Why I came to Japan - Part 1

Why did you come to Japan?

And when will you be leaving?

Photographs my father took on his epic adventure in 1980’s Japan.

Over the years, I have been asked both questions many times. The answer to the latter still remains a question mark. But the answer to the former is rather complex and certainly cannot be surmised in an off the cuff fashion.

There are in fact several parts to the story of how I ended up in Japan. The first part involves a photo album and a set of magazines I found when I was about 10 years old.

In the summer of 1980, exactly 5 years before I was born, my father and my step brother Johnathan boarded a plane bound for Japan. Dad was on route to the Philippines to meet a lady who would later become my mother and Johnathan tagged along for the adventure. Exactly why he chose Japan, over say China or Korea was never explained. But I’m sure it had something to do with Japan’s increasing allure to Western eyes combined with his fascination for Japanese technology in the form of cameras, radios and the like.

A Japanese man my dad bumped into on the street in Tokyo that took him into his home, and allowed him to choose an object from his glass cabinet as a gift. The man was also a university professor and asked my father to give a presentation on Maori art to his students. The connection between my father and Maori art is another story which I won’t cover here.

Old Charlie Eastlake was lucky to have visited during Japan’s golden era. A period of hope, prosperity, and a large side portion of risk taking. Fueled by consistent annual economic growth , Japan’s industries would flourish during the 80’s eventually allowing the nation to stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States.

For reference, it was in 1979 that Japan would shake up the world with the release of the Sony Walkman. 1981 saw the first appearance of Mario in the arcade game Donkey Kong, in 1983 Disney, (yes that company that used to garner a modicum of respect) opened it’s first park outside of US in Tokyo. The 80’s also saw Japan’s animation industry thrive with the founding of a somewhat well known Studio Ghibli in 1985. In short, Japan was throwing innovative curved balls all over the place and generally kicking a lot of ass.

Subdued smiles of two future Yakuza.

Anyway, in the middle of this vigorous storm of development, dad found himself wandering the streets of Tokyo, armed with a camera and with ample amounts of curiosity in tow. He left his lodgings, the Kimi Ryokan inn located in Ikebukuro, and headed for the city of Taito. Famous for its traditional suburbs of Asakusa and Ueno, Taito was and still is very much the heart of Tokyo.

With no precise destination in mind, he quite serendipitously stumbled into one of Tokyo’s oldest festivals, the Torikoe Matsuri. It is regarded as one of Tokyo’s roughest and rowdiest festivals and not without reason. The shrine to which the festival originated is one of the oldest in the Tokyo and has a history that goes back 1370 years to Japan’s Yamato period (250–710).

For context, Buddhism had only entered Japan 126 years prior to the shrine’s founding, China’s Dynasty began only 33 years before, and 19 years prior marked the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Yes, you may have noticed I like giving contextual info.

The local fashion styles indicate that it was indeed summer when my dad visited Japan (definitely favorite photo from series)

Young ones preparing to shoulder the burden of Japan’s post bubble era.

So back to the topic. Why did you come to Japan? Well these photos definitely played a part. I can still remember the moment I discovered this photo album, on the top tier, far right hand side of the bookshelf in our living room. There was a vibrancy and magic to these scenes that seemed so far removed from the daily life of my humdrum little town in the middle-of-nowhere England. Viewing these photos left me with so many burning questions: what were those people on the street celebrating, why were their outfits so unique and what happened to the rest of the clothes of the semi naked man lying on the floor?

But it wasn’t just the photo album alone that ignited my imagination. There were also two magazines that my father bought in Tokyo that would play an almost equal role in my fascination with Japan. On the right is an incredible collection of photos by Asano Kiichi, a legendary photographer who spent most of his life documenting the traditional lifestyles of the people of Kyoto before they were uprooted by the the inevitability of modernization. And on the left, the July 1980 issue of Modern Living. Being a carpenter by trade, my father must have got some great insights into the aesthetics of Japanese interiors and furniture from this magazine.

But beyond the photos, it was the aggressive finesse expressed through the orange stylized Japanese characters on the front cover of the photo collection of Asano Kiichi that really stirred something inside me. I couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of tradition, along with an aura of ancient sophistication that seemed to almost leap out of the characters on the page. I had no idea what any of this meant, but it didn’t matter. The power of their abstraction and symbolism was something I felt intuitively.

But perhaps more than the photos, the magazines and the kanji characters, I must acknowledge that it was the legacy of my father’s curiosity that led me to Japan. It’s quite funny if I think about it. He never spoke about the magazines, neither did he ever take that album off the bookshelf to show me. He simply followed his curiosity, had his adventure in Japan and left the records of his trip on that bookshelf in the living room.

That’s my father with his Leica…which he never stops taking about. Thankfully Charles Eastlake is still alive. At 91 his dementia has made him forget almost all of his time in Japan. I’m writing this post to keep his memories alive, even if it’s just for myself and my future kids.

So that’s the end of part 1. Many years later, another set of coincidences would occur while I was at Bristol University studying a degree in Cancer Biology and Immunology that would lead me to a Japanese class. But that’s the 2nd part of the story and will have to wait for another time as it’s late and time for bed.

Thanks for reading.