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Service-Industry Business Complexes
--The Growth and Development of "Terminal Culture"1--Publication Date:199203
Book title: MEDIA, CULTURE, AND EDUCATION IN JAPAN [A COLLECTION OF PAPERS]
Publisher : National Institute of Multimedia Education
Unfortunate Osaka citizens living in this smoke-darkened metropolis, its once sparkling waters gone as if in a dream of yore.... let each of you breathe at ease in your own home, your own castle. What we have always spoken of as "clothing, food and shelter" must be rearranged in its natural sequence to "shelter, bread and clothing".... coming into the city to work the day through, day upon day, batters the brain; you who would ease your tired body at home should awaken the following morn to Chanticleer's call, rejoice in the evening to the music of insects in the heath, savor fresh, hand-cultivated vegetables. You should demand the spacious garden of your desires that you might live amidst these pastoral pleasures.... If one were to propose to present this idyllic home to you, without hesitating you would decide in favor of living in the country. Just as you expected! This perfect new homesite, this idyllic new house, is right at hand. Read carefully the following: "Exemplary Suburban Life--Ikeda New Town".
Summing up this quotation, and translating a bit, the message is, "Get out of the polluted central city and live in the suburbs. Move to Ikeda Village". The advertisement, a type familiar in today's newspapers, appeared in 1910; it was composed by Kobayashi Ichizo, then thirty-seven and a pioneer in concepts of suburban living.
At that time Kobayashi was operating the Mino-Arima Electric Railway which ran through rough fields touching virtually no areas of high population or traffic. The three-year old railway was unprofitable, and Kobayashi attempted to increase the number of passengers by developing housing along the route. Thus he turned his energies to promoting and selling the "exemplary homesites" and "idyllic houses" mentioned in the advertisement. Rather than profiting from the homes themselves (he sold them for exactly what it had cost to clear the land and erect the buildings), Kobayashi capitalized on the increase in rail traffic that followed.
Despite low, bargain-prices, it took some degree of courage for people to move into a newly-developed area. They were not certain if the railway company was completely trustworthy. Kobayashi responded to this problem by instructing his own employees to buy houses along the line. He thus hoped to gain the confidence of prospective buyers and encourage still more sales along the route.
This sound salesmanship paid off as one community after another was developed and sold out within six months. After Ikeda, he opened Toyonaka in 1914, Okamoto in 1921, Senriyama in 1922, Takatsuki in 1929, and an area north of Nishinomiya Station in 1930.
Kobayashi evolved an ingenious and innovative method of selling all of these homes. In 1930 the price for a house of 1,200 square feet on a lot three times that area was about 5,400. Since the average salaried worker did not have such a fat savings account, the homes were sold on a monthly installment plan. The payments were made at the railroad's main office at Umeda Station in central Osaka, a convenient location for commuters who traveled into Umeda Station everyday. That system greatly benefitted the railway also, since no cost was incurred in the collection of payments on the houses.
Residential development along the line became the railroad's standard technique for increasing passenger income. Later it expanded and was renamed the Kei-han-shin Kyuko (Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe Express) or Hankyu, as it is more popularly known. Its new line to Kobe, opened in 1920, made particularly strong inroads into housing development. The evidence is there today as the track stretches straight out ahead, marking the shortest distance between Osaka and Kobe. Ordinarily, railroads are constructed through populous regions, curving in and out to cover as many towns as possible in their paths. But Hankyu simply laid straight stretches of track and afterwards built settlements at points along the route. While the rival Hanshin railway train required 40 minutes to cover the distance between Osaka and Kobe, Hankyu took just 25.
At the outset, Hankyu tried to increase its number of passengers and runs with the slogan, "The Hankyu Railway - Where You Can Always Get a Seat". To counter this, Hanshin proclaimed it was the railway though; competition was fierce, but always done in a spirit of playfulness. This is one of the finer points of the Osaka style.
The beginning of a similar trend in Tokyo was marked by the establishment of the Den'en Toshi (Garden City) Company in September 1918. The founder was Shibusawa Eiichi, an outstanding industrialist of the time. Shibusawa's idea was to build suburban "garden cities", such as he had seen on a visit to the United States. He selected a site in Tokyo's western outskirts, and created the design for an ideal garden city. The functional plan, drawn by Yabe Kintaro, gave the new city radial and circumferential streets that intersected. The result was Den'en Chofu, still one of the finest residential districts in the metropolis. To link the garden city to central Tokyo, the Mekama Line (Meguro-Kamata) was built, and opened in 1922. Then, in 1927, a line was constructed from Shibuya to Futagotamagawa. These two became the foundation for the Tokyu electric railway.
The giants of Japan's private railways are Hankyu in Osaka and in Tokyo, Tokyu. One in the west, one in the east. But Hankyu was the leader, both in originating the concept and in implementing it. Kobayashi served as a consultant to the Den'en Toshi Co. making a monthly visit to the capital. When Kobayashi died, Goto Keita, president of the Tokyu company, paid him tribute at his funeral. In saying that Tokyu's success was the result of Kobayashi's efforts, Goto was not simply making a polite ceremonial gesture. Commuters and Customers
The construction of housing along the railway's route had the desired effect of increasing the income of the railway company. Shibusawa Hideo, the son of Shibusawa Eiichi and at that time a manager of the Den'en Toshi Company, recalls: The Den'en Toshi office was in front of Senzoku Station, and from there we would ride in to Meguro. The cars were pretty empty, which was a pity. Once in a while, when it was crowded, I would stand up and offer my seat to a passenger, with great pleasure. After a while, the line came to be crowded every day, and then it was a pleasure to be able to sit. How's that for class?
The Mekama Line began to fill its cars at about the same time as the Hankyu Railway, in 1929-1930. But the Hankyu had the Takarazuka, Kobe and Kyoto lines which all terminated at Umeda. A new type of citizen was born: the man who commuted between his office in the north section of Osaka and his home in the "suburbs". By 1924, the number of these commuters had reached 100,000.
Watching these 100,000 commuters come and go daily, Kobayashi had an idea. Each one of them carried a wallet in his pocket. They would probably like to do a little shopping for their families on the way home. To make it convenient for them, why not open a small market at Umeda? Thus, the first floor of Hankyu's Umeda station was leased to Shirokiya, which sold confections, and on the second floor a Hankyu-managed restaurant opened. The experiment succeeded. Earnings were high, and in 1925 the Shirokiya lease terminated and the railwaymanaged Hankyu Market opened. The store, only 1,000 square meters, sold foodstuffs, books and sundries. Business increased, and as much as 130,000 a day (in current prices) was taken in.
Then, one day, Kobayashi got in touch with Ito Chubei, a textile tycoon. "Say, Chubei, you've been calling my store a peanut stand. What do you mean by that?"
"About the only thing anyone can buy easily is peanuts. Why don't you make your shop into a real department store?" Kobayashi smiled and replied, "To tell the truth, that's just what I wanted to discuss with you."
Until that time, just about every Japanese department store had evolved from a clothing-store, such as Mitsukoshi and Takashimaya; none had their beginnings in selling pancakes laced with sweet bean paste. Despite the apparent handicap, Ito encouraged Kobayashi to make his shop into a department store. After prudent preparations, the shop-turned-department-store succeeded splendidly. The conversion began in 1929, proceeded in three stages, and required three years for completion. Facing Midosuji avenue, the stately store was eight stories tall, and burrowed two stories into the ground.
Riding the train directly into the city to shop at the new store was a convenience suburban housewives had never known before. Hankyu trains now carried shoppers in addition to commuters. But these shoppers rode during the slow daytime hours and unlike the commuters they were not eligible to purchase discount passes. In that respect, they were first-class customers. From every angle Hankyu's management was on its toes.
A railway-operated department store was a completely new idea. In all the world, there was no precedent. And it was a success! Subsequently, people began to call the store the "terminal department store" (Taminaru depato). Linking the two was mutually beneficial: the store increased passenger traffic, and the railway brought customers right up to the door of the department store. There was nothing for the owners to do but to count the daily receipts.
In Tokyo, Goto Keita was watching this with great interest. In Nanaju nen no jinsei [Seventy years of my life] he wrote: From start to finish I owe everything to the wisdom of Kobayashi Ichizo. The idea of building a department store was his, and I made one just like Hankyu's.
Goto's store is the Tokyu Department Store (long known as Toyoko Department Store) at Shibuya Station, in Tokyo. It began as a restaurant in 1927, and seven years later was opened as a department store. That Goto followed Kobayashi's lead by only two years was an achievement in itself.
Both these station department stores, especially the Hankyu, were unorthodox in many ways. Kobayashi believed that the greatest appeal of his department store should be the restaurant. He had gained confidence in restaurant management in the days of the Hankyu Market; and he had a particular liking for curry and rice. While sailing to Europe, he had acquired a taste for this hybrid Indo-Japanese dish, and he sought out the ship's cook for his store's restaurant. His curry and rice, for only 20 sen a plate, was Kobayashi's pride.
Before long, Hankyu's curry and rice became so popular that the amount of beef required daily to fill orders soared upwards. This gave Kobayashi an idea. In order to obtain a stable supply of beef he made arrangements for certain farmers to raise beef cattle for the exclusive use of Hankyu. At the peak of the demand, these farmers were raising 7,000 head for Kobayashi to feed his customers, who averaged 25,000 a day during the week and 65,000 on Sundays. A one-day record of 115 bushels of rice, 10 head of cattle, and 78 gallons of sauce attests to the popularity of the restaurant. Takarazuka Fans to the Fore
Among the first of Hankyu's many ventures was the Takarazuka Girls Theater. The place was nothing more than a farming village at the end of the Mino-Arima line until the Hot Springs and later the Takarazuka Troupe came into being. This was the origin of the all-girl theatrical and dance troupe which is now well known throughout Japan and has become a popular tourist attraction for visitors from overseas. Its history is as old as the history of the railway's housing development. Hankyu was able to profit by taking people to Takarazuka, and also from their recreational activities there.
Takarazuka Girls Theater became the outstanding symbol of the culture of young girls. By 1924 an auditorium seating 4,000 had been completed. In 1927 Mon Paris was presented, and became the talk of the nation. About 1931, Rose Paris and Sultan Bank, directed by Shirai Tetsuzo, established the Takarazuka style. A finishing touch was provided by A Collection of Flowery Poems, in 1933. Young girls went crazy over the play; photoprints of the "Zuka girls" sold in fantastic numbers. Most Japanese women aged forty or fifty today still sentimentally recall the stage names of their one-time favorites.
Takarazuka "culture" enjoyed such popularity in Tokyo that a Takarazuka Theater was constructed there, opposite the Imperial Hotel; to this day it attracts women and girls by the busload. From that time the chorus girls (divided into the Flower Group, Snow Group, Moon Group and the Star Group) rotated performances in Takarazuka and Tokyo.
Tokyo Takarazuka: the company took the Sino-Japanese character to from Tokyo and takara (alternate pronunciation, "ho") from takarazuka, to coin "toho", and thus the Toho Motion Picture Company was created. In this way, all sorts of ostensibly unrelated business ventures followed one upon another-a railroad housing development, a department store, curry and rice, an all-girl song-and-dance troupe, and a motion picture company. These seemingly disparate ventures have one point in common: They are all in the service industries. Hankyu, and Tokyu, were thus pioneer conglomerates in the service industry as a whole. In Tokyo, the Seibu and Keio railway companies followed the same pattern; in Nagoya the same was true for Meitetsu, and in the Osaka area, it was Kintetsu, Hanshin and Nankai.
Kobayashi Ichizo, who conceived the idea of the recreational conglomerate, was symbolic of his times. This man, once called a "modern Hideyoshi", was unquestionably a visionary with great intellectual prowess. But it should be stressed that his idea could be realized because the time was exactly right.
One outstanding feature of that society was the growth of a new urban middle class. Both Hankyu and Tokyu responded to the rapid increase of white collar workers; the services the railroad offered met some of the needs of this new social group. The "pastoral flavor" sales pitch of suburban homes appealed to the white collar worker caught up in the daily grind of office work. His modest savings made the monthly installment plan highly desirable. With the small amount of money left over, he had the moderate pleasure of taking the family for an outing to Takarazuka on Sundays, the opportunity to savor curry and rice when shopping at the terminal department store, the appeal of rummage sales and small purchases on the way home. In essence, this is the life-style of the white collar worker and the service conglomerates tapped and channeled, one after another, the desires of this group of people.
Thus, the "terminal culture" which grew out of the private railway terminal, differed in both function and character from the "banish-one's-worries" subcenters of Asakusa in Tokyo and Sennichimae in Osaka. Asakusa and Sennichimae were old middle class, the townsman's Times Square. Umeda and Shibuya were new middle class, centers for the petit bourgeois.
Perhaps this contrast is too impressionistic, but it persists in reality today. In Osaka, it is the difference between North and South, and in Tokyo it is the difference between Shibuya and Shinjuku on the one hand and Asakusa and Ueno on the other.
"Terminal culture" was a product of "commuter culture", born of the great growth of the new middle class and the increase in density of Japanese cities. Petit bourgeois, the single-family "culture homes", the recreation grounds.... these are the symbols of those people who sustained "terminal culture". That which they sustained proliferated, and developed into what has become a vital part of daily life in Japan's metropolises today.
The beef in the curried rice was nutritious indeed; the pleasure rides and amusement machines on the roof of Tokyu Department Store, the Tamagawa River Recreation Center, and Mino as well soon bustled with crowds of petite bourgeoisie. They were signs of peace and plenty, and symbols of new developments in Japanese urban life. Caught up in the amusement-bent throngs they felt that this mild condition of plenty would last forever.
Our Papa goes to the company
Our Mama goes to the dance
It's Mama who always uses taxis and
It's Papa who always walks
This is from the famous song "Mon Papa", sung in the Takarazuka production of Rose Paris in August 1933. Theirs was a pleasant age.
But even this culture modestly formed by the recreational centers in a time of peace was pressed by the waves of change. In May of 1934, the girls at Takarazuka donned mannish costumes to sing "The Pacific March", and "Glory to the Battleship's Flag". Kobayashi Ichizo became an advisor to the Cabinet Research Bureau, and finally had to commit himself to working on behalf of the government.
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