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The Legendary Bartender Who Lived Tokyo Nights:
A Retirement Commemorative Interview with Danny. - Part 1 -

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愛川誠次郎／Aikawa Seijiro from「Danny's Bar」

In the 1970s, when only hotel bars and authentic bars existed, "Danny"—Seijiro Aikawa—the legendary bartender who created Tokyo's cocktail culture by opening one neighborhood cocktail bar after another. The interview article featuring him in 2011 still receives numerous views to this day. Now, Danny is finally retiring in March 2026, leaving behind his signature plum liqueur "Hoshiko" as a parting gift! We present a special interview reflecting on his half-century bartending career.

writer：Ryoko Kuraishi

Danny's bartending career began at "Cinema Club" in Harajuku in 1976.

Cinema Club was a restaurant-bar that served as a gathering place for cutting-edge creators like designers, musicians, photographers, and stylists, and is said to have been a hub for 1970s counterculture.

After returning from several years of wandering in USA, Danny put the bartending skills he'd honed in New York to use behind the bar here.

His signature cocktails, shaken with flailing dreadlocks and two shakers in hands, quickly gained a reputation. Back then, Tokyo's bar scene had neither dreadlocked bartenders nor casual (yet authentic) bars playing reggae.

In linking the bar scene with fashion and culture, it's no exaggeration to say Danny's "Cinema Club" laid the foundation for today's bar scene.

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