said, "That's why I think I came to feel that 'Katte ni Sindbad' is a pretty great pop song" (Esquire Japan, December 1987).
However, as a band, they always strive to live in the present and continue to seek new things. This is what I believe to be the significance of Southern All Stars' 10th anniversary. The effort and desire for improvement to continue as a band.
First, Kuwata envisioned a new "space" for music.
At the time, Amuse Cinema City, established as Amuse's film division, was running a film series called "Amuse 10 Movies." It is well known that Masaharu Fukuyama passed the audition for this series in 1988 and became affiliated with Amuse (incidentally, Fukuyama also participated in the audition for "Inamura Jane"). Following this, it is speculated that discussions arose about a film project involving Kuwata from 1987 to the beginning of 1988, following "Aiko Sixteen" starring Yasuko Tomita.
The first announcement to the fans wasn't in a fan club magazine or through TV or radio, but surprisingly, during the MC segment of a live performance. It was at the final show of the aforementioned 1988 "Grand Revival Festival," held on September 19th at Yokohama Stadium. As a gift to the fans who had waited for three years, they announced, "We're going to make a movie with Japan's number one director!"

② The legendary wave
Professor : So, it seems that the initial plan for the film was for you to be involved in "music supervision."
Oz : Speaking of which, in 1989, your 25th single, "Love Song to the Goddesses (Beyond the Unreported Y-Shape)," was also released as a video single, wasn't it?
Ami : And the next single, "Sayonara Baby," is the theme song for the movie "When She Changes into a Swimsuit"...
Professor : That's right, in other words, he elevated the music video into a work of art and released it to the world, and he chose film as a new "platform" for visual media. At the time, he said, "I want to find a medium in which music can truly come alive" (Fm fan, April 1989).
Oz : These days, the term MV (music video) is more common than PV (promotional video), right? This is definitely an MV...
Ami : You create the music yourself, direct the video, and even act in it...
Professor : Yes, that's exactly what music culture is like in 2021. It's no different from what young artists are doing on their PCs and smartphones. Kuwata and Southern All Stars were the first to realize that.
Ami : I guess you could call them directors from other industries? Nowadays, it's commonplace for comedians to make movies. But Kuwata's keen sense of direction...
Professor : Back then, there were probably very few examples of people succeeding as film directors in fields other than filmmaking. January 8, 1989 marked the beginning of the Heisei era, and that year was truly the "first year of filmmaking."
Oz : So Kuwata-san decided to make a movie set in his hometown of Shonan, with the theme of legendary waves.
Professor : Yes, so we're going to confront the term "Shonan Sound," which we've always hated (laughs). Now, I'm sure you all know the plot of the movie since you've seen it, but what do you think this "wave" represents?
Ami : The question is, what is "Jane"?
Oz : In the end, we never really get a clear "image" of this wave...
Professor : People often say that this movie doesn't have any surfing scenes, but it's even worse than that. Even the "wave" that is "Jane" isn't clearly depicted. It's fantastic.
Ami : Is there any hint?
Professor : In response to such questions, he said things like, "It could be described as sex between men and women, or it could be replaced with something abstract like the waves of the times" (Bungei Shunju, September 1990), or, acknowledging the hardships that exist in any era, whether it's the 60s or the 80s, "Perhaps it's the 'waves of fantasy' that relieve that stress" (GORO, February 1989), or even, "It's a symbol of catharsis" (SPA!, March 1989)...
Oz : What could it be?
Ami : Catharsis...
Professor : Oh, it's time for the "Red Dragonfly" bell again today. Next time, let's think carefully about what "Jane" represents.

*This story is a work of fiction.

Written by: Junsei Shaku (Chairman of Shonan Rock 'n' Roll Center AGAIN, Buddhist scholar)

Born in 1989 in Chigasaki City, he specializes in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism and the history of Japanese thought. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of Southern All Stars, he published "Our Chigasaki Story: The Genesis of Japanese Pop Music - Chigasaki Sound History" from Shinko Music, a book compiling the Chigasaki sound culture of artists such as Keisuke Kuwata, Yuzo Kayama, Kunihiko Kase, and Kiyohiko Ozaki.
Currently, he is the main DJ for "Shonan Rock 'n' Roll Center RADIO" on Kamakura FM every Monday from 10:10 PM.
Official website: https://www.srcagain.com/

Editorial assistance:
Ami Tasaki
Daiki Ozawa
(Researcher at Shonan Rock 'n' Roll Center AGAIN)
 
 
Wanting to ride Inamura Jane (2) - In search of Kuwata Keisuke's "Summer" - Click here
Wanting to ride Inamura Jane (3) - In search of Kuwata Keisuke's "Summer" - Click here