About Night Less Castle Shinjuku's Culture | Online Clothing TRENDYJAPAN
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What do you imagine when you hear "the city of Shinjuku"? I'm sure you can imagine various things such as "Town with Godzilla," "Big Downtown Area in Japan," "Gay Town," and "Town with High-Class Cabaret Clubs and Host Clubs." To tell the truth, I also read all literatures around writing this blog in this time. I would like to just show you with a special feature of "Shinjuku" to know "Shinjuku" histories I, on this time, learned about and share it with everyone.
First of all, you may be wondering, "What does Shinjuku mean to me?" For me, Shinjuku is "a place to go drinking with close friends and brothers." Secondly, "a place to shop at department stores, etc." ... To be honest, it was such a place. Knowing various history this time, I decided to use Shinjuku further in the future as I was born and raised in Tokyo. Now, everyone, I would like to introduce “” Shinjuku, a Night-Less Castle”, a City Where History and All Cultures Wriggle" in chronological order.
September 1, 1923 11:58AM: Huge Kanto Earthquake occurred. It was severely damaged in the vicinity of the southern Kanto region. The estimated damage was numbers that affected 1.9 million people and dead more than 105,000 people. In particular, it caused enormous damage to downtown areas such as Asakusa and Fukagawa in Tokyo. Meanwhile, it is recorded in the literature that relief supplies and donations were donated to the Japanese government from the United States, Taiwan, United Kingdom India, Austria, Canada, Germany, France, Belgium, Peru, Mexico, etc. What surprised me most was large conglomerates, such as "Morgan" in the United States and "Rothschild," undertook an amount exceeding 60% of the Japanese government's national budget at that time as earthquake good post-treatment bonds was. Because "Tokyo's Downtown like Asakusa" occurred to serious damages, "Isetan" advanced to the new place like "Shinjuku", where occurred less damages, for their re-establishments to make a decision of their business in there.
1930s: In 1933, "Isetan" opened its main store in Shinjuku. Following with that, many traffics became concentrated in Shinjuku. As a result, Nakamuraya (one of Japan's famous curry stores), Takano Shoten (a pioneer of Japanese fruit parlors), and numerous entertainment facilities expanded one after another, making it one of the most prosperous areas in Tokyo. Unforgettable and worst things that casts a "dark shadow" on the development of Shinjuku has occurred. That was so called as "WWII".
From November 24, 1944 to August 15, 1945: Indiscriminate air raid on napalm by US forces targeting the Tokyo metropolitan area (currently the 23 wards) In particular, the Tokyo metropolitan area was hit by a fairly large-scale air raid from March 1945, and became a "burnt field" because it was "completely unrecoverable." The number of victims of the bombing was about 3.1 million, the death toll was more than 115,000, the number of injured was more than 150,000, and the number of damaged houses was about 850,000. Shinjuku was also severely damaged by the air raid, but the people of Shinjuku stood up to "live."
1945～1946: Black markets flourished in Shinjuku. This black market birthed as the root of the current "Golden Gai" and "Omoide Yokocho". However, “Golden Gai” later became the "Blue Line as known as Aosen (Illegal Prostitution Business Zone)". On the other hand, “Omoide Yokocho” was evolution to a town of bars that offered "Yakitori," "Motsuni," "Oden," etc. to make you feel one of Japanese good-old culture still now. Both are now representatives of "Shinjuku Yokocho Culture", and bars of various styles are crowded together, but after that, each changed with the passage of time.
1958: Prostitution Prevention Law was fully enforced. With the enforcement of the Prostitution Prevention Law, Shinjuku Golden Gai withdrew from the "Illegal Prostitution Business" and changed its business style to a bar. After this, another worst thing occurred on a town of Shinjuku. It was the intensification of the "Security Struggle" by young generations at that time. On the other hand, "Unique Fashion" became popular among young generations in Shinjuku.
1960s - Early 1970s: Intensifying Security Struggle
Detail: "Rebels, anti-US movements and the accompanying large-scale movements involving parliamentarians, workers and students, citizens who oppose the Japan-US Security Treaty (Security Treaty), and left and new left-wing activists who oppose ratification." This movement was started by the younger generation and students who were in Shinjuku at that time. However, it became more radical, with students beginning to use weapons and many deaths to both police officers and students.
In such a chaotic era, a certain fashion became popular among young generations in Shinjuku. That fashion was "Hippie Psychedelic Fashion".
<Main and Favorite Items>
- Bell-Bottoms Pants or Jeans
- Used Clothing Taste T-shirt
- Psychedelic Flashy T-shirt
- Long Hair (Men)
- Grow beards (Men)
- Round Glasses and Sunglasses
- Ethnic Accessories
- Favorite music is "Folk Song" and “Psychedelic Rock"
- Essential Items for Movement Activities: Helmets, Towels or Washcloths, Work Gloves, Gebalt Stick, Molotov Cocktails, Stones for Throwing to Police, etc.
- Guitar for breaktime during demonstration
There are two incidents that are too famous for this movement. The first is the "University of Tokyo Yasuda Auditorium Incident," in which all universities gathered together at the University of Tokyo and fought against the police. The other is the "Asama-Sansou Incident," in which several student activists took a female hostage at a recreational facility in the early 1970s and fought with police officers. After that, there were various executives who fled overseas, and international wanted were implemented.
As you can imagine, the Japanese police are quite strict about these criminal acts. Taking this opportunity, those movement activists were cracked down all by Japanese police and government at once, and the Shinjuku hippie culture also disappeared. Around this time, the Shinjuku subcenter plan came up, and the government embarked on full-scale Shinjuku development.
1970s-1980s: Started development of Shinjuku subcenter.
The young people who were burning hot in the 1960s cut their long hair, shaved their beards, and made their debut as members of society. Meanwhile, skyscrapers were built one after another in Shinjuku, starting with the opening of the Keio Plaza Hotel in 1971. And all kinds of entertainment facilities have opened in Shinjuku one after another. For example, around this time, the "host club" began to make the night in Shinjuku gorgeous, and the customer base of Golden Gai changed to "movie director," "writer," "poet," "media personnel." Speaking of fashion, the fashionable trend completely shifted to "Shibuya" around this time. On the other hand, office workers in "Suits" became a tributary around this time because there were also developed many large scales office building in Shinjyuku. In 1976, the station building "LUMINE" was born in Shinjuku, and from here it began to evolve as "the pioneer of the Shinjuku fashion building." In the 1980s, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building was still in Yuraku-Cho at that time, but the move to "Shinjuku" was confirmed around this time. From here, "Shinjuku Redevelopment" will rapidly proceed further.
1990s: The development of large-scale complex facilities and the development of public transportation were progressed. The development of "Nishi-Shinjuku" and "Kita-Shinjuku", which had not been developed yet, progressed further, and subway stations were created in both areas where transportation was inconvenient. Along with that, "Tokyo Opera City" was born, and many companies and cultural facilities were also born in these areas. Shinjuku Golden Gai was in a rush of "Land Raising" since the mid-end of the 1980s during the booming bubble economy. In the 90's, Golden Gai was completely "declining". At the same time as the opening of Tokyo Opera City, the super-large complex "Takashimaya Times Square" opened due to the redevelopment of the former cargo station site at the south exit of JR Shinjuku Station. It was an opportunity to change the situation to brand new "Shinjuku."
2000s: In the early 2000s, the subway network entered Shinjuku 3-chome, etc., and the development of public transportation progressed, eliminating the inconvenience of transportation. Around this time, "Host Clubs" also changed from the management style of the bubble boom era to the "Neo Host" style of operating at low prices. And they went into the TV world one after another. Now, I would like to introduce the fashions of Shinjuku's famous "Host" and "Neo Host" respectively.
<Host Fashion>
- Suit: Since the target customer base is the so-called "Wealthy Women", they create an image exactly to give a dream.
- A gorgeous hairstyle that has been neatly arranged
- Wearing luxury items as accessories
<Neo Host Fashion>
- Completely Plain Clothes: The style of plain clothes varies depending on each host, but it looks like an ordinary boy who seems to live next door. The reason is that the target customer base is "young" and the income is also "normal".
- Naturally arranged hairstyle
- Accessories they wear are also surprisingly normal
On the other hand, bars by young owners moved into Golden Gai to be once thought to have declined, those became diversified and gradually became popular. Around this time, foreign tourists gradually came to Shinjuku and transformed into a "city of cross-cultural exchange" where you can experience all kinds of culture.
Since the 1970s, fashion culture has completely shifted to "Shibuya / Harajuku", and while it is like a boring town of "Shinjuku", it is steadily creating its own "Night Social Culture". Even from the 1960s to the present, Shinjuku is basically a "Flashy" and "Energetic Town". That point may never be changed since 1960s. We are currently in a difficult situation, but we hope that can see everyone's smiles as soon as possible under the glittering neon lights.