### The Melody of Hope Carved on a Napkin: The Creative Tale of Shizuko Kasagi and Ryoichi Hattori (1947, Nishiogikubo)

### The Melody of Hope Carved on a Napkin: The Creative Tale of Shizuko Kasagi and Ryoichi Hattori (1947, Nishiogikubo)

In 1947, soon after the war, composer Ryoichi Hattori was on a crowded Chuo Line train at the end of the line when he suddenly thought of a light melody. On a night when Tokyo was shaken between turmoil and reconstruction, the sound was strangely hopeful. After getting off the train in Nishiogikubo, he ran into a coffee shop, drew a hand-drawn staff on a napkin, and wrote the melody in one stroke. It later became "Tokyo Boogie Woogie.

The melody was entrusted to Shizuko Kasagi, who has overwhelming vocal ability and a bouncy sense of rhythm. At first she was puzzled, but the more she sang, the more her body was drawn to the music. Hattori adjusted the music to make the most of her voice, and a song full of dynamism was born.

Tokyo Boogie Woogie" quickly swept Japan, and together with "Kaimono Boogie," "Jungle Boogie," and a series of other songs, brightened the dark times. Kasagi soon carved her name as the "Queen of Boogie. The music born in a small coffee shop in Nishiogikubo became a light that struck the heart of Japan at the end of the war.