Tittle Tokyo Store fronts: storyboards

As an exploration into Little Tokyo I first peered into Japanese culture by looking at some of the various ways in which they create and bind books. While this greatly intrigued me it did not lend much insight into Little Tokyo. Instead, my research led me to transfer my interest from bookbinding to bookstores, ending on shop fronts in general. With this focus I intend to look at one shop front present time, move backwards to the 1940’s and show what it looked like just before all the Japanese were sent to internment camps. From here I want to move across seas to compare what the shops in Little Tokyo to ones in Japan. I will then return back to Los Angeles to after the war, looking at a shop in Little Tokyo when the Japanese were moving back in. In order to connect back with the starting point, I will bring the research back to present time, showing the same shop to illustrate how it has changed over time. The final product will consist of five modeled shop fronts, two present time, those same two again in the 1940’s and 50’s respectfully, and one from Japan in the 1940’s. These will then be compiled as illustrations in a book bound in a Japanese style.

As reference I will be using a variety of photographs showing the shop fronts in various time periods. One of the first differences I noticed about the shops before the war and those in Japan are the innumerable amount of signs, banners and lanterns that decorate and cover the fronts of stores. While after the war, before the Japanese have really reclaimed Little Tokyo, the fronts of buildings are empty, allowing minimal signage, permitting the architecture of the buildings to offer the decorative aspects.

In the essay Dismantling the East-West Dichotomy: Against 'Hybridity' I found it interesting how rice was used to create a culture separate from China, and how it continued to separate Japan from the "other" even after changes of government and the bombardment of western products and ideals. The self as rice sustained to divide the Japanese from the "others" or the "meat", as in meat eaters being the rest of the western world. But it isn't that they are separate, they have taken parts of western culture and government and have assimilated them into their own version of self, while still maintaining traditions and ideal from ages ago. I also found it interesting how by introducing rice and myth-histories about rice to support the emperor, the Emperor himself was able to create a rice culture bonding all the people together. He then furthered his sense of reign and power by taking a religion and using it to further authorize his power over the people. It is interesting how the people accept him as a god and emperor, bowing to his authority and rule all based on the introduction of rice agriculture. The first Emperor's efforts were truly successful for the tradition of rice to last centuries, remaining prevalent even today, though in more of a symbolic way.

Christine Snelling