Built from the Foundations for Sound Quality, Cafe Blossom

“To enjoy life to the full is to love what you do. You should always pursue what you like in life.” A saying taken from Tsurezuregusa, also known as Essays in Idleness — a collection of essays written by the Japanese monk, Yoshida Kenkō, between 1317 and 1331.

Located in the city of Kasukabe, North of Tokyo in Saitama Prefecture, Music Cafe Blossom depicts the kanji character ‘raku’ (楽), based on the theme of ‘music and enjoyment’. The name Blossom signifies that, regardless of age, with luck, and accumulated effort toward your dream, one can “become a flower that will hopefully bear fruit in the future”. That spring, when I walked through the doors of Blossom, I found one door led to another, and a tall and serious-looking master, Furukawa-san greeted me kindly, and his wife popped out of the kitchen to say a friendly hello too.

Furukawa-san: The oak wall behind the speakers was chosen to match the colour of the speakers.

Me: What?!

Furukawa-san: The black walnut flooring runs in the same direction as the speakers in order to better transmit sound, similar to the Noh Theatre.

On this, my first visit to Blossom, I absorbed the astonishing fact that every single detail of the interior was built for Tannoy speakers. Later, I found out this cafe was built from the very foundations of the architectural design for its quality of sound. 

The owner, Furukawa-san was born in 1945, an era without television; radio was the major sound medium. Japan was under American occupation until 1952, and as music broadcasting began to thrive, he was exposed to different genres of music from classical to pop and Latin. High-quality live music was broadcast through analogue radio waves as digital processing of sound was unheard of. That day at Blossom we listened to Dave Brubeck’s “Time In” (1966), and Natalie Cole’s “Unforgettable” (1991). I could hear the detailed and dynamic sounds, as if the instruments were dancing individually, I was so overjoyed that I burst out laughing. At the same time, it was heartwarming and inspiring to see Furukawa-san so immersed in the music as he moved his neck to the rhythm while sitting on the stool at the counter.

The beginning of the Blossom dream dates back to 1964, a time of an overflow of dynamic culture during the Tokyo Olympics. 19 Year old Furukawa-san’s source of stimulation was a series called “Sounds of the West (西方の音)”, written by Japanese novelist and music critic of classical music and audio systems, Yasusuke Gomi, and published by the prestigious art magazine, Geijutsu Shincho. He then reread an article called “Component Stereo Devices 30 Examples”, published by a stereo magazine, Ongaku no Tomosha from 1962. One example in this piece was of a room where one could listen to ‘Tannoy Autograph’ speakers in a well sound-balanced room. He wanted to recreate this room and set it up with his dreams speakers. The protagonist of Cafe Blossom, the Autograph Millennium, a prestigious horn speaker, first appeared in 1954, and was revived with the newest technology in 2001. The concept of it is to embrace “concert hall at home”.

At that time, Furukawa-san was living in Takesato Danchi (danchi translates to a ‘group land’ for a large cluster of apartment buildings). Finding himself amongst audio and record fans, together they decided to form Takesato Audio Club. He told the group that he dreamed of getting hold of Tannoy speakers and building the type of room owned by Yasusuke Gomi. Everyone laughed at him claiming that it was impossible. 

Due to his work, he had the opportunity to visit the U.S frequently. He recalled that when people asked him what his future plans were, he simply didn’t know. People tend to stay in a company for a long time in Japan, and he felt he didn’t plan for the future. The cultural differences in responsibility and independence triggered him to think vigorously about the cafe that he wanted to build.

Source: LINK

As a loyal user of Tannoy, which dates back to 1927, Furukawa-san reminisced emotionally about ‘Arden’ – a pair of speakers that he has been enjoying at home for 50 years. In the picture, the five speakers adopt ‘The Dual Concentric’ driver, known for its high quality and clarity with a stunning output. Amongst them, he chose Arden, which has the capacity to draw out low frequencies the most. 22 Years after he bought them in 1974, the network of the speakers malfunctioned. Even though the insurance policy was no longer valid, he received detailed diagrams from them explaining the network and circuits. Since it was an older model, they went the extra mile and provided information on how to fix them. With support from his friend, he bought ‘TANNOY THEODS Upgrade kit for HPD 385 Drivers’, which includes a non-urethane edge, improved corn paper, a new network, and revamped the unit. In the midst of the conversation, Furukawa-san stood up and walked to the counter, and came back with the printed email with Tannoy. The experience with Tannoy has touched him so deeply that he has stored the printed emails in a folder as a cherished memory. This was the moment that he acquired the most prestigious Tannoy speakers, Autograph Millennium, for his dream cafe. 

Cafe Blossom's Homepage (link)

He explained the specification of the room as below. 

In Autograph Millenium’s specification paper, it is written that the frequency characteristic is 20 Hz～22 KHz (+/- 3 dB), however, it is questionable if 20 Hz low frequency can be reproduced. It would be ideal for a room to have a size that can correspond to 20 Hz.

After thorough consideration, I’ve decided on the below specifications. 
Width: Approximately 5.4 m
Length: Approximately 8 m

Height of ceiling: the lowest point (the wall behind the speakers) is approximately 3.5 m, the highest point approximately 5.5 m
With this specification, the distance between the walls that are parallel opposites, the calculated lowest resonance frequency of the room is
340 ÷ 16 (8 x 2) = 21.25 Hz, the high part is 340 ÷ 10.8 (5.4 x 2) = 33.3 Hz. Therefore, in a steady situation, under 33 Hz is relatively low, so the room itself should hopefully correspond to 20 Hz low frequencies effortlessly – ‘should’, but audio often tends to not work out as planned.

“For audio, the most important aspect is its architecture”, says Furukawa-san. Cafe Blossom is his third attempt to build a listening room. The exterior takes its design influence from the British style, whilst the interior is spacious with an impressive 5.5 m high ceiling and 30 tatami areas. The building adopted Canadian 2 x 6 Construction Standards to control floor vibration. The architect had the idea of the design incorporating the speakers meaning everything complements the speakers. This was the day that piqued my interest in the science of sound and vibration. A few months later I discovered its technical term – acoustics engineering.

There are similarities between speakers and instruments, the more you listen, the better they sound. In the beginning, the Tannoy Autograph Millennium sounded a bit strange. For the first 5 years, Furukawa-san searched for the best location inside Blossom, and now it’s been 20 years, and it is now the prime time to listen to it. Always welcomed with warm greetings and regards from the Furukawa couple, our conversations range from an anechoic room to the sonar of submarines. The husband is in charge of the music and audio, while the wife makes delicious, fresh, baked bread! Blossom opened in 2008, it had taken them an extraordinary 44 years to make their dream come true, a dream he’d had since he was 19.

“Since we got married, when I come home from work, I turn on the switch of my audio device and pick out the record to listen to during our dinner. But first I take a shower, have a beer with my wife, then a bottle of wine with dinner, and enjoy our conversation while listening to the music. We continue this lifestyle to this day”.