About Sarigenaku

Sarigenaku is a small jazz bar in Kitano-zaka, Kobe. It first opened in 1965, in a back alley of Motomachi, as a quiet jazz café. Years later, it moved up to Kitano-zaka, where it still plays records from the golden age of jazz — the 1950s and 60s — much as it did then.

The name

The name Sarigenaku comes from the singing of Anita O’Day, whose voice the previous owner loved. There is something in her phrasing that doesn’t insist on itself, and yet stays with you. The word sarigenaku means “casually,” or “without making a thing of it.” That is the kind of room we have tried to keep for the past sixty years.

The master

The bar is now run by Kimio Tomiyama, who took over more than forty years ago. As a student in Tokyo he played in a university jazz society, and after returning to Kobe he performed with local musicians, and has been close to the city’s music ever since. He is warm to first-time guests, and equally easy with those who would rather not talk. Either is welcome here.

The music

We play 1950s and 60s jazz, mostly. Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Anita O’Day — the great names of that era, drawn from the shelf one by one and played on a YAMAHA NS-1000M. You don’t need to know the title or the player. You only need to listen, if you feel like it.

Regulars and travelers

Some guests have come for thirty years; their children come too. Others walk in once, on a single Kobe night, and we never see them again. Both kinds of evenings happen here. What they have in common is a willingness to listen, and to let the hour pass slowly.

If it is your first visit, please also see For First Timers.