Some bars also have Golden Gai “taxes”, but it’s always clearly indicated outside whether an establishment has cover charges. Also be careful with taking photographs of anyone without permission. And try not to show up to these tiny bars with an entourage – locals and foreigners alike are rarely as welcome in large groups. For example, it’s considered taboo here to linger at a bar, especially when there are people waiting outside. Venture respectfully into the Golden Gai stretch and follow “the rules”. Make your way through the maze of alleys, up steep and narrow stairwells covered in posters to try your luck with intimate second-floor and back-of-house joints offering a laid-back intimate drinking den or something more surreal. Most of the bars ( nomiya) are so tiny, with a maximum of 5 or six seats, that it’s basically just you and the barman, which explains why some are choosy about who they invite in. The narrow streets of Golden Gai © David Panevin If bars have English menus or seem more inviting with their decor, it’s an indicator that they’re comfortable opening up their doors. The Golden Gai area still remains incredibly tight-knit and not always keen to let in tourists or non-regulars (you’ll quickly be able to tell from the vibe outside which ones those are). Golden Gai in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo pref., Japan. It’s also got about 200 little bars crammed into its handful of alleys: The Golden Gai stretch, however, is the only part of that old red light district that survived, relatively untouched, reminiscent to the Tokyo that Watanabe Katsumi captured. Today, the Kabukicho district still caters to naughty nightlife, albeit with a vibe that’s more Blade Runner than anything with its sea of digital billboards. In 1949, the American commander of the Allied occupation ordered the dismantling of the black market stalls and brothels, forcing the Tokyo demimonde to disperse and find smaller, less-noticeable pockets of the district to operate in. The bars were so intimate, they could only cater to a handful of customers at a time, making them ideal for mob meet-ups and social gatherings of a dubious nature. Kabuki became a place for prostitutes to operate in makeshift brothels and Yakuza (gangsters) to break bread in the nomiya (small counter bars) that dotted every back alley. Everything was on the menu, including sex. From contraband to everyday goods, you could buy anything on the black market that a heavily rationed economy prohibited. A black market and makeshift tenement-style houses rose up amidst the devastation instead. The “Kabuki” theatre project however fell through, but the name stuck. In the aftermath of World War II, the area was designated to host an elaborate new centre for a “Kabuki” theatre, which is essentially a historical and traditional Japanese dance-drama in five acts – somewhere between Broadway and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. More than 100,000 people were killed in the firebombing inferno and 15.8 square miles of Tokyo was burned to the ground. The Great Yamanote Air Raid is somewhat a forgotten historical event often overshadowed by the H-bombs. Most of this area was blown to smithereens in the Spring of 1945 when the US Army dropped hundreds of bombs and over a thousand tons of incendiaries on urban areas of Tokyo in a single night.
Curious about finding “vintage” Japan and how we might stay true to our “Don’t Be a Tourist” motto in its busy capital of neon-lit skyscrapers, we realised Watanabe Katsumi makes the perfect insider guide to discovering the secrets of Tokyo’s underworld…įirst, let’s get the lay of the land in Kabukicho, the once seedy neighbourhood in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo, where the photographer’s subjects reigned supreme.
#Red light district historical drama china archive#
Few dared enter the underbelly of the city like him and the treasure trove of images he’s left us with today are a gorgeously gritty archive of stories and places that history often sweeps under the rug. As a drifting photographer, his lens was a stealthy observer of Tokyo’s red light district, snapping hundreds of photos of its drag queens, gangsters, prostitutes, and other fringe society members in the 1960s and 70s. Watanabe Katsumi was the king of treading lightly.
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