The Jazz Kissaten Mine-san Built for Fujinomiya
Fujinomiya rewards the people willing to build something themselves, and Mine-san is one of them. A few years ago, he decided the town needed a proper jazz kissaten. So he opened one.
From rock to jazz
Mine-san grew up on rock music, the product of a band boom that filled Japanese TV with competing groups when he was in high school and college. Jazz arrived sideways, through the rock records he was already collecting.
"Edgy rock musicians often had a hint of jazz in their tracks. So I thought, maybe I'll give this a listen. What is this mind-blowing jazz for adults?"
By the time he was a student living away from home, a vinyl revival was in full swing and clubs were spinning danceable jazz late into the night. His attention never really went back to rock.
Twenty years running small businesses
Before Fujinomiya, Mine-san spent his longest stretch at a small apparel company, about 20 people, manufacturing clothing and importing goods as a wholesale distributor. Inside that same company, he helped launch a food and beverage arm and a hospitality business, managing all of it himself.
It's where he learned to build and run a small business from the inside. He enjoyed it. He also knew that staying would stop him growing, so he left.
Why Fujinomiya
A personal connection brought him here: someone had opened a small shop similar to what he used to run, but needed someone to lead it. He arrived at an age when, as he puts it, you stop being able to fake enthusiasm for things you don't care about.
"If it doesn't exist, I'll build it myself."
That line became the shop. Mine-san describes it as his own satellite, something built to broadcast culture into a town that, in his view, needed one.
Reading the room
The music doesn't rotate on a schedule. Mine-san watches the room and asks what would make the people in it most comfortable, whether that's staying quiet for someone reading or reading the mood of several tables at once. The vinyl itself isn't a collection to be precious about.
"They aren't rare or expensive collector items. I stock them purely as a functional listening library. Otherwise I'd end up acting like a record collector or a storage manager."
One go-to: an album led by a female tenor saxophonist from Chile, gentle enough to play loud without ever feeling intrusive. Another: Joel Ross, a vibraphonist Mine-san admires for playing that's relaxed but never flat.
The real product is atmosphere
Mine-san is direct about what he's actually selling.
"The atmosphere everyone creates together is the real product we're selling. Almost nowhere serves genuinely bad food or drinks any more, so atmosphere is where a place stands apart."
It's a niche audience by design, small but capable of real immersion. Even so, the shop has had its moments: broadcaster Peter Barakan has visited twice, and jazz guitarist Mei Inoue and bassist Marty Holoubek stopped in before heading off to play the Nippon Budokan as backing musicians. Mine-san is now reaching out to performers outside jazz entirely, hoping to bring more live sets into a room with strict capacity but, apparently, no shortage of interested artists.
On your visit to Fujinomiya, stay at SLEEEP Fuji or EXP._Atelier and plan your visit to Figaro Jazz Kissa
