Official

When there was no shop that claimed to be a "cafe", the explanation board of "Maison Konosu", which was a place for young artists to gather when there was no shop calling for "cafe".

The name of the store, which means "spring" in French, is the playwright Kaoru Osanai. I originally thought of a name associated with French "freedom", but a major rebellion incident occurred. So, if you get rid of it by the authorities by the left-wing impression of the store name…It seems to have changed it because of concern.

After all, the management team like amateurs had an unprecedented business format in Japan, and we initially aimed to create a membership organization, starting with regular customers. Seiki Kuroda, Ougai Mori, Kafu Nagai, Kotaro Takamura, Kitahara Hakushu, Junichirou Tanizaki…And the members are like that.

A group of Isamu Yoshii et al. (Kyobashi Library) gathering at "Cafe Plantan"

Of course, the center of the menu was coffee, but it also served sake such as cocktails and sandwiches were also specialties. What was quite Japanese was the placement of a "female boy" to the service staff. However, it seems that the customer was not a woman, but a salon-like atmosphere that promises intellectual stimulation and comfortable relaxation was preferred.

The audience gathered not only artists but also newspaper reporters, students, and even Shimbashi Geisha. From the photographs at that time, the walls and ceilings are full of graffiti, and you can see a pool-like mood full of young energy.

In August 1911, the same August 1911, "Cafe Lion", run by Seiyoken Tsukiji, appeared in a few months after the opening of "Plantan". At the intersection of Owaricho, that is, the corner where Chuo-dori and Harumi-dori St. intersect, it is currently located at the Ginza Place where the Nissan Motor Showroom is located on the first floor.

In the basement of the Ginza Place, there is a Lion Ginza 5-chome store, which has changed management and specializes in beer halls.

It was a large three-story building with a tavern on the first floor, a restaurant and entertainment area on the second floor, and songs and dances were performed. And the third floor is a special room. This is a professional hand in the food and beverage industry, where painters and poets fly their mouths, and the threshold is not very high due to the favorable conditions of the location. It seems that he succeeded in attracting a wide range of customers to families such as intellectuals and merchants.

The sale is the performance of a bronze lion statue placed on the first floor. When beer sold to a certain amount, it was said that it played a role in stimulating the economy with a "warming" mechanism. The good management sense was not limited to this, but it quickly became a popular spot by devising events every season.

Women's paid entertaining customers at "Cafe Lion" (Kyobashi Library Collection)

According to one report, the number of women's salaries is roughly 30, all of which are beautiful. It seems that it was an elegant atmosphere with matching kimonos and white aprons. Moreover, if he was a little bad, he was immediately fired. However, there is an episode that the phrase "humble route" and the flashy female salary were pulled out by rival stores selling aggressive services one after another.

Perhaps such a "lion" popularization strategy was unsatisfactory for literary young people who are at the forefront of the times, and it seems that there was a tendency to cut the atmosphere of this store into "humble" and keep it away. There are various things that people want from cafes, but in the case of "Cafe Paulista", which opened in December 1911 as the third place.

The store reminds me of France…At the same time. The founder, Ryu Mizuno, was a person who was instrumental in the Japanese immigration project in Brazil, and thanks to the Sao Paulo State Government, launched a coffee promotion activity in Japan, which led to the opening of the cafe. By the way, "Polista" means "Sao Paulo kid".

The land I chose was 2-13 Minaminabecho, right opposite the current Kojun Building (Ginza 6-8-7), where a social club created by Yukichi Fukuzawa and a U.S. department store are located. The predecessor of the building was also the building of the newspaper "Jiji Shimpo" founded by Fukuzawa, and at the time, Kan Kikuchi, a reporter at the time, drank coffee at "Paulista" every time he visited, and the number was 5 or 6 cups a day. Some testimony said that he was closed with a dubbed belly.

The place where Paulista once used to be is now a fashionable children's clothing store.

The present "Polista"

Perhaps because of the blessing environment for coffee beans, Paulista's coffee was relatively cheap and attracted customers' reputation. Bunroku Shishi wrote, "I often went to eat five-sen coffee and five-sen donuts" ("Chinchin Train").

In addition to the cheapness, the other thing that captured the hearts of the customers was the young service. It is said that the appearance of passing orders in English, such as "Three Kaffy" and "One Apple Pie", in pure white jackets and black pants mimicking the uniform of a naval officer, stirred the exotic atmosphere.

To give a unique point, you should also touch on the existence of a women-only room on the second floor. Here, Hiratsuka Rite, and the critics of the women's right acquisition movement, mainly the magazine "Ao Writer," visited every night, lamenting the present and talking about the future. This episode has an "Omake", and at "Cafe Paulista", which is currently relocating and operating to Ginza 8-chome, coffee is provided free for female customers wearing blue stockings. It was a service known to those who knew it, and I heard that the person was one or two years a year.

In this way, the Japanese cafe culture, which was born more than 110 years ago, has changed in various ways, such as popularization and entertainment, and eventually enters the Showa era and the shadow of the war sneaks and declines. I would like to trace the history of that area someday.…。

(* In the text, descriptions around 1911 are described as "cafe" other than proper nouns, and others are referred to as "cafe").

<Main References>

"Womegata Geidan" Kunitaro Kawarasaki Miraisha

"Ginza Hosomi" Kosei Ando Nakakou Bunko

"Cafe Paulista Monogatari started by the first coffee shop in Japan, the father of Brazilian immigrants."

Taizo Hasegawa

"Ginza Café History" Koichi Noguchi Heibonsha

"History of Ginza at night: Women who lived in the Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras-" Takako Koseki Minerva Shobo