The Taishō era was a short period of stability, prosperity, and liberalism in Japan. It was a time also of territorial consolidation after the first world war through treaty management of Northern china, parts of Russian, and Manchuria. Revenue poured in. And in Tokyo, the old wards east of the Imperial palace around Nezu, Yanaka in Bunkyo wards, saw unprecedented growth in merchant housing and residential row houses known as nagawa.
Many of Tokyo’s row houses remain, a reminder when the area was a vital urban hub before Ginza transformed in the Meji era, and Shinjuku after the late Showa. I like walking in Nezu at night. It reminds of Singapore’s old shophouse alleys, or, the fading cultural moments of Shanghai’s lillong backstreets. At night, Nezu’s structural forms are illuminated, not least also by new businesses moving in from the glitzier younger parts of town.
Tokyo has undergone several rebirths, returning from the ashes after multiple earthquakes, fires, and fire-bombing during World War II. Historic structures that have been spared these catastrophes are celebrated by their community as representatives of continuity that stretches back to the Edo-period. While some buildings are static as museums representing bygone eras, others such as Hantei and Kamachiku, the two restaurants discussed here, have reinvigorated their context, bringing value and acting as historical landmarks for the city-at-large.
