[Series] I Want to Ride on Inamura Jane (2) - In Search of Keisuke Kuwata's "Summer" -

Chigasaki after the rainy season.
It was 4:30 a.m., well past dawn (the time when it was still dark), the time in the Kamakura period when people were closest to gods and Buddha.
As if saying, "We've been waiting for this!", the cicadas begin chirping all at once, trying to complete their days of life.

Many scholars have attempted to answer the question "Where is Shonan?" but failed miserably.
However, as a scholar in the Shonan Culture Research Lab, I cannot avoid this issue.
That's right, he said that in this film he "wanted to portray the true Shonan that he has in his heart."

It's hot at Chigasaki City Brandon University again today.

①There was no such thing as "Shonan"...
Professor: In Eboshi's summer, there's nothing there, it's summer, bang!
Ami: Teacher! Are you okay?
Oz: Teacher! It's Erimo's Spring!!
Professor: Good morning. Sorry, I had a major realization that kept me up.
Oz: Did you notice? Professor, you don't know Jane's true identity...
Professor: No, you were born in Chigasaki and Hiratsuka, right?
Ami: Yes, I crossed the Sagami River again today!
Professor: So, did you find out which scenes in the movie were actually filmed in the Shonan area, such as Chigasaki and Kamakura?
Oz: Yes, there are pictures of Eboshi Rock, the Enoshima Electric Railway, and Inamuragasaki...
Ami: Pacific Park also made an appearance.
Professor: Apparently, the scene in the Western-style house where the Chinese antiques dealer lives was actually shot in a Western-style house in Kamakura. In fact, most of the filming was done on sets in Izu or in a studio.
Oz: What?! The movie is set in Shonan, so why did you have to go out of your way to say that?
Professor: In other words, I think that means that even at that time, the environment in the Shonan area that could recreate 1965, 25 years ago, did not exist.

[Research Note 1]
Kuwata Keisuke said, "Today's Shonan has a feel like Aoyama Street with rows of stylish buildings and a view of the sea, but in my mind, I have an image of a simple, lonely sea. There was a tuberculosis sanatorium near my house...It's completely changed. This is true not only of Shonan, but of the whole country; local characteristics have disappeared, and something is heading in an irreversible direction" (With, October 1990).
Kuwata's words about "Shonan" during this period are very refreshing and also encourage self-reflection. For example, the transformation into "Aoyama Street with a view of the sea" and "Killer Street with a view of the sea" mentioned above, the "blue sky of California" that Tokyoites imagine (fm STATION, 1989, No. 6), and "Hayama is fine because it still has atmosphere, but Chigasaki has already become a mini Tokyo" (AERA, September 11, 1990).
He denies the Shonan he has in his mind as something superficial and not so pretty. He says he has an attachment to the Shonan that was of lower quality, less refreshing, and more exclusive, and that there was a strange sadness to it.
However, the waves of impermanence were also washing over Shonan and Chigasaki. The real reason was the "longing for Tokyo" of local cities and rural areas. "I guess it's because people long for Tokyo. But if they're aiming to turn Aoyama-dori into an area with a view of the sea, they'll have to throw away everything that was good, like the station's appearance and the roads, to make it new. What's thrown away will never come back. So when people say Shonan, it makes them feel like Chigasaki and Urawa have all become the same" (Weekly Bunshun, September 6, 1990). In the movie, there is a scene where a Tokyo food service company tries to buy the restaurant Venus.
Sanatorium Nankoin opened in 1899, and since it admitted intellectuals such as Kunikida Doppo and Ishikawa Takuboku, as well as upper class patients, it helped raise the profile of Chigasaki. The year before it opened, Chigasaki Station on the Tokaido Main Line was established, and Chigasaki developed as a seaside villa area.
By the time Kuwata was born in 1956, the hospital had already become a US military camp in Japan, but it was decontaminated. However, the atmosphere of the area around Nanko, where Kuwata grew up, still remained. However, in 1985, a station building opened, and chain restaurants such as Red Lobster and First Kitchen opened in the fishing town. Chigasaki at the time of the film's production was no longer the original landscape that Kuwata knew.

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

Professor: To begin with, people who have lived in the Shonan area for a long time don't use the word "Shonan" very often. What would you say if someone asked you where you're from?
Oz: Chigasaki!
Ami: It's Hiratsuka!!
Professor: Yes, but for people who are not in the Kanto region, I would say it's in Shonan, Kanagawa Prefecture! (laughs)
Both: That’s true…
Professor: This is what's interesting about humans. Before entering university, Kuwata had never even heard of the term "Shonan Boy," and felt that it was wrong to put himself in the same lineage as Yujiro Ishihara and Yuzo Kayama. Of course, he was being humble and said it was an honor, but I think he felt the danger of categorizing things like the "Shonan Sound." It would take away the "individuality."
Ami: There's Yujiro's Shonan, Wakadaisho's Shonan, and Kuwata's Shonan, and each one is great.
Oz: There's no need to conform to the easily packaged image of "Shonan"...
Professor: Mr. Kuwata also said that he doesn't dislike "It's summer! It's the sea!" (laughs) but Chigasaki is fine as it is. I think so too, and when I see all the merchandise with blue skies, sea, white sand and palm trees on it, I think that Chigasaki is just an illusion. This is a problem that still exists today, and I can't help but think that "Shonan" doesn't really exist anymore.
Ami: So Kuwata was trying to portray the "real Shonan" in the film.
Professor: That's a combination of his main job as a musician. If the movie "When She Puts On Her Swimsuit," which we talked about last time, is about "front Shonan," then he has declared that he will do "back Shonan." It's a showdown with the term "Shonan sound" that has followed Southern All Stars' activities. He is the antithesis of a local person, and he wants to present "truth" in the film as a response to that.
Oz: "Midsummer Fruit," or "Truth" for short!
Cicada: Meen meen meen...

②Boredom and coincidence
[Research Note 2]
The following catchphrase appears on the film's pamphlets and posters:
"There was always something missing. Young people in every era live boring lives."
Keisuke Kuwata described the youth of young people as "boring." Of course, this is not just a question about young people, but also about the way of life of all modern generations.
Looking back on the path he has taken, he said, "We didn't have any great youths either. But our music and things like that have become what it is today through a series of coincidences, right? It was a foolish innocence, like we were walking down the street and picked up a flyer for a contest and did it. So I want people to believe in things like that" (GORO, February 23, 1989), emphasizing the importance of purity, such as believing in dreams and coincidences.
There is an 18-year age difference between Yuzo Kayama and Keisuke Kuwata. "I understand that everyone admires 'Shonan' created by someone like Kayama, but in our time, the things we admired became vague and there was nothing left" (Number, September 5, 1990), and there is a difference in the way "Shonan" is expressed by different generations. This was especially evident during the time of Kayama's youth and that of Kuwata's.
I'm not an Indian who discovered zero (0), but there is "nothing" and yet there is "nothing". Thrown into this world of "nothing" ("thrownness" Heidegger, Shuzo Kuki), we have no choice but to live in possibility with this present existence called "I". We are grateful that we exist despite the possibility that we may not exist. This irreplaceableness is what leads to the belief in coincidence.
In response to the question of how he would sum up the movie "Inamura Jane" in one word, Kuwata answered matter-of-factly, "Yes, Shonan has changed after all. I guess it's a movie that shows how people used to be poor, but there was a truth to it" ("Bisho" September 15, 1990).

(View of Enoshima from Pacific Hotel)

(Shonan? No, the foxes of Cape Erimo.)

Professor: Kuwata said that he wanted to portray "an empty youth" in this film.
Oz: Oh, so was the teacher singing "Erimo Misaki" earlier?
Professor: That's right! The song was composed by Takuro Yoshida and the lyrics were by Osami Okamoto. Actually, when this song was first released, the local people got angry and said, "What do you mean, there's nothing here?" Of course, they made amends after the song became a hit and helped raise awareness (laughs).
Ami: Hahaha (laughs) But it's difficult. I think that "the luxury of doing nothing" is a positive thing in travel brochures, and the word "slow life" is often used to describe the Shonan area.
Professor: It's the wabi-sabi that is unique to the Japanese. If it was used to mean that Shonan people live a relaxed and leisurely life, I would be angry. I'm a busy person, you know (laughs bitterly). But the original meaning of this word is said to have originated from a movement to protect the traditions of Italian villages in opposition to the advance of fast food restaurants, as mentioned earlier.
Oz: In that case... it can also be taken as a direct affirmation of "there is nothing"!
Professor: Yes, think back to your youth in junior high and high school. Were there any big waves?
Oz: Well, now that you mention it...
Ami: It's not that it was boring, but I just vaguely hoped that something would happen someday.
Professor: Someday something fun will happen, someday I'll be happy. This is turning a blind eye to things like "life" and "existence" in the present. The professor calls this "modern nihilism," but it ignores the "ripples" that are always present in everyday life, or doesn't even notice their existence.
Oz: The protagonists in the film say "It's just like the Master's big wave" as a way of denying existence or possibility. So "nothingness" is just boring.
Professor: Yes, but I don't think that's the case. It's true that big waves rarely come. But even if it's extremely flat, there are always ripples, and each wave has a different color and shape.
Ami: Exactly. I don't want to let that wave slip away because it will never come again.
Professor: Maybe Surfer Johnny was able to ride Jane (laughs). So I think surfers predict and wait for big waves by looking at weather charts or actually being out in the ocean and feeling the waves with their bodies at that moment.
Oz: It's not like I'm just waiting vaguely, but I'm waiting for something specific, even if it's just a prediction...
Professor: Yes, it's difficult to express, but I think with all my heart and soul as I wait. And when I live like that, sometimes something called "coincidence" occurs that goes beyond my predictions or intentions. Philosophically, it's " Encounter ( Buy ) "But I think that this is the relationship with others in the film "Inamura Jane," and the reason for the existence of the heroine, Namiko.
Ami: Teacher... it's emotional but difficult!
Professor: Yes, I didn't realize it when I was a student either, it was boring (laughs). Now it's August. You guys, catch the waves with your own antenna! When the summer is over, submit a report on the waves this summer!!
Both: Oh, summer vacation homework?
Professor: (I'll do it.)

*This story is fiction.

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

Born in 1989 at a temple in Chigasaki City. Specializes in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism and Japanese intellectual history. In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Southern All Stars, Shinko Music published a book summarizing the Chigasaki sound culture of artists such as Keisuke Kuwata, Yuzo Kayama, Kunihiko Kase, and Kiyohiko Ozaki, entitled "Our Chigasaki Story: The Genesis of Japanese Pop Music, Chigasaki Sound History."
He currently serves as the main DJ for "Shonan Rock 'n' Roll Center RADIO" on Kamakura FM every Monday from 22:10.
Official site: https://www.srcagain.com/

Editorial Support:
Ami Tazaki
Daiki Ozawa
(Shonan Rock'n'Roll Center AGAIN Researcher)

Photo credit:
Takuya Saito

 
 
I Want to Ride on Inamura Jane (1) - In Search of Keisuke Kuwata's "Summer" - here
I Want to Ride on Inamura Jane (3) - In Search of Keisuke Kuwata's "Summer" - here