As the sun sets on the Kamata district, the red lanterns are lit. Far off down the street in front of Keihin Kamata Station, a shadow stretches out against the pavement. This man, who is wearing a factory uniform, his back slightly bent, is “Tetsu.” Tetsu, a common name amongst the Kamata factories, is a completely fictional character who will act as our guide today.
Near the end of the Showa period (1926-1989), there were over 9,000 factories in the Ōta-ku area. By 1993 however ,this number had decreased to about 4,000, but to this day this area has maintained the largest number of factories and employees in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area. Within these 4,000 factories, over 80% of them have less than 9 employees.
Without a doubt, the Kamata area has been kept afloat by the support of the workers in these local factories. The number of factories have decreased dramatically since the golden age, and it is becoming increasingly rare to come across factory workers like “Tetsu.” But within this story, he will make a special appearance and we have decided to ask him to guide us. Well then, Tetsu, we’ll leave it to you
Oh, so you made it, huh? I’m Tetsu. Nice to meet ya.
So, what are you doin’ in Kamata? ...huh, if you wanted sightseeing you should’ve gone to Asakusa or Ueno, or if you wanted shopping you could’ve gone to Ginza or Shinjuku. There are barely any people around who go out of their way to come visit Kamata nowadays.
But back in my pop’s day, it was called the “movie capital.” You know a guy called Yasujiro Ozu? He’s famous for that movie “Tokyo Story” that came out in 1953. It’s famous all over the world.
Yasujiro spent most of his youth at Kamata Shochiku Studios, which was founded in 1920. At that time, Kamata was nothin’ but rice fields, and the studios were located right next to a perfume company’s factory. They say the smell of those perfumes was really strong in the studios!
Japanese film was dominated by Nikkatsu Studios at that time. They basically just made movies about stars living totally different lives from ordinary people. But Kamata Shochiku, they really wanted to change everything about Japanese movies. They made it a point to not use any techniques or actors from Japan’s film society at the time. Instead, they called engineers directly from hollywood and learned from them. They started calling the films that Kamata Shochiku made Kamata-Chō or the Kamata Style. The main roles weren’t played by no big film stars. By picking some average joe, they show a mother’s love or the image of a blue-collar worker. They didn’t only show the sadness of life but also the warm and cheerful aspects, too. Kamata Shochiku produced over 1,200 films...isn’t that amazing?
Before long, the time of silent movies was over, and the “Talkie” movies where both sound and visuals were recorded together became more mainstream. Of course, they couldn’t go recording “talkies” with all that background noise of the factories in Kamata, so in 1936 the studio moved from Kamata to Ofuna city in Kamakura.
By 1955 there were more than 20 movie theaters around Kamata station. Nowadays, the only ones left are “Theater Kamata” and “Kamata Takarazuka,” but these two theaters themselves are precious theaters that preserve that Showa flavor, ya know? It also helps that they are located smack dab in the middle of the shopping district. They show anime movies quite a bit, so a lot of the time mothers would drop their kids off at the movie and go shopping.
Kamata is a town that is super close to people’s lives. Even though it’s in Tokyo, it’s not all fancy like Roppongi. I like this kind of laid back atmosphere. It wasn’t made for stars, but for the average, everyday worker. Just like the Kamata-Chō movies.
Alright, enough with the talking, why don’t we head out for a night on the town? I’ll show ya around.
