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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the history of Seibu Kōdō, a legendary concert venue at the campus of Kyoto University. In order to chart its role and significance within the popular music culture of 1970s Japan, the focus is placed on its links to radical student movements and community-based management model.

Paper long abstract:

A building with an imposingly tall roof reminiscent of a temple hall stands hidden on the edge of the main campus of Kyoto University. Initially erected to commerate the birth of Crown Prince Akihito, Seibu Kōdō (Western Auditorium) first came to national prominence as a venue of Kyoto's emerging arts and music scene. This paper aims to bring together and examine the wealth of apocryphal evidence and urban legends surrounding Seibu Kōdō in order to chart its role and significance within the urban popular culture of 1970s Japan and beyond. In the beginning of the decade, the fortnightly concert series MOJO WEST provided a forum for a number of now-legendary local musical acts such as Murahachibu, Zunō keisatsu, Carmen Maki, PYG and many others. At the same time, Seibu Kōdō became associated with student movements and left-wing politics of the era: the three stars that still decorate its roof allegedly represent the souls of the Japanese Red Army members involved in the Lod Airport massacre in 1972. By the second half of the decade, Seibu Kōdō's status as a concert hall had crossed national boundaries, attracting performers such as Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, Talking Heads, XTC and The Stranglers. After an infamous incident during the concert by The Police in 1980 any further performances by foreign acts were suspended. However, Seibu Kōdō has remained an important presence in Kyoto's alternative band scene to this day and has undergone virtually no changes in its appearance or operating model despite repeated efforts by the university authorities. The venue's implied links to radical politics and its peculiar community-based management model exemplified by the Seibu Kōdō Renkaku Kyōgikai deserve particular attention for considering its potential to address the dynamics of this era in Japanese history characterised by both conformity and dissent.