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One minute’s walk from Jimbocho Station, Fuji Record Sha is a long-established used-record shop that will celebrate its 100th anniversary in four years. It still carefully preserves a legendary gramophone, a “Victrola Credenza,” that survived the fires of war. Photographer ELLI spoke with sales manager Mitsuhiro Sato. (From the October 2026 issue of Hon no Machi, “Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks” installment 17)
Young people and overseas visitors are discovering the charm of used records and gramophones, across borders and generations.
—Mitsuhiro Sato, sales manager
In this series, ELLI visits shops in Kanda and Jimbocho. Installment 17 features Fuji Record Sha, a used-record shop.
A Long-Established Used-Record Specialist
About the Shop: A Store Far Bigger Than You’d Imagine
The Signature Item: The Sound of a Hand-Cranked Gramophone
Sato carefully fits a needle—replaced with a new one for every single play. He turns the handle on the side of the gramophone round and round to wind the spring, gently lowers the needle, and the record begins to turn.
The Shop’s History: Former President Fujiko Ito
In the radio drama “Rekodo-ya no Okamisan” (The Lady of the Record Shop), broadcast in December 2017, Kirin Kiki played Fujiko Ito, the former president of Fuji Record Sha.
The former president helped out at the record shop her aunt had founded from the time she graduated from girls’ school, and devoted her life to it until she died in 2017 at the age of 93. The series she wrote herself for Hon no Machi (2008–14) became the basis for that radio drama.
The shop’s prized “Victrola Credenza,” a classic machine made by the American Victor company, was saved amid the destruction of the Great Tokyo Air Raid. It is also known for having been a favorite of Kodo Nomura—author of Zenigata Heiji Torimonohikae (The Casebook of Zenigata Heiji), who was also known as a music critic under the name “Araebisu.”
About the Shop: Sales Manager Mitsuhiro Sato
Sato has been a fan of soul music since he was young. He once wrote articles for record magazines under a pen name and traveled with the former president to sell records at department stores across Japan. Having started in his twenties, he has spent more than 40 years in this line of work, looking after the shop.
Shop Information
Fuji Record Sha
Address: Kanda Kosho Center 9F, 2-3 Kanda-Jimbocho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Phone: 03-3264-8546
Hours: 10:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m.
Closed: Open every day
Nearest station: Jimbocho Station (1-minute walk)
▶Shop page (map and related articles) ▶View on Google Maps
*Address, phone and hours are from the Hon no Machi member shop list (October 2026 issue). Please check with the shop before you visit.
Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks All installments
#1 Luncheon
#2 The Adirondack Café
#3 Hasebe
#4 Toyodaen & Daisen
#5 @Wonder
#6 Book House Cafe
#7 Kissa Hotaka
#8 Mamekobo
#9 Banuken
#10 Asanoya
#11 Yamagataya Paper Shop
#12 Kissa Poupée
#13 Ochanomizu Hotel Shoryukan
#14 Kanda Awahei
#15 Daiki Shoe Store
#16 Sakaiya Sports
#17 Fuji Record Sha (this article)
▶See every installment and a map of the shops ELLI has visited on the series page
Eri Ito (ELLI)
Photographer. She writes the series “Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks” for Hon no Machi, visiting a different shop in Kanda, Ochanomizu and Jimbocho every month.
This article introduces installment 17 of “Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks” (photos and text by Eri Ito), published in the October 2026 issue of Hon no Machi, the community salon magazine of Kanda, Ochanomizu and Jimbocho.
Founded in 1980, Hon no Machi brings you the latest from Book Town every month, together with Jimbocho’s bookstores, publishers, cafés and galleries.
▶Back issues of our series are being published on our note page (in Japanese)
日本語で読む — Read this article in Japanese