Kagurazaka, a town of Master Artisans

It is an important character of Kagurazaka that various cultural and commercial activities have been done based upon the history. But there are many problems in the genre. So we, the Not-for-Profit Organization (NPO) Ikimachi Club started a new action “Kagurazaka: A Town of Master Artisans” and support their activities. We started the talk and performance series by master artisans as a part of monthly “Machizukuri (Community Development) Seminars”, and let the audience know their skill, tradition, social system that support their activities and challenges.

              In October and November 20 16, we invited Ms. Masako Tada, an master artisan of Yuzen (coloring and drawing by hand on cloth) and a pattern designer Mr. Hiroshi Kudo of Cloth Coloring Association of Shinjuku for the seminar, and had their talks and performances of their world and current tasks. Yuzen was a local industry in the area for several centuries and still alive, but facing serious problems of shrink of market and decrease of workers. Their performance, showing the process of making pattern/design and coloring and was magnificent. 

              We are hoping to make opportunities where many people know and touch the works of Yuzen, and started to think it necessary to have a shared workspace for those local artisans in our community.

Problems with Okubo Street Widening -1

In Kagurazaka, widening of Okubo Street (Radial Road No. 25) is in progress. The widening plan was authorized in 1946 as a part of restoration plan after the war, when this area was almost totally burnt down. The street runs through the middle of Kagurazaka shopping and residential area. Current width is 18 meters (two traffic lanes) and the widened width will be 30 meters (four traffic lanes, 6 meter sidewalk on each side). The road section plan by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) is shown below. Now TMG is negotiating with land owners about the purchase of the properties.

If the road is constructed as planned, wide four-lane road will go through the middle of Kagurazaka Street and divide the flourishing and continuing town into two. And the sides, not fronts of building will face the new road, which will discourage rich street life and activities.

The road construction project can take many years, and if the purchased properties are just surrounded by bare wired fence for long, it will damage the shopping street and hurt the street-scape as well.

The social condition, traffic condition (which is decreasing now), land use and urban development policy are very different in 1946 and now. It is difficult to justify the construction of the road for automobiles as planned by TMG.

It is probably unrealistic to try to stop the road widening now, because quite a few land was already purchased by TMG, and many residents are planning their future under the assumption that their property will be purchased sooner or later. But it is significant if the widened space is used for pedestrians, not for automobiles.

(to be continued)

Why "Save the Kagurazaka"?

Recently, a column " Kagurazaka,chic & modern slope town" was serialized four times in the Tokyo version of the Asahi Newspaper.

The protagonist of 4th in the morning edition on December 1st was a Japanese-style inn "Wakana", located in Hyogo-Yokocho, a famous traditional alley in Kagurazaka.

Eminent authors & playwriter, Shuji Terayama, Akiyoshi Nosaka, Takehiro Irokawa and Yoji Yamada wrote novels and scripts here.
Regrettably, "Wakana" was closed a business this year.

"Kagurazaka Machizukuri Koryukai", the residents' association for

district planning, had been established in 2004. 

However, we think that we can not protect our landscape peculiar to Kagurazaka without more detailed district planning and ordinances. 

(to be continued)

The Wakana Inn, in a historic alley in Kagurazaka, recently closed the business.