Hair Parlor Cut Cheerleader’s Hair for 45 years

  There are many stores as well as shopping streets near Waseda University. Some of them have been doing business since the old days. However, that number is diminishing. For example, there is the Hair Salon Hosokawa on Waseda University’s south gate’s street. It opened in 1964, the year Tokyo Olympic was held, and has been in business until now. The barbershop has been popular with students for a long time because the price of a cut is set at a low 1,800 yen, but the shop is closing down at the end of July due to financial reasons.

Students Coming The Shop Are Decreasing
  “Even the ex-president of Waseda University, Takayuki Okushima, used the shop when he was student,” Tsusako　Shiroishi, the owner of barbershop Hosokawa, reflects. In the old days, more students used to hang around the town of Waseda and came to the shop. However it is senior citiz ens, faculties, and college seniors hunting for jobs that make up most of the clients, and regular student customers are decreasing now. There is one more reason that fewer customers are visiting the barbershop. That is, men used to go to the barbershops while women went to beauty salons, but more men nowadays are frequenting the salons alongside women.

Tsusako Shiroishi
  the barbershop owner Hosokawa.


Hosokawa Started “W-Cut”
   The shop is famous for its "W-cut." The members of Waseda Seishin Kouyoukai, the host club of 100km-hike where participants travel from Honjo, Saitama to Waseda University, get the W-cut every year for the event. 27 years ago when Waseda University celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary, a student requested to have his hair cut in a “W” style, and people say that was the beginning of the W-cut. After that, W-cut showed up every year and it became a staple of 100km-hike. Because Hosokawa’s barbershop is closing down, we may not see the W-cut of Hosokawa anymore starting next year.

“W-cut”is to have hair cut in a “W-cut”



The Shops Welcome The Students
   Waseda has many shops on its shopping street including the barbershop that cheer for the students. If a Waseda University’s team wins a game, the shops unite to congratulate Waseda students. Shiroishi says, “The head of South Gate Shopping Street told me to use “~san,” a term of respect, when calling on the students. We are supported not by the university but by the students.” The attitude of welcoming the students remains altogether unchanged.

   “We have learned a lot of things from the students,” she remarks. “I made many memories at Waseda. Here is a great place to work. ”

   New shops are always opening up in Waseda one after another. But it may be a good idea to revisit shops that have been doing business since the old days. These veteran stores have the power to revitalize the Waseda community.

BY Kenta Shinkai