Everyday Yokohama

Research Project Annotation
Yokohama

Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan by population, after Tokyo, and the most populous municipality in Japan and the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture. Yokohama rapidly developed after the end of Japans isolation in 1868 into Japan’s most famous port city and is today one of the major harbours operating in Japan. Heavily destroyed during the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, the city was rebuilt using the rubble for new land reclamation work including the well known Yamashita Park near the harbour front near downtown Yokohama. Being again destroyed by air raids during World War II, the city was rebuilt once more and became an official ordinance in 1956.

With a new subway system in 1972 and the construction of the Minato Mirai 21, a major development including a large portion of reclaimed land, in 1983, the city developed into an international event and exhibition place. Other places like the largest Chinatown in Japan, Yokohama Landmark and Marine Tower are nowadays wellknown sightseeing spots and helped to increase the attraction of the city. Preparing for the 150th anniversary of the opening of the port in 2009, the city started to think about new strategies to upgrade run down urban areas including areas near the port and the historical downtown (City Yokohama 2009).

The Case of Koganecho, Yokohama – from Homeless, Porn to Art Town

Akira Kurosawa’s movie High and Low (1963) shows Yokohama’s dark district Koganecho during the 1960s and we can see street scenes set in the brothel district in which drug addicted, drunk and dirty prostitutes gather and put themselves into service. These kinds of scenes were part of the daily life in Koganecho, until 2005 when the area was raided and cleaned by the city and police. The brothels disappeared together with the migrant women who made up the main part of the prostitutes. Yet, even though the prostitutes, homeless and other dark figures are no longer present in the daily scene, people’s stories, memories and experiences are still part of the city’ context, either found in form of remaining buildings, songs, texts or other materiality which remind the observer of the past.

Having observed daily activities in Koganecho, I will present after the description of the place the everyday life and creative activities which stretch from mundane activities as eating, shopping, gathering and going to karaoke to specific encounters and behaviours around massage parlours, pink cinemas and bars which just become alive at night.

Koganecho, the golden town, is an area which was bombed flat during World War II. After the end of the war, a black market was soon set up, becoming known as the spot for illegal trading and activities. And even though drugs were banned in 1968/1969, more and more sex workers offered their service in the district and around the year 2000 150 chon-no-ma (brothers operated by one woman, similar to the red window type of prostitution businesses known from Amsterdam) were operating. Most sex worker came from different developing countries, especially South East Asia.

To brush up Yokohama’s international image, the city decided around the same time that it is time to clean up the district and offer it a fresh start. The whole initiative lasted several months and a new problem was arising: how to finance the upgrading of the area now that the cash flow and attraction of the brothel district was gone. Even though the area was now uprooted and sanitized, the streets look empty, almost like shutter towns known from remote Japanese cities in the country site and did not attracted many new customers. Thus what kind of policy would help to bring new ideas and fresh life into the neighbourhood?

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