[Serial] I want to ride Jane Inamura (2) - In search of Keisuke Kuwata's "summer" -

Chigasaki at the end of the rainy season.
It was 4:30 a.m., past the dawn (the time when it was still dark), which in the Kamakura period was the closest to the gods and Buddha.
I've been waiting! As if to say this, the cicadas begin to chirp all at once, trying to live out their lives today.

In the past, many scholars have attempted to answer the question, ``Where is Shonan?'' and have been unsuccessful.
However, as a scholar at the Shonan Culture Research Laboratory, I cannot avoid this issue.
That's right, as he says in this movie, ``I wanted to portray the true Shonan that was in my heart.''

It was hot at Chigasaki City Blandin University again today.

① There was no such thing as “Shonan”…
Professor: Eboshi's summer is aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa for for nothing, it's summer, bang!
Ami: Teacher! OK! ?
Oz: Teacher! It's spring in Erimo! !
Professor: Good morning, I'm sorry, I couldn't sleep because I realized something terrible.
Oz: Did you notice? Teacher, I never expected to find out Jane's true identity...
Professor: No, it's not. You guys were born in Chigasaki City and Hiratsuka City, right?
Ami: Yes, I crossed the Sagami River today too!
Professor: So, did you know which parts of that movie were actually filmed in the Shonan area of Chigasaki and Kamakura?
Oz: Yes, the place where Eboshi Rock is shown, Enoden, Inamuragasaki...
Ami: Pacific Park also appeared.
Professor: Apparently, the scene in the Western-style building where the Chinese antique dealer lives was actually a Western-style building in Kamakura. In fact, it seems that most of the filming took place in Izu or on studio sets.
Oz: Huh! Even though the movie is set in Shonan, why bother...
Professor: That's right. I guess this means that at that time there was no environment in the Shonan area that could recreate 1965, 25 years ago.

[Research Note 1]
Keisuke Kuwata says. ``Today's Shonan looks like Aoyama Dori, a street lined with fancy buildings and a view of the sea, but in my mind's eye, it's a simple, lonely sea.Near my house, there's a sanatoria for tuberculosis. "It's changed completely. This applies not only to Shonan, but to the entire country. Regional characteristics have disappeared, and things are moving in an irreversible direction." ("With", 1990) October).
Kuwata's words commenting on ``Shonan'' during this period are extremely poignant and encourage us to self-reflect. For example, the aforementioned ``Aoyama Street with a view of the sea'' and ``Killer Street with a view of the sea'', the ``blue skies of California'' that people in Tokyo imagine (``FM STATION'' 1989 No. 6), and ``Hayama. It's good because it still has a lot of atmosphere, but Chigasaki has already become a mini-Tokyo" (AERA, September 11, 1990).
He denies this ``Shonan'' feeling, saying that the Shonan within him is not that superficial and beautiful. He said that he had an attachment to Shonan, which had a poorer quality, was less refreshing, and was more exclusive, and also felt a strange sadness.
However, the waves of impermanence were washing over Shonan and Chigasaki without exception. The essence of this is a ``longing for Tokyo'' as a regional city and countryside. ``I guess it's because I admire Tokyo.But if you're aiming to make Aoyama Street with a view of the ocean, you won't be able to create something new without uprooting things that were good, like the appearance of the station and the roads. He won't be coming back.That's why when I hear the word Shonan, I feel like Chigasaki and Urawa are all the same.'' (Weekly Bunshun, September 6, 1990) The movie depicts a scene in which a restaurant company in Tokyo tries to buy Restaurant Venus.
The sanatorium Nankoin was opened in 1899, and Chigasaki's popularity increased as it hosted patients from the upper class and intellectuals such as Doppo Kunikida and Takuboku Ishikawa. The Chigasaki stop on the Tokaido Main Line was built the year before its opening, and Chigasaki developed as a resort area along the coast.
In 1956, the year Kuwata was born, the hospital, which had already been used as a facility camp for the US military in Japan, was requisitioned. Even so, that atmosphere must still remain in Nanko, where Kuwata grew up. However, in 1985, a station building opened, and chain stores such as Red Lobster and First Kitchen expanded into the fishing town. Chigasaki at the time of the film's production had become far from the original scenery that Kuwata knew.

(December 1984, last day of Chigasaki Station old building)

Professor: In the first place, people who have lived in the Shonan area for a long time don't often use the word "Shonan." How would you answer if someone asked you where you're from?
Oz: It's Chigasaki!
Ami: It’s Hiratsuka! !
Professor: Yes, but for those who don't live in the Kanto area, it's Shonan in Kanagawa Prefecture! I tried saying something like that (lol)
2 people: Certainly...
Professor: This is what's interesting about humans. Mr. Kuwata didn't even know the term ``Shonan Boy'' until he entered university, and he thinks it's different for him to be listed in the lineage of Yujiro Ishihara and Yuzo Kayama. Of course, I'm being humble when I say "I'm honored," but I think they also felt the danger of being grouped into categories like "Shonan sound." It is said that the ``individual'' is lost.
Ami: Yujiro's Shonan, Young General's Shonan, Kuwata-san's Shonan, each one is good, isn't it?
Oz: There's no need to cater to the image of "Shonan" packaged in an easy-to-understand manner...
Professor: Mr. Kuwata also says that he doesn't dislike the idea of ``Summer! The sea!'' (lol) But Chigasaki is fine with Chigasaki. I think so too, and when I look at all the merchandise that depicts blue skies, the sea, white sand beaches, and palm trees, I realize that Chigasaki is nothing more than a fantasy. This is a problem that still exists today; in fact, "Shonan" no longer exists, right? That's what I think.
Ami: So Mr. Kuwata tried to express the ``true Shonan'' in the movie.
Professor: That's also a technique that goes hand in hand with music, which is my main job. I have declared that if the movie ``When She Changes into a Swimsuit'', which came out the last time we talked, is ``Omote Shonan,'' then I will do ``Ura Shonan.'' This is a confrontation with the term "Shonan sound" that has always been associated with Southern's activities. He is the antithesis of a local person, and I wanted to portray the truth in the film, in the sense of an answer to that.
Oz: ``Midsummer Fruit'', or ``Truth'' for short!
Cicada: Meenminminmeen...

②Boredom and coincidence
[Research Note 2]
The following catchphrase is written on movie pamphlets and posters:
"Something has always gone wrong. Young people have always lived in a boring daily life."
Keisuke Kuwata described young people's youth as ``boring.'' Of course, in reality, this is not only a problem for young people, but also for the way of life of all generations of modern people.
Looking back on the path he has taken, he says, ``We didn't have a great youth either.But aren't there things like our music that become what they are now due to coincidences? Idiots. Or rather, it's like he was just walking down the street and picked up a flyer for a contest.That's why I want people to believe in things like that.'' (GORO, February 23, 1989) He believes in dreams and coincidences. He emphasizes the importance of purity.
Yuzo Kayama and Keisuke Kuwata are 18 years apart in age. ``I understand that everyone admires the ``Shonan'' that Kayama-san and others created, but we live in a time when the things we admire have become so vague that there is nothing left.'' (``Number'') (September 5, 1990) and the differences in expressions of "Shonan" depending on the generation. This was especially noticeable during Kayama's youth and Kuwata's youth.
I'm not the Indian who discovered zero (0), but there is "nothing", but there is "nothing". I was thrown into this world of ``nothing'' (``The nature of being thrown'' by Heidegger, Shuzo Kuki), and in my present existence, I had no choice but to live out the possibilities. We are thankful that we exist even though there was a possibility that we would not exist. I think this irreplaceability is what leads us to believe in coincidence.
If Kuwata were to describe the movie “Jane Inamura” in one word, what would it be? In response to this question, he replied matter-of-factly, ``Ah, Shonan has changed after all. It was a poor place in the past, but it's a movie that shows the truth.'' (``Smile'' September 15, 1990) ing.

(View of Enoshima from Pacific Hotel)

(Shonan? No, the fox of Cape Erimo)

Professor: Mr. Kuwata said that he wanted to depict ``a youth with nothing'' in this film.
Oz: Ah, so you were singing “Erimomisaki” just now?
Professor: That's right! Composition: Takuro Yoshida, lyrics: Osami Okamoto. Actually, when this song was first released, there was an episode where the local people got angry and said, ``What's the point of nothing?'' Of course, we have reconciled ourselves by contributing to the popularity of the song as a hit (lol)
Ami: Haha (lol) But it's difficult, isn't it? I think it has a good meaning when you see the words ``the luxury of doing nothing'' in travel brochures, and words like ``slow life'' are often used for the Shonan area.
Professor: It's wabi-sabi that is unique to Japanese people. I would be angry if this word was used to mean that Shonan people live a relaxed and comfortable life. Because I'm a poor man with no free time (bitter smile), but the true meaning of this phrase is said to have originated from a movement to protect traditions in Italian villages in response to the expansion of fast food restaurants as mentioned earlier. is.
Oz: Then... it can also be taken to mean affirming "nothing" as it is!
Professor: Yes, please think back to your youth in middle school and high school. Was there a big wave?
Oz: Hmm, when you say that...
Ami: It's not that it was boring, but I was vaguely hoping that something would happen someday.
Professor: Someday something fun will happen, someday you'll be happy. This is turning our attention away from things like current ``life'' and ``life.'' You call this ``modern nihilism,'' and it means ignoring the ``ripples'' that always occur in everyday life, or not even noticing their existence.
Oz: The main characters in the movie say, ``It's the same as the Master's wave'' as a way of denying existence and possibility. That's why "nothing" is just boring.
Professor: Yes, but I don't think so. It's true that big waves rarely come. However, although it may be extremely flat, ``ripples'' are constantly occurring, and each wave has a different color shape.
Ami: Exactly, the same wave won't come again and I don't want to let it go~
Professor: Maybe surfer Johnny was able to ride Jane (lol) So surfers predict big waves by looking at weather maps and actually feeling the waves at that moment in the ocean. I guess it's waiting?
Oz: Rather than just vaguely waiting, it's a prediction, but I'm definitely waiting...
Professor: Yes, it's difficult to express, but I'm waiting with all my heart and soul. Also, if you live like this, ``coincidences'' that go beyond your predictions or intentions may occur. Philosophically, encounter ( Let's go ) '', but I think that is the relationship with others in the movie ``Jane Inamura'' and the raison d'être of the heroine Namiko.
Ami: Teacher...it's emotional, but it's difficult!
Professor: Yeah, even the teacher didn't realize it when he was a student, he was bored (lol) Well, it's August. Catch the waves with your own antenna! When summer is over, submit a report on the waves this summer! !
2 people: Huh, is this homework for summer vacation?
Professor: (I'll do it.)

※This story is a fiction.

Written by: Junmasa Shaku (Chairman of Shonan Rock and Roll Center AGAIN, Buddhist scholar)

Born in 1989 at a temple in Chigasaki City. Specializes in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism and the history of Japanese thought. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of Southern All Stars, Shinko Music will be releasing a book titled ``Our Chigasaki Story: The Genesis of Japanese Pops - Chigasaki Sound History,'' which summarizes the Chigasaki sound culture of Keisuke Kuwata, Yuzo Kayama, Kunihiko Kase, Kiyohiko Ozaki, and others. Publication.
Currently, he is the main DJ of "Shonan Rock'n'Roll Center RADIO" on Kamakura FM every Monday from 22:10.
Official website: https://www.srcagain.com/

Editing cooperation:
Ami Tazaki
Daiki Ozawa
(Shonan Rock and Roll Center AGAIN Researcher)

Photo provided by:
Takuya Saito

 
 
I want to ride Jane Inamura (1) - In search of "Summer" by Keisuke Kuwata - Click here
I want to ride Jane Inamura (3) - In search of "Summer" by Keisuke Kuwata - Click here