Last Updated Aug 12, 2024

Yokohama’s Koganecho

A Transformation from Sleaze to Art

This story was originally published on donnykimball.com and has been syndicated here on Medium.

“To be honest, art was the only answer.”

— Yamano Shingo

Hail fellow travelers. This week, I want to introduce a slice of Yokohama that has long been on my radar. Known as Koganecho, this area has a rather dark and tragic history to it. Thankfully though, the powers that be took it upon themselves to shine a light into this wretched corner of town several years ago. Since then, Koganecho has been reborn like a phoenix into something entirely new. While formerly a wretched hive of scum and villainy that could rival Tatooine’s Mos Eisley from the Star Wars universe, these days Koganecho is a flourishing haven for the arts.

Why Koganecho’s history is so horrific is an intricately complex tale.The long and the short of it is that this part of Yokohama was bombed completely flat during World War II. Then, during the subsequent American Occupation, a black market sprung up from the rubble. As you can easily imagine, having a thriving prostitution scene so close to the heart of Yokohama wasn’t ideal. Eventually, the American soldiers would leave but Koganecho’s narcotics and prostitution problem was there to stay. By the end of the millennium, there were as many as 150…