The Streets Where My Songs Began
Osaka Shin-Kabukiza Theatre. From my earliest childhood, I grew up surrounded by the energy of this city.
This photograph was taken in Namba, Osaka, in the late 1960s.
The large building on the left is the famous Shin-Kabukiza Theatre.
To me, this city was one of my hometowns.
My mother was raised in a family deeply involved in Osaka’s entertainment world, organizing theatrical performances, traditional shows, and professional wrestling events.
Because of that, as a small child I often walked beside her through the cultural heart of Osaka—Shin-Kabukiza, Dotonbori, Shinsaibashi, and Sennichimae.
The people around me were unlike those most children ever met.
Actors.
Geisha.
Promoters.
Sign painters.
One of the theatre’s sign painters even taught me how to draw.
I remember being lifted effortlessly into the air by enormous professional wrestlers.
I remember walking hand in hand with my grandfather through the bustling streets of Dotonbori.
Wherever we went, people greeted him with warm smiles.
Many of them would gently pat my head.
Inside Shin-Kabukiza, actors and geisha did the same.
As a little boy, I secretly disliked it because every time they did, I felt my body sink under the weight of their hands.
Even that small feeling remains vivid in my memory.
Among those memories is another scene I have never forgotten.
Before my parents divorced when I was two years old, I can still remember them walking together through these streets.
Streetcars quietly rolled through Namba.
That scenery remains in my heart like a scene from an old movie.
Although I grew up in Kawachi, many of the emotional landscapes that later became my songs were already taking shape here.
The warmth of ordinary people.
The kindness shared between strangers.
The deep humanity that still lives within my music.
Perhaps that journey began here, in the streets of old Osaka.
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KAWACHIAN Story is not simply an autobiography.
It is the story of how the songs of KAWACHIAN – Kawachi Soul from Osaka, Japan came to life.
