Yes, I have. I am a traveler. (Smile) I have thriftily traveled throughout Japan since I was young and visited local jazz-tearooms. I have even gotten a night’s lodging at a stranger’s house like a traveling priest (laughter.) I collected matches something like a proof of my pilgrimage, and then….so many of them! I have described the footprint of my trips in my website, and the title is “Matches, Labels, and Travels” (laughter.) Matchboxes I collected and my traveling are deeply related. The matches I was given at a jazz-tearoom were a certain kind of traffic bill for my traveling.

Yes, it does. The match collection describes my travel record during my age in 20’s to about 36 years old. I went to a town I didn’t know and visited a jazz-tearoom, and then asked for 3 matches at least. The reason was; I needed 3 matches by all means; one for my own use, one for my collection, and one for exchange. However, jazz-tearoom owners didn’t like my asking for three matches (laughter.) Many of owners were grim-looking those days, so I often balked to ask for matches (laughter.) However, the more we talked, the more friendly the owner became, and I told him that I was from Tokyo. Then, he gave me 3 matches, and I even enjoyed information exchange and hearing about local events.

It is exactly so. Looking at a match label in the collection brings those days’ memories to us, and I think it is the visual function power that works through match labels and takes us back to circumstances of that chaotic time.

As for matches given away by jazz-tearooms, wide flat type matches were more ideal. They were made proportionally same with a LP jacket. Owners of jazz tearooms fervently loved in designing their stores’ match labels as if producing mini record jackets. Consequently, tearoom customers who were given those matches had fun in displaying them in their rooms (laughter).

That is why shop owners didn’t want to give away matches though they were made for a purpose of give-away (laughter). Shop owners could give away matches if customers would use them appreciatively but they didn’t want to give away if matches would be scamped. I think it was because match production actually was not free of charge. Those days, an ordering lot of match production was 5,000 pieces, or 10,000 pieces, and the cost was high. (These days, 2,500 pieces is the minimum lot.)

Yes, it is so (laughter).

I think there is another reason why matches were important in a jazz-tearoom. We were not able to use a lighter in a jazz-tearoom those days. We had to use matches in the tearoom.

In a jazz-tearoom, very quiet circumstance was required so that everyone could listen to the music earnestly. The shop circumstance was “Speak only in a small and low voice” (laughter). Therefore, using a lighter was definitely an unfavorable action. A small metallic sound of opening a lighter, and a relatively large sound of lightening a cigarette were an anathema and other customers stared at the culprit (laughter). Therefore, people used only matches when smoking a cigarette. Sound of striking a match stick was easily absorbed in jazz sounds. Besides, I think looking at the flame of a match stick was something else when you were embraced by jazz music… It was as if doing meditation.

60’s and 70’s were exactly years of coffee and coffee shop culture, which was a pinnacle of coffee cultural glory. Being a customer of a coffee shop was considered to be more refined or sophisticated than being a customer of a bar (laughter). A coffee shop those days was a place where many people of different cultures gathered; then information and new cultural issues were sent out from the place. Could we say that the coffee shop was an information source type existence in a certain meaning those days? However, a student who loved going to a coffee shop was often determined as a villain by adults.

My acquaintance named Michael S. Molasky has been studying about jazz-tearoom in Japan, and he says that Japanese jazz-tearoom is very peculiar; peculiar like terakoya (a small private school), which does not exist in the U.S.A.

Yes, it had an image of “base of the culture” charged with a great deal of energy. Therefore, we were proud of being a fan of jazz music. Especially, being a fan of “Modern jazz” meant handsome; the music had to be modern jazz, (laughter).

First time was when I was 16-year-old in summer vacation. My high school senior friend took me to a jazz tearoom. The name was “DIG” in Shinjuku, Tokyo. I was tremulous in the tearoom…Then Charles Mingus’ music, ‘Pithecanthropus Erectus’ and ‘Oh Lord, don’t let them drop that atomic bomb on me!’ were played, and I was stunned wondering, “Wow! What the good music! I want to know the names of the music!” Then, tearoom’s match picture drawn by Bernard Buffet also impressed me with impact. The scene that combined music sounds and match label design on the first day was recorded in my brain vividly (laughter). That was my first experience of jazz music and starting point of my tearoom history, which means these DIG matchboxes are special ones for me.

I wrote the name of music I listened then (laughter). My friend made the box for me to keep DIG matchboxes (smile).

There are some shops that used pictures of Marilyn Monroe as the design motif. It is because jazz was flourishing in the 60’s. And the symbol of the United States in 60’s was Marilyn Monroe (smile).

Unfortunately yes. However, about 600 to 700 jazz-tearooms are still operating (including live music houses) in Japan. To me, ‘matches’ means travelling and encountering people with sweet and sour memories; ultimately, it is an eye-witness of my life.