By a small train station to the north of Kyoto University, a sign beside a narrow staircase advertises a bar called Oomaya. It tempts you in with the words “rock music” and “smokin ok”. Through its open windows, classic 60’s-80’s rock music from Japan and the West are blasted from a record player or if you’re lucky being performed live. Following the staircase and entering a door across from an apartment, the spot is unassuming at first glance. However, its over 40 year old history is filled with the marks of previous owners and stories of Kyoto's music legends. Uncovering this backstory was a slow process due to language barriers and a lack of understanding of Kyoto’s old music scene. But after months of dedicated drinking at small concerts and jam sessions, I was left mystified by the space and its characters.


Fortunately, my silly questions and shitty drumming were always entertained by the bar’s owner and only employee, Kazu-san. After years of factory work in Hiroshima, Kazu moved to Kyoto in 2005 hoping to join a band. Attracted by the city’s historic rock scene, the 27 year old got in with a crowd of older punk artists. As he began playing music with them,they often wound up at the bar, then known as “Hawkwind” for drinks. At the time, the space along with Kyoto’s punk community were past their glory days. However the bar and its patrons
still clung on to this era, with Hawkwind being the spot to hear old recordings and retell stories. This includes the owner at the time Ta-ko san, who continues to play punk music across Japan to this day. Though he largely remains a mystery to me after our one and only meeting, his presence is felt in the bar. The space remains covered in Grateful Dead memorabilia Ta-ko collected from his time following the band around. He has also left to the bar the drumset from his youth, an over 40 year old kit that sparked me picking up the instrument again and starting a band in Japan. As Kazu continued to visit the bar for over a decade, he fell deeper into the community and became good friends with Ta-ko. 

Eventually in 2020, Kazu was asked to take over the bar and accepted. When I asked Kazu why he thought he was asked to be the next owner, he believed that it was largely his age that played into being selected. His youth made him stand out in the scene and allowed him to take the bar in a new direction. Ironically, this meant a turn away from the edgier punk music the bar was built on towards Kazu’s preferred classic rock, country, and jazz. As this was the version of the bar I encountered on my first visit, it was hard to imagine how much deeper the story of the space went. It was only when I came to write this article and reached out to Professor Mahon Murphy of Kyoto University that the history of the space became clear. Opening in the mid-80s as “Rose Garden”, founder Ranko-san was a hugely influential figure in the birth of Kyoto’s punk scene. As a co-founder of the “Beat Crazy” group, she was central to building punk in Kyoto, putting together events and bringing the community together. Ranko operated Rose Garden as a sort of hostess club, using profits to put on shows down the street at Kyoto University’s Seibu Kodo venue. 

These early 80s performances attracted the hard rockers of Kyoto’s punk scene, many of whom wound up squatting in the venue. With the bar being just up the street from campus and run by a fellow musician, it quickly became a hang-out spot and part of the culture. Though the space changed heavily since then, the influence of this era is notable. Most nights the bar hosts patrons from these glory days dropping by to relive old memories.Some nights I’ve been fortunate enough to run into these old timers when they’re in the mood to play. Impromptu concerts and jam sessions bring back an era of Kyoto’s music scene that's hard to find today.Despite its strong hold on the past, Kazu has also worked to make the space work for new demographics. From my first visit with a group of drunk foreign students that crashed the quiet bar and turned it into a party, to concerts of varying quality and genre he let us put on for free, Kazu exemplified the hospitality and freedom of Kyoto’s music scene.