Jazz Kissa by Katsumasa Kusunose

Step inside Japan’s legendary Jazz Kissa—dimly lit sanctuaries where sound is treated as a sacred medium. Jazz Kissa is photographer and cultural historian Katsumasa Kusunose’s fifteen-year study of these spaces: part portrait series, part love letter to a vanishing culture. Each image captures not just a room, but a way of listening—slow, intentional, communal.

With a foreword by Devon Turnbull, founder of Ojas, the book bridges eras of high-fidelity devotion—from the warm analog glow of Altec A7s and custom JBL setups to the new generation of designers reviving listening as a craft. Turnbull’s words trace a direct line between the Kissa tradition and today’s global hi-fi renaissance, where design and acoustics merge into an almost spiritual pursuit.

Printed on custom-made Japanese paper echoing the tactile texture of speaker cloth, and bound with a traditional OBI strip, Jazz Kissa exists as both artifact and experience—a document of spaces where music becomes architecture, and every note reshapes the air.

• Published by ERG Media
• 336 pages
• 25 x 35.5 cm (10 x 14 in)
• Hardcover