Rocking Under Orion’s Belt: The Rise and Fall of Seibu Kōdō as International Concert Venue

An edifice resembling a temple hall and located on the outskirts of the Kyoto University campus, Seibu Kōdō, rose to national prominence in the early 1970s as a hub for the city’s burgeoning performing arts and rock music scene. Its reputation and legend quickly grew after hosting the MOJO WEST series, inaugurated in 1971, that included concerts by iconic Japanese bands such as Flower Travellin’ Band, Murahachibu, and Zunō keisatsu. Towards the end of the decade, Seibu Kōdō began attracting international performers, spearheaded by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in 1976. However, an incident during a concert by The Police in 1980 led to a permanent suspension of welcoming foreign acts. This paper explores Seibu Kōdō’s formative years as a concert venue and the way its connections to the radical student movement, symbolised by the constellation of three red stars painted on its roof, informed its peculiar self-management model. This facilitated the venue’s use as a space for unrestricted artistic expression, but at the same time hindered its development beyond local significance.