Transcreating Tokyo

Follow cultural anthropologist Takeo Funabiki on a journey through the history of Tokyo

Wednesday 15 October 2014

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email WhatsApp

Advertising

Looking to learn more about the history of the greatest city on earth? Our ongoing 'Transcreating Tokyo' series explores Tokyo's past and its complex relationship with the present through a wide variety of themes, from topographic patterns and the bodily arts to the city's favourite fast food and its world-famous cherry blossoms. These glimpses into the history of Edo-Tokyo are provided by cultural anthropologist Takeo Funabiki, a born-and-bred Tokyoite with over 30 years of experience as a teacher and later as professor at the University of Tokyo. Check out the full list of articles below, and look out for updates every two months or so.

Start your journey here

Things to do

Early spring and hanami

Famous British novelist T.S. Eliot may have written that 'April is the cruellest month', but besides literary interpretation, I think the instability...

Things to do

The most Japanese day in Japan

January 1 is the day of the year when Tokyo feels the most ‘Japanese’. It all starts on New Year’s Eve. Families gather at home for the...

Things to do

When two seasons crash into each other

November and December are not a natural season, but a human season. If you go by temperatures, these two months correspond to early winter, but they’re...

Things to do

Blue skies and cool air

September and October, Tokyo’s autumn months, are characterised by blue skies and a cool climate. The air clears up, clouds float by high in the sky and...

Things to do

Summer festivals

Instead of the usual four, it’s more accurate to say that Tokyo actually has six seasons. That’s because both the weather and people’s...

Things to do

Kabuki, then and now, part 3

As I mentioned in the first column of this three-part series, kabuki languished on a path of deep decline in the first few decades of the postwar era. But as...

Things to do

Kabuki, then and now, part 2

Described as having a ‘dreary past’ and being ‘inevitably on the decline’ in my previous column, kabuki is now constantly drawing...

Things to do

Kabuki, then and now

As I wrote in a previous ‘Transcreating Tokyo’ column, the city of Edo-Tokyo has given birth to three main forms of bodily entertainment: kabuki...

Things to do

In praise of 'rabbit hutches'?

When visiting Tokyo, it’s best not to expect being invited to a Japanese home. This isn’t because Japanese people lack a sense of hospitality:...

Things to do

Zooming in and out in Japanese culture

When we talk about Japan, it isn’t necessarily wrong to use familiar concepts like wabi-sabi and ‘fusion of tradition and modernity’ –...

Things to do

The Japanese home as a spa

Recently – say over the last 15 years – when staying at hotels abroad, I occasionally come across entire families casually riding the elevator...

Restaurants

The mysteries of sushi, part 3: the evolution of sushi

I’ve managed to shed light on some of the mysteries of sushi in the past two instalments of this series (here and here), but a few questions still remain. Why...

Restaurants

The mysteries of sushi, part 2: fast food

In the first part of this article, I wrote that ‘sushi, which can be referred to as “B-grade gourmet”, lives and dies by its ingredients. My hope is that both...

Restaurants

The mysteries of sushi, part 1 – Tsukiji and sushi

My foreign friends often ask me to name the very best sushi shop in Tokyo, so that they can go there and taste the delicacies. My habitual answer is that they...

Things to do

The mysteries of the kimono: part 2

In part one of this article, I looked at three big mysteries surrounding the kimono. I also hinted at a fourth mystery, which is perhaps the biggest one of...

Things to do

The mysteries of the kimono

In Japan, the essentials for living are described with three characters: 衣 (i), 食 (shoku), and 住 (ju), which stand for, respectively, clothing, food and...

Things to do

Edo, the sea and sushi

In the previous five parts of this series, I have attempted to explain the central aspects of Edo/Tokyo, covering topics such as the terrain, the Imperial...

Things to do

Mount Fuji and the people of Edo

In part two of this series, I wrote about Tokyo’s three levels of terrain, namely the plateau, the lowlands and the landfill, which are in turn encompassed by...

Things to do

The cherry blossoms of Edo

It is perhaps only in Japan that the nightly TV news can open with a story declaring the start of the cherry blossom season before moving on to Putin's...

Things to do

The body of Edo

In the Edo era, three forms of bodily entertainment were born: kabuki theatre, which has been designated an Intangible Cultural Heritage by the United Nations...

Things to do

Hibiya: Tokyo’s navel

Tokyo's basic topography has not changed much over the last 400 years. In order to understand it, you need only know that Tokyo is built on three main types of...

Things to do

Transcreating Tokyo

To know the history of Tokyo, you only need to remember two particular years: 1600 and 1868. 1600 was the year in which Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated his rival...