Preamble
For your convenience I have listed other posts on Japanese textiles on this blogspot:
Discharge Thundercloud
The Basic Kimono Pattern
The Kimono and Japanese Textile Designs
Traditional Japanese Arabesque Patterns (Part I)
Textile Dyeing Patterns of Japan
Traditional Japanese Arabesque Patterns (Part II)
Sarasa Arabesque Patterns (Part III)
Contemporary Japanese Textile Creations
Shibori (Tie-Dying)
History of the Kimono
A Textile Tour of Japan - Part I
A Textile Tour of Japan - Part II
The History of the Obi
Japanese Embroidery (Shishu)
Japanese Dyed Textiles
Aizome (Japanese Indigo Dyeing)
Stencil-Dyed Indigo Arabesque Patterns (Part V)
Japanese Paintings on Silk
Tsutsugaki - Freehand Paste-Resist Dyeing
Street Play in Tokyo
Birds and Flowers in Japanese Textile Designs
Japanese Colors and Inks on Paper From the Idemitsu Collection
Yuzen: Multicolored Past-Resist Dyeing - Part 1
Yuzen: Multi-colored Paste-Resist Dyeing - Part II
Introduction
The Toyko Olympics have began - despite Covid! To herald my favourite motto - "Be Brave, The Rest Will Follow" - we need to explore why the youth culture in Toyko is truely unique.
Tokyo is as unique in Japan as is Paris in France, London in Britain, Berlin in Germany and New York in the USA. These cities are not just representative of the countries in which they reside, rather they have a life force of their own which are in fact atypical of their countries.
Toyko’s nightscape.
What is not appreciated about Tokyo is its newness. An earthquake destroyed Tokyo in 1923. It was rebuilt - only to be destroyed again by the US firebombing in 1945. Hence Tokyo’s “ancient” sites are in fact reconstructions - traditional in form - but Tokyo's historical lineage had been lost because of these catastrophic events.
A view of destruction in Tokyo, seen from the top of the Imperial Hotel, which was the only hotel in the region that survived the 1923 earthquake.
Tokyo has become a maze of stimuli - from giant images speaking through multiple sound systems to mass commuters in the streets to the sight of bullet trains gliding over the Rainbow bridge to towering architectural facades animated by digital graphics.
Tokyo’s neon vision lights up at night.
Donald Richie likened Tokyo to the Buddhist maxim shogyo mujo meaning: “All is transient, impermanent, all is in motion – life is illusory”. Clearly, Tokyo with its sheer size, modernity and affluence invites indulgence on so many different levels that to Western eyes it may appear confusing, overwhelming and a chaotic array of stimuli.
Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s “Saw, Sawing” (1996), Odaiba Island, Tokyo Bay.
Today’s post will focus on the “Street Play in Tokyo” [1].
Street Play in Tokyo[1]
There are many indie shops and fashion brands that exist only in Harajuku. These are the stores that give Harajuku its personality by catering mostly to the most adventurous Japanese kids. A single creative person often runs these small businesses. Typically they are someone who started the brand, created the designs and needs to work within the store in order to make it viable.
A typical Harajuku store.
Some street wearables in the Harajuku district.
A typical Harajuku fashion store sign – “Clothing Without Prejudice”.
Dressing up, meeting friends and photographing one another is a Sunday activity for the youth. Here are three friends at Harajuku’s Sunday catwalk near the JR railway bridge.
Elements of Kabuki theatre and other traditional arts are freely associated within pop-culture themes and dress.
Heavy make-up which is typical of Kabuki theatre.
Pop culture inspired head piece.
Harajuku Goth gatherings of the 1990s developed into weekly street theatre by Tokyo high-school youths.
The goulish faces of street theatre actors.
Science fiction also surfaces itself in street wear via bondage-inspired accessories. As the Reverend R.B. Perry stated in 1897: “The Japanese are really without any sense of sin, and have no word in their language to express the idea exactly”.
Bondage accessories are common in Japanese street wear.
Reference:
[1] Barry Dawson, Street Graphics Tokyo, Thames & Hudson, London (2002).
For your convenience I have listed other posts on Japanese textiles on this blogspot:
Discharge Thundercloud
The Basic Kimono Pattern
The Kimono and Japanese Textile Designs
Traditional Japanese Arabesque Patterns (Part I)
Textile Dyeing Patterns of Japan
Traditional Japanese Arabesque Patterns (Part II)
Sarasa Arabesque Patterns (Part III)
Contemporary Japanese Textile Creations
Shibori (Tie-Dying)
History of the Kimono
A Textile Tour of Japan - Part I
A Textile Tour of Japan - Part II
The History of the Obi
Japanese Embroidery (Shishu)
Japanese Dyed Textiles
Aizome (Japanese Indigo Dyeing)
Stencil-Dyed Indigo Arabesque Patterns (Part V)
Japanese Paintings on Silk
Tsutsugaki - Freehand Paste-Resist Dyeing
Street Play in Tokyo
Birds and Flowers in Japanese Textile Designs
Japanese Colors and Inks on Paper From the Idemitsu Collection
Yuzen: Multicolored Past-Resist Dyeing - Part 1
Yuzen: Multi-colored Paste-Resist Dyeing - Part II
Introduction
The Toyko Olympics have began - despite Covid! To herald my favourite motto - "Be Brave, The Rest Will Follow" - we need to explore why the youth culture in Toyko is truely unique.
Tokyo is as unique in Japan as is Paris in France, London in Britain, Berlin in Germany and New York in the USA. These cities are not just representative of the countries in which they reside, rather they have a life force of their own which are in fact atypical of their countries.
What is not appreciated about Tokyo is its newness. An earthquake destroyed Tokyo in 1923. It was rebuilt - only to be destroyed again by the US firebombing in 1945. Hence Tokyo’s “ancient” sites are in fact reconstructions - traditional in form - but Tokyo's historical lineage had been lost because of these catastrophic events.
Tokyo has become a maze of stimuli - from giant images speaking through multiple sound systems to mass commuters in the streets to the sight of bullet trains gliding over the Rainbow bridge to towering architectural facades animated by digital graphics.
Donald Richie likened Tokyo to the Buddhist maxim shogyo mujo meaning: “All is transient, impermanent, all is in motion – life is illusory”. Clearly, Tokyo with its sheer size, modernity and affluence invites indulgence on so many different levels that to Western eyes it may appear confusing, overwhelming and a chaotic array of stimuli.
Today’s post will focus on the “Street Play in Tokyo” [1].
Street Play in Tokyo[1]
There are many indie shops and fashion brands that exist only in Harajuku. These are the stores that give Harajuku its personality by catering mostly to the most adventurous Japanese kids. A single creative person often runs these small businesses. Typically they are someone who started the brand, created the designs and needs to work within the store in order to make it viable.
A typical Harajuku fashion store sign – “Clothing Without Prejudice”.
Elements of Kabuki theatre and other traditional arts are freely associated within pop-culture themes and dress.
Harajuku Goth gatherings of the 1990s developed into weekly street theatre by Tokyo high-school youths.
Science fiction also surfaces itself in street wear via bondage-inspired accessories. As the Reverend R.B. Perry stated in 1897: “The Japanese are really without any sense of sin, and have no word in their language to express the idea exactly”.
Reference:
[1] Barry Dawson, Street Graphics Tokyo, Thames & Hudson, London (2002).
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