Before DUG existed, there was DIG. In 1961, Hozumi Nakadaira, fresh out of Nihon University’s photography department, opened a cramped basement coffee shop near Shinjuku Station. Nakadaira did not want a polite European-style café where people chatted over delicate porcelain. He wanted an uncompromising sonic temple. He hauled in heavy turntables, wired custom tube amplifiers, and stacked imported records purchased with borrowed funds. Customers paid for a single cup of bitter black coffee and sat in absolute silence for three hours, facing towering loudspeakers as if attending a religious sermon.
Nakadaira was an insider in the music world. When Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers toured Japan in January 1961, a watershed moment for Japanese jazz appreciation, Nakadaira was right at the edge of the stage, camera in hand. His close-up portraits captured sweat glistening on John Coltrane's brow and Miles Davis glaring through cigarette smoke. Those photographs soon covered the walls of DIG. By 1967, wanting a space that accommodated alcohol, casual conversation, and late-night drinking without diluting the acoustic fidelity, Nakadaira opened DUG just around the corner. The sister venue quickly outlived the original, surviving multiple relocations before settling into its current basement berth on Shinjuku 3-chome in late 2000.
