Activities per year
Abstract
The Japanese word ‘ kissaten’ (喫茶店) translates directly as ‘ tea-drinking shop’. There are approximately 600 jazz kissaten spread across the five main islands of Japan, and while jazz kissaten truly emerged as audio-listening bars in the post-war years, they peaked in ubiquity in the late 1960s/ early 1970s, during which times they were often a hub for counter-culture movements in bohemian areas like Tokyo’s Shinjuku district.
Tokyo Jazz Joints (www.tokyojazzjoints.com) is an ongoing research project, photographed by Philip Arneill, which has documented this rapidly vanishing culture since 2015, and to date has created an audiovisual chronicle of over 160 of these kissaten. Drawing on the idea of Foucault’s heterotopia, and using a selection of images from Tokyo Jazz Joints, this paper will present the unique environment of the Japanese jazz kissaten as a pseudo-religious sacred space, replete with its own rituals, protocols, iconography and clergy.
These unique, sacred spaces are a product of the cultural environment which created them, while simultaneously existing in direct cultural contestation with that same environment. Their very existence is a result of their owners’ decision to step outside of Japanese mainstream culture, and depends on their continued fervour and commitment to keep the faith in an era of changing tastes, digitisation and relentless urban gentrification.
Tokyo Jazz Joints (www.tokyojazzjoints.com) is an ongoing research project, photographed by Philip Arneill, which has documented this rapidly vanishing culture since 2015, and to date has created an audiovisual chronicle of over 160 of these kissaten. Drawing on the idea of Foucault’s heterotopia, and using a selection of images from Tokyo Jazz Joints, this paper will present the unique environment of the Japanese jazz kissaten as a pseudo-religious sacred space, replete with its own rituals, protocols, iconography and clergy.
These unique, sacred spaces are a product of the cultural environment which created them, while simultaneously existing in direct cultural contestation with that same environment. Their very existence is a result of their owners’ decision to step outside of Japanese mainstream culture, and depends on their continued fervour and commitment to keep the faith in an era of changing tastes, digitisation and relentless urban gentrification.
Original language | English |
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Publication status | Published (in print/issue) - 26 Jun 2021 |
Event | Documenting Jazz 2021 - Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom Duration: 23 Jun 2021 → 26 Jun 2021 |
Conference
Conference | Documenting Jazz 2021 |
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Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
City | Edinburgh |
Period | 23/06/21 → 26/06/21 |
Keywords
- Jazz
- Japan
- music
- culture
- sacred space
- heterotopia
- Japanese
- kissaten
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Entering the Inner Sanctum: Japanese Jazz Kissaten as Sacred Spaces'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Activities
- 2 Invited talk
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Philip Arneill: Tokyo Jazz Joints
Arneill, P. (Speaker)
19 Oct 2024Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
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Exploring Jazz Through Photography
Arneill, P. (Speaker)
20 Apr 2022Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
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Dragon Dance: A Japanese jazu kissa-inspired listening experience in the heart of East Belfast.
Arneill, P., 7 Feb 2023, (Published online) In: Riffs: Experimental Writing on Popular Music. 6, 2, p. 8-18 11 p., 2.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
'What’s jazz got to do with it?' Reframing international perceptions of Japan through the Tokyo Jazz Joints project.
Arneill, P., 14 Jul 2023.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper
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Photo Essay: Tokyo Jazz Joints, Vol.1 - 'Thresholds'
Arneill, P., 25 Mar 2022, We Jazz: Tetragon, Spring 2022, 3, p. 114-128 15 p.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Featured article
Press/Media
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Exploring Japan’s ‘jazz kissa’ cafe culture
17/09/23
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Belfast-born photographer Philip Arneill’s latest project
20/05/23
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research
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Memories, melancholy and all that jazz
16/03/23
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities