Text & Photo: Atsuko Tanaka / Edit: B SABURO

Born and raised in Suginami, Tokyo, Murayama became interested in hip hop watching a music videos show in junior high. Around16 he formed a rap group with his classmates and performed at club events. Then he won an audition making a song for a brand and travelled to New York. After graduating from university he continued to rap while working part-time, and eventually got a full time job after getting married and having children.

He gradually changed the direction of what he wanted to do with his life and left the rap group at the age of 32. As he searched for the next mission he decided to become a baker and quit his full time position.

-You used to be a rapper, why the switch to baking?

I had been a rapper since I was 16, but I gradually felt stuck in my music career. When I got married and had kids, I thought it’s time to make a move. I left the rap group and wanted to get as far away from music as possible. One day, I stopped at a bakery on my way to work and it was delicious. I thought it would be cool to become a baker. I had no knowledge of experience, so I enrolled at a school where I could learn in a short time, and after graduating I started working at the bakery.

-You were 32 years old then. What was the experience like?

The bakery was a part of a restaurant, and I thought I could learn various types of bread making. Instead I was put in charge of French bread. I was making 200 French breads in an isolated small space in the basement every day almost alone. But I didn't feel lonely, rather I thought it was suitable for me, and it gave me time to think about the future. At first I thought it would be a disadvantage only making French bread, but I realized that French bread was one of the most important breads and learning to make French bread from scratch would be a big strength. I started to think this might be a good opportunity.

-Two years later, you left the bakery and opened your own store. What is the concept of this store?

It’s a French bread specialty store. I don't make various kinds of bread, I just focus on French bread.

-Tell us about the characteristics of your bread and what makes it unique?

I only use one kind of flour. As far as I know, most bakeries use blended flour to make French bread, but from the very beginning I decided to use only one kind. I was already 32 when I started, and I thought I had to do something different to stand out so I chose to stick to one kind.

-What about the taste?

The unique taste happened by chance. It all started when I met this old guy at a local flour wholesaler. At that time I just became independent and nobody wanted to do business with me. The wholesaler was kind and recommended me the flour which is Ebetsu from Hokkaido. I didn't have much knowledge about flour at that time, so I trusted him and it was delicious. The flour was new at that time and there weren't many bakeries using it, so I decided to go with it. That became the characteristic of our taste.

I made the theme of this store jazz even though it is a bakery and I made the appearance of the store kind of unusual, so I wanted to make the bread standard. I'm using a very old method to make bread. There are many ways to make French bread, but I just focus on my way. I check the trends, but I don't get caught up in them.

-That’s cool. So what is popular on the menu?

French bread. I have two types: normal and grain. I have a small French bread with nuts, red bean paste and chocolate, and I also make sandwiches with ham & cheese and sausage.

-By the way, the sign outside the store says "French bread, jam and jazz." Why did you choose jazz instead of hip hop?

I wanted to theme of my store to be centered around bread and music, and at the time I opened I wanted to get away from hip hop. So I thought jazz would be good because it’s related to hip hop and It’s easy to listen to. Apart from the store name I needed some catchy words, and in order to make it catchy the rhythm of the words is important. It had to rhyme like bread to jam to jazz, and it became "French bread, jam and jazz."

-I see, that’s cool you utilize your skills. By the way, do hip hop and French bread go well together?

Well, I feel that they have something in common with each other. At first glance they are hard, but in fact they’re both lovable.

-You’re playing hip hop today.

I usually play jazz, but today is special.  Before opening the store, I would listen to hip hop and reggae mixtapes on this radio cassette player. I also like records, but when I quit rap I got rid of most of them. After a while I thought I'd start collecting again, but the records take so much space so I started collecting cassette tapes. I wanted nice speakers to play them and got these speakers.

-They have a nice presence.

I wanted something hip hop with strong bass, and at first I was thinking buying high-tech ones like JBL, Pioneer. But when I saw the big TANNOY speakers at my beautician friend’s hair salon, I thought they were so cool. I searched online and found these. I thought it would make sense to play jazz on these so I decided to get them.

-The wood carving bread and horn displayed outside the store are also eye-catching.

Since the theme of the store is bread and music, I wanted something symbolic so that people would know what kind of store this is. There are two entrances so I decided to have something in each. For music, I thought an old wind instrument would be good and found this horn. I was wondering what to do with the bread sign for a while and remembered a sculptor Konsho I met at a gallery. I asked him to make a big French bread motif and this was made.