TOKYO DAY IN LONDON 2009

this year's Tokyo Day which happened on Saturday 31st of January, close to Victoria station, was an amazing event that gave an interesting- rather interactive insight into this city and Japanese culture.



EVENTS:

Traditional dance:





CALLIGRAPHY WORKSHOP: It is really hard to get all these lines right! The ink is special and also the rice paper very profuse, this is why you have to do the lines fast with punctuations on certain places. The paper has to have a prolonged weight on upper side of the paper sheet.



ORIGAMI WORKSHOP: Also this craft is nearly mathematical! Kids were doing much better than me!

TRADITIONAL CRAFTS:

Woodcut prints:

This is a very very painstainking job that demands high level of concentration, talent and also some physical strenght. Each colour (or maybe 2 colour combination as they dont use ink for it but special watercolour painted on the matrix) has its own print- so it demands quite some planning upfront! The best wood for this is cherry as it has the right density to be cut.




TOYS:

Japan is a country of quick technological development, which can be seen aslo in t5he wide diversity of all sorts of robotised toys:





TRADITIONAL TEA CEREMONY:





ANIMATION:We were shown only anime as this is traditional Japanese animation genre. Watching them I had in mind that probably nobody will achieve the quality of Hayao Miyazaki's work, but there were also some inrteresting atmospherical effects and background designs, which probably were more a product of induvidual talent and not a soulless copying seen in characetr design.



There will be another event on 28th of February- Tokyo Art Day in Richmond, which I also advise to visit.