This record store and art gallery is cultivating a culture

Catch a local train at Shin-Osaka Station and head northwest, passing forests, rice paddies, and cornfields. Travel through lush green landscapes and watch city buildings give way to the countryside
agriculture. After 90 minutes, you’ll arrive at Hojocho Station in Kasai City, Hyogo Prefecture, the terminus of the single-track, single-car Hojo Line. From there it’s a short walk to the Taisho Seimei Building, home to Todaira Records’ brick-and-mortar store and the Void Gallery, an unlikely cultural center in this sleepy city in rural Kansai.

Photo by Hiro Nakamura

local communities and global culture

Since the two companies opened in 2020, they have formed a creative community of artists from Hyogo Prefecture, the wider Kansai region and beyond. Enthusiasts travel across the county to attend the building’s monthly events: music events at Tobira Records and artist exhibitions at the Void Gallery.

Despite its relatively secluded location, artists from further afield also travel to Kaixi. Welcoming guests from as far away as the UK, US and Tenerife, Spain, Tobira Records has become a fixture for many experimental and ambient musicians who tour Japan. During these events, the Void Gallery is open to serve drinks and give visitors tours of the space. And vice versa: any exhibition at the Void Gallery is likely to see Tobira Records open its doors and welcome customers to peruse the wares.

Audio Discovery Gateway

Tobira Records is an online and brick-and-mortar record store run by ambient musician and former salaryman Takahiro Yorifuji (aka Hakobune) and Australian illustrator Rosie Ball. Four years ago, the two left Tokyo for Raito’s hometown of Kasai and opened a record store specializing in selling vinyl records, cassettes, CDs, clothing and other music-related paraphernalia.

The store’s name means “door” in Japanese and aims to be a gateway to new sonic experiences. Yorifuji’s decade of work as an ambient musician meant they were off to a good start. The connections the musician made in Kyoto and Tokyo allowed them to stock the store before they had a brick-and-mortar store, with Raito’s mother’s house serving as a storage room. A brick-and-mortar store was taken over by Raito’s childhood friend Daigo Ito, who, luckily, had just opened a store in Kasai: the Taisho Seimei Building.

The brick-and-mortar store is a labor of love, as the company generates most of its revenue from online sales to customers in Japan and abroad. Open Friday through Monday from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 noon, any eager visitor must visit the welcome space early.

There’s a lot to see inside; not only are there rows of record boxes, the store is also filled with items to admire and touch is encouraged. A range of merchandise is available, as well as a variety of instruments and samplers for customers to explore. You’ll also find a cassette wall and a large, comfortable sofa. The space is light, airy, and intentional. “We hope that when customers come to our store, they feel like they can spend a long time looking for and discovering new things,” said Yorifuji and Ball tokyo weekend.

Photo by Hiro Nakamura

Develop artistic expression

One floor above Tobira Records, the Void Gallery, run by the aforementioned Daigo Ito and his wife Naomi, is bringing art to Kasai. After graduating from art college, Ito tried a salaryman life, but like Raito, he realized it wasn’t for him. He turned to construction, returning to his hometown of Kaixi with Naomi to build their own house. Soon after, he discovered a fifty-year-old building that he had transformed into a void. He didn’t look back.

The rarity of rural urban-style spaces is not lost on Ito, which is part of the reason why he is so keen to try running a gallery space in Kasai. Being a rural area, Kasai doesn’t even have a movie theater, and there are no other galleries nearby. “My starting point was to create something that didn’t exist,” he said.

The Void Gallery is a gray space made of cold concrete and exposed pipes, the kind of space you would find in Tokyo or other big cities. It has large windows that let in lots of light, with views over the countryside to the rear and the town’s only shopping center to the front. The gallery’s spacious and stylish interior looks out of place with the rest of the town, making it seem like a hidden gem to those in the know.

Each month, the gallery hosts a new artist or event, showcasing everything from ceramics and sculpture to painting and photography. Previous customers have also visited pop-up shops, such as one from Meza, a knick-knack shop that came all the way from Ehime Prefecture.

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