The Mission of Sound House - Cheers to 30 years of keeping the music grooving through time and space!!

Time flies by in the blink of an eye. Time flies by so quickly. 30 years have passed since Sound House was founded on February 9, 1993. At the time, the economic bubble had just burst in Japan, and as a matter of course, there was a business where many things were sold at high prices just so companies could earn a large gross profit. This practice resulted in a massive difference between domestic and foreign prices, which caused Japanese prices to have an abnormally large gap with overseas prices. At the time, I was determined to fight against these unbalanced price differences.

Let me tell you a little bit about how I came to this decision. Against the backdrop of the economic bubble where it was common to sell products at twice the cost of their overseas prices, it seemed that there was a business opportunity in import and sales. Therefore, when I decided to return to Japan in 1989, I began to think about buying products in the States and selling them in Japan at lower prices than the Japanese market price. Having lived in the States for nearly 20 years, I had a rough understanding of the local prices for various commodities in the States, but it also seemed to be a good chance for importing in general. The first product that came to mind was a vitamin supplement. At the time, FANCL had not yet begun mail-order sales of supplements, so vitamins and other supplements were sold in Japan at much higher prices. Since I was always active, I visited a supplement factory in California and reached an agreement to sell their products in Japan. I even made arrangements to import them.

Later on, after returning to Japan and working on various projects, for whatever reason I forgot about mail-order sales of dietary supplements. Instead, I started running a small music venue, which is completely different from a mail-order business. I had been playing in bands since I was in high school and I majored in Studio Guitar at university. I then went on to play guitar in Hollywood for a year after graduation, so my love for music must have been implanted in my head. Moreover, my mother started to manage Yaneura, which is said to be one of the oldest music venues in Shibuya back in 1975, so I helped her to buy PA equipment. Therefore, music venues were always in the back of my mind. This strong desire for music led me to buy a bakery in the basement near Waseda Street, soundproof it, and open a music venue called the Petra Club.

The Petra Club was a live music venue located near Waseda University. Many students came and went every day, so it was designed to be a dining hall where they could enjoy grilled meat or fried chicken sets from the menu while watching videos of live performances during the day. At night, the place turned into a regular music club that booked live band performances. Furthermore, the place was open 24/7, so I worked my fingers to the bone: In the morning, I would start preparing food at 10:00 and then go into the kitchen to prepare miso soup. Preparing the set menus took a lot of work because there were a lot of diners who flooded in between noon and 1:00 p.m. It was quite tough for me and the only other staff member to prepare and serve set meals for 50 to 60 people in a small kitchen. However, I worked as a part-time manager at a teppan-yaki steakhouse in the States back in the 80’s, so I was used to working in food service. I only needed physical strength. While keeping the diner open, I served people who came to watch gigs at night. Sometimes I hit the stage myself and I finished working at midnight. This lifestyle continued for about two years.

Fortunately, the Petra Club got a helping hand from a female staff member who partly took over my manager position. I was so grateful. Thanks to this, I could leave Japan to spend half a year in a sacred place called Richardson Spring in the States after my wedding with my then fiancée fell apart. I learned a lot there and my mind felt refreshed. I returned to Japan with a brand new state of mind. Then, in January 1992, while I was meditating in the mountains in the middle of winter, a vision came to me that said to go to Narita, which was an unknown place to me. I didn’t know anyone there. I loaded my golden retriever Mitchie and my guitar into my old Honda Accord, and drove to Narita with no idea where I was going.

Then after a few encounters in Narita, a number of shocking events, and rapid changes in my life, I ended up establishing Sound House in only less than a year after I visited Narita. When I look back at this part of my life, things worked out a little too well. It’s not that I don’t think everything just went too perfectly, but I’m so convinced that it was my fate and I’m so grateful for everything. Mysterious encounters and the fact that the history of Sound House started out of nowhere: I worked so hard for the music industry and musicians merely out of my wish to help people, and the result is what turned out to be fruitful today. This leads me to my thoughts for the 30th anniversary of Sound House.

Life is full of ups and downs. I have experienced a lot of things, but among them, the 30-year history of Sound House was nothing but a series of miracles. Now Sound House is connected to Onagawa in Tohoku and to Takegashima and Tsurugisan in Tokushima. A library was built on a sacred place on Awaji Island, and Sound House also has a base in Kyoto. All of the things that happened were not coincidences but I’m sure that they had something to do with the mission that was given to Sound House. There is still more left for Sound House to do in order to help people and change society. I’m going to accomplish it, one by one...until the light of my life goes out...