Youth in Traditional Culture

A few weeks ago at Kyobashi station in Osaka was sort of a preview of the Koiya Matsuri, which was taking place by Osaka Castle. Folk dance groups from different universities were performing at Kyobashi station, and they were also advertising for the festival at Osaka castle. A lot of people think it's rare to see young Japanese people taking part in traditional culture, but I think there is an exception to every rule. The group shown here is from Kansai Gaidai, and all of them obviously enjoyed what they were doing very much. It's nice to see that some of the younger generation still appreciates traditional culture.



In Kyoto, tradition still holds strong. This photo was taken two years ago at an ocha-ya in Miyagawa-Cho, when I went to meet Miehina (in the yellow kimon), and her "oneesan," Mieko. At the time, Miehina was a seventeen year old maiko, a geisha apprentice. She had only been in training for six months. Now, she is about to become a full-fledged geisha and eventually she will inherit the house that she lives in.

two very different places

This photo was taken at the Danjiri Matsuri in Osaka, last Saturday night. Practically everyone involved with moving the mobile shrines was dressed in this way, including the children. It's a very uniform style, which is something people are starting to see less of in Japan, though many schools still use school uniforms.



This is an employee at the Body Line store in Amerika-mura. The styles in this area are much more varied than most other places in Osaka. It's similar to the Harajuku area in Tokyo, though Amerika-mura seems more concentrated on men's styles than women's. Amerika-mura is an area for people interested in alternative fashion and music. Being so close to Shinsaibashi, it's a bit expensive, but many people there use second hand stores to get things for a lot cheaper than they normally would be.

Temples vs Skyscrapers

For the first post in this blog, I thought I'd do a little something dealing with Japanese architecture. The main focus of this blog is going to deal with Japanese fashion and traditional clothing, but starting off with something different can be interesting, I think.


This photo is from Kiyomizu-dera, which is near the Gion and Miyagawa-cho districts in Kyoto. It started out as a Buddhist temple back in 798, and in 1633, newer buildings were constructed. Beyond that, very little of the architecture of the temple has changed over the centuries. Of course, stair rails and ropes blocking off access have been added to certain areas, but most of it remains the same as it was when it was built in the 1600s.


Of course, not all Japan looks like the stereotypical shrines and temples us Westerners see on postcards. This building, for example, is a great example of the modern architecture that sprouted up all around Japan after WWII. The building in this photograph is the Hep Five, a shopping mall in Umeda, Osaka. The mall has about 100 stores, most of which are clothing stores for women, a movie theater, an arcade, and a variety of restaurants, ranging from Japanese to Italian. Inside of the building are lifesize replicas of whales that hang from the ceiling, and as shown in the photo, there is a large ferris wheel on the top of the mall, which can be accessed on the top floor.