kissa Archives - Resistor Magazine |

October 1, 2020

October 1, 2020

Tokyo Jazz Kissa: Vintage High Fidelity with #VINYL

Whether it’s calligraphy, the serving and drinking of tea, or the uniquely Japanese experience of listening to jazz LPs playing through rare vintage sound systems at specialized cafés, these ceremonies are revered.

February 16, 2022

Hi-fi Haunts: The Little Jerry – Toronto, Canada

Talk less and listen more is an unspoken code amongst patrons of Japanese listening bars and cafes known as kissaten or kissa. It is to these kissa which ‘listening bars’ opening around the globe in the last several years can trace their roots, including Toronto’s The Little Jerry, a kissa of a more social stripe.

September 26, 2022

Jazz Kissa at Home

It doesn’t take much imagination to realize jazz kissa – jazz cafes – could have only been conceived from a culture, like Japan’s. Started in the ‘30s as islands of serenity, and sometimes reverential respite from the endless din of Tokyo streets, jazz kissa offered customers hours of Zen ascension through travel to another realm of consciousness through the solemn appreciation of jazz albums played on large scale horn-loaded loudspeakers powered by valve amplification.

October 13, 2022

Jazz Kissa 2015 – 2019: An Interview with Katsumasa Kusunose

Few, if any, have documented the unique culture of traditional Japanese jazz kissa – or jazz cafes – to the extent photographer, writer and editor Katsumasa Kusunose has.