{"id":53389,"date":"2016-10-14T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/?p=53389"},"modified":"2022-09-15T17:35:06","modified_gmt":"2022-09-15T15:35:06","slug":"japan-art-of-living-major-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/japan-art-of-living-major-art","title":{"rendered":"Japan: art of living, major art"},"content":{"rendered":"

We know what the media want to show us about Tokyo. Usually, this means pavements lined with crowds of people, pedestrian crossings cutting diagonally across the streets, young men and women dressed in the style of their manga gods, or bars where sake, and more likely whisky, flows freely every evening. We are just as happy to point out the forests of buildings - many of which bear the signature of the greatest names in international architecture - and the debauchery of neon lights that come on at dusk in the red-light districts. The media barely mention the presence, almost incongruous in this urban hodgepodge, of scenes from the past, of ladies in kimonos strolling in their free time along the wooden walls of traditional houses. Tokyo, with a population of 13.6 million - and 37 million in Greater Tokyo, the world's largest capital city - is no stranger to paradoxes, where ancestral traditions and unbridled modernity coexist unabashedly. What's more, after adopting many Western ways, particularly at the end of the 19th century, but especially after the Second World War, Japan is now reappropriating its own history to bring it into line with contemporary values. This does not mean, however - and this is something new - closing itself off from the outside world by taking refuge behind a conservative ideology. The trend is very clear, especially since the huge doubts provoked by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. So people are rediscovering the extraordinary quality of their handicrafts, taking a renewed interest in certain traditional festivals, and bringing with them passing tourists who like to be photographed wearing kimonos, even synthetic ones, in front of the giant lanterns at Senso-ji temple.<\/p>\n

\"Unaffected<\/a>
Unaffected by the hustle and bustle of the Japanese capital, koi carp swim peacefully in the ponds of the Happo-en garden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"In<\/a>
In the popular Asakusa district, Senso-ji temple is Tokyo's most popular place of worship.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The Imperial Palace, in the centre of Tokyo, is closed to the public except on 23 December, the Emperor's birthday, and on New Year's Day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TOKYO, PAST AND FUTURE RECOMPOSED<\/h3>\n

This temple, Senjo-Ji, in the Asakusa district, is undoubtedly the capital's most famous and busiest. The most spectacular too. Even if, when all is said and done, not much happens within its walls, apart from the density of the devout congregation, who purify themselves in the clear water of a pool and who draw oracles from dedicated boxes. So it's above all an atmosphere that you'll come here to find, starting with a 250-metre long alley lined with old, low houses that have been home to souvenir stalls for ages. The crowds are dense, almost compact, just as they have always been in this district where, in the days of the shoguns of the Edo period (1603-1868), the common people lived, and then when the whole of Tokyo came to indulge in the indulgence and culture of its many theatres. And that was until the Second World War.<\/p>\n