Kimono Hime
What I like about it: The title is Kimono Hime (princess). A perfect world (or Japan) would look more like an Akira Yamaguchi drawing, and women would go out dressed in the kimonos that are shown in this magazine. A blend of tradition and modern (OMG I am soooo a Japan Blogger when I make that observation LOL!!!!!!!!1) however the “Modern” I am talking about is the historical nineteen thirties type of Modern. Closer to Takehisa Yumeji than that hollywood geisha flick. The magazine also goes in depth as to how fabrics are dyed, woven, and matched for the season. The travel sections highlight retro areas of Japan and the foods and things you can try there. The issue above has a few pages on Hachijyou Island and their special kimonos.
Photography: Great! Vivid color for the studio shots, which sometimes in the final product have been added to with other media, usually collage and sometimes old wood block prints. Location pictures are soft but not ridiculously dreamy. The models all look Great, and by my definition of Great, normal people would say “very japanese”. No shibuya girls here– lots of ladies with jet black hair and straight-across (patsuun!) bangs.
General mood: Elegant with just the right balance of graphics and text, not unlike (again with the reference) a Takehisa Yumeji print. See that Taisho/early Showa style hand written title at the top of the cover? That is the mood.
Kimono Hime (a shodensha mook, published every once in a while, 1200 yen)
Tokyo Graffitti
It is a magazine about: Tokyo and the people who live here.
What I like about it: It is so gosh darn wholesome in a liberal way* without being preachy. You not only get to see what people are wearing, but also read via a marker-board and their own handwriting, what they are thinking. It at first glance looks like just another Street Snap fashion magazine, but after you work your way through it, it’s true charm comes out. It is a social survey of a publication that runs off of Photography- either as a catalog of faces and thoughts (one page for young hipsters, another for gaijin, one for young mothers or salary-men, religiously employed folks and old people), or through the element of time, where they will recreate a family snapshot with the same people in the same poses years later. A different take is when they have a snapshot of a man or woman taken years ago, and on the opposite page there will be a photograph of their son or daughter in the same pose in a similar location. This is also a text heavy magazine, so each photograph is accompanied with a lot of written information.
Photography: Straight, “New Color”- I don’t know what it is really called but imagine a “Rinko Kawaguchi meets William Eggleston” kind of color style. The photographs are not saturated and they are instead that kind of hip bluish greenish tone like you see in all those recent camera and photo (and other types of sophisticated living themes) magazines that are aimed at the 20 something Japanese Woman market. The photographs are intelligently made and most would have no problem being seen on a gallery wall. The monthly “Portrait of the Nuclear Family”photo, a full page photograph of a young father and mother in the tub with their newborn comes to mind.
General mood: Real respectful of people. I have yet to detect any of that stuck up irony that modern American publications seem to reek of. Like the photographs the magazine is open, fair, and beautiful. What other publication is going to take the time to show you the dreams in life of not only the harajuku hipster freetaa crowd, but also those Kabuki -cho hosts and Akihabara Otakus? And to do it with good taste for the right reasons, that’s why it’s worth buying each month.
Tokyo Graffiti: New Generation Magazine (monthly, 480 yen)
* In that it fairly treats same-sex couples like they are in true loving relationships. (gasp)
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Payday equals a trip to Yodobashi to re-stock up on film, paper, and chemicals for the month, and this time I bought some more bulk fuji presto and another film picker. I broke the last one pretty bad, parts came off and everything. This time though, I asked the same guy who always helps me in Shinjuku how to use a film picker and I left with a new skill that I will put to work during spring vacation- 10 days of nothing to do. I will catch up on the 110 rolls of film that need to be developed and also print up a 6×7 portfolio.
Taro, Mike and Noel (The two new interns) and I all went to Shinjuku tonight and we ate at Himawari Sushi, probably the best kaitenzushi that I know of. The women who work there all know me and get me a cup of water right as I sit down. One of the great things about being a regular customer somewhere is that what is already standard Great service gets even better. They (various places of business, often food-related) start adding on the ramen toppings you like for free, put different special types of non-menued fish in your lunches– the gals at McDonalds can’t do too much in terms of giving things away but they sure do smile a lot, and in a technical sense it does say SMILE on the menu.
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