Romantic and decadant days of Japan

Heisei is the name of the current era in Japan. I was born in Showa which was the longest reign of all Japanese emperors. Japan went through WW2 and later its high economic growth during Showa. Before Showa and after Meiji (during which Japan underwent a huge change due to its re-opening by Matthew Perry) we had the very short period Taisho which ran from 30 July 1912 to 25 December 1926.

Taisho lasted only 15 years but it was the time of the liberal movement known as the "Taisho democracy" It was an interesting time when Japanese traditional style mixed with western culture after the opening the country in Meiji. We have an image for Taisho which is small, brilliant and fragile days called "Taisho Chic (Taisho Romantic) before the militarism-driven Showa period.

Modern boys and modern girls. (Another photo).  The Kimono and western apron is our typical romantic image for the Taisho period.  It was the style of the waitresses who worked in cafes. Frank Lloyd Wright built the Imperial hotel in 1912 and other modern western style building were built then as well. Unfortunately most them were damaged in the Great Kanto earthquake. Talking about art, Kasho Takahata, Yumeji Takehisa, Junichi Nakahara (born in Taisho era) were popular because of their romantic taste.  This is the a postage stamp which commemorates the famous work of Yumeji Takeshita, I like this image of a western doll and woman wearing Kimono.

The romantic and and slightly decadent mood of Taisho Chic are loved by people even today so there are still some exhibitions of Taisho period art and ads. This is a photo studio where you can get photos taken with in the Taisho style. This cafe, this Japanese hotel also makes Taisho mood.

Tsigoineruwaizen (1980) directed by Seijun Suzuki was a film that portrays the decadent mood of Taisho.  A new movie Haru no Yuki (Snow of spring) will be released this month. It is a sad love story set in the Taisho period staring popular actor Satoshi Tsumabuki (kakkoii!) and Yuko Takeuchi. It is based on the novel (thank you good English review) written by my favourite author Yukio Mishima. Here is a trailer (if you can't see, please go to the official site and click movie) ; It is beautiful, but I won't go to see such a sad story.

Comments

[Ande]

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[Mari]

Hi There
Thank you for sites info about Taisho. I love Taisho Chic arts very much.

[abraxis]

There's an art exhibit at UC Berkeley, appropriately titled, "Taisho Chic".

http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibits/taisho/

Looks neat!

[Martin]

There will be a Taisho era festival in Yono, Saitama this Saturday Oct 29. Did you know that? The poster is all over my town, it is quite funny!

People are supposed to dress up in their best Taisho era clothes...

http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~taisyou/

[nicole1980]

Mari-san, I remember visiting an exhibition at the NSW Art Gallery in Sydney in about 1998 called "Mobo, Moga", all about Art in the Taisho era. I loved all the old posters and advertisements.

http://www.thei.aust.com/arts98/ignswdiary.html

[Marie]

Oh, I love this post! I just wrote about meisen kimono, some of which I believe were made during the Taisho period. I have such a romantic picture of that era. So glamorous and so short! Thank you for this post.

[I am Dali]

i love your site.

and, god, look at how amazing the RED is on that garment....

http://www.aoistudio.co.jp/saeko/image/s_050102yumeji.jpg

i didn't watch the mishima-movie trailer. i don't want to see anything sad, not even a trailer.

ok....i just watched it -_-