Chuo-ku Tourism Association correspondent blog

We visited an exhibition at the Shiseido Gallery in Ginza 8-chome, "Creating Shiseido Beauty by Makoto Nakamura".

Makoto Nakamura worked on a representative advertisement for Shiseido from the mid-1950s to the 1980s.

Everyone may have seen advertisements modeled by Mimari Maeda and Koyoko Yamaguchi.

"One business, one company, one life, one advertisement"

 

Under the motto, he spent his life visualizing Shiseido's image and has created a number of legendary advertisements.

 

 

Nakamura was born in Morioka in 1926.

 

It seems that he came to have a longing for painting and design because he was fascinated by the beauty of Shiseido posters affixed to pharmacies when he was a boy.

 

At the venue, a photograph of a monochrome small boat taken by Mr. Nakamura in high school was exhibited.

Even though it was a normal shore and a boat, it was a very poetic screen, and the beautiful completed composition was impressive.

 

After that, Mr. Nakamura, who went to Tokyo Bijutsu School, finds a poster by Setsuko Hara of Shiseido, which was affixed to a storefront where there was no product after the war.

 

Nakamura knew that it was a poster distributed by Shiseido to encourage shopkeepers who had nothing to sell, and decided to work at Shiseido and hit the gate.

 

Then, I was able to work as a part-time job at the advertising department where Fumio Yamana, who designed the cover of "Hanatsubaki", which I longed for as a boy, and in 1949 he joined as a full-time employee.

 

In 1957, I worked on perfume advertisements on behalf of my seniors, and since then I have been working on many Shiseido advertisements.

 

 

Above all, perfume is a product that becomes the face of a cosmetics company, and it is related to the brand image of a company, so it has been raised carefully.

 

One of Nakamura's perfume posters is as beautiful as poetry.

 

"Expressions, atmosphere, and air that cannot be expressed in counts.

 

It's not just about making advertisements, but

"Opening up the future of Japan with the beauty of Japanese women."

I felt a spirit similar to Mr. Nakamura's prayer, as if he always kept in mind.

 

An elegant and quiet passion and elegance.

　Ginza, the largest luxury commercial area in Japan, had many alleys until the Showa 30s.
There are quite a few wooden houses on the back street, and wooden houses must be built at least 50 cm away from the border under civil law, so there is inevitably a gap of more than 1 m. There were many residents, so in fact, a private road, that is, an alley, was built more than that of the convenience of life.
However, since it is a land that was said to be "Soil Issho Kin Issho", the wooden houses were more and more destroyed or burned down by fire (at this time there were many fires). Building has been built.
Non-combustible buildings are built in contact with buildings, so the alleys, which are private roads, were absorbed by new buildings and disappeared.
　At that time, the private road was the property of the landowner, and the people who passed there seemed to be inevitable if the landowner built a building and could not pass the alley, so if you built a building, it was natural to build a building on the site.
　At present, it is said that even private roads, people who use them on a daily basis have the right to pass, and private roads cannot be closed without permission. To put it difficult, there is a precedent that the right to pass on a private road can be obtained at the time of acquisition, and that right (passing ground role) can compete with the landowner without registration. In other words, even landlords can't close or crush private roads without permission.

　Well, such a difficult story is that there are still back streets where old wooden buildings still remain, and alleys left in consideration of convenience even when it becomes a building, and there are hidden luxury bars in it, and there are izakayas for office workers.

　This time, let's introduce one of them, the alley of Ginza 8-chome.
There is an alley that runs from Kinharu Street to Namiki-dori St. on Ginza 8-chome, sandwiched between Hanatsubaki Street and Gomon Street, which is a luxury social hall. There is an alley that was called "Success alley" by senior officials and elite office workers.

In the past, it used to continue from Ginza Street, but because the space between Ginza Street and Kinharu Street is too narrow and dangerous, now a locked door is installed and cannot pass.

So now, the entrance near the famous sushi restaurant "Kubei" on Kinharu Street is the starting point (marked by my French), passing through the alley lined with bars, and then passing through the alley with "Porsche Building" on the left, it will be Namiki-dori St., ahead of which will be a large road rather than an alley.

If you go straight through Sotobori-dori St. and JR elevated tracks and cross Hibiya Street, you will eventually reach Kasumigaseki and hit National Diet Building. (Approx. 15 to 20 minutes)

It was located in Ginza 8-chome, and if you go straight on the path that became wider and wider, it would have been called the "good alley" because it hit National Diet Building, the pinnacle of Japanese politics.
Well, in fact, it was also called "Obi Yokocho" because drunks often do tubs in dim alleys ... (laughs).

During the rainy season, we took a walk at Harumi Wharf Park.

When you enter the park from the old water bus stop, there are a lot of pigeons "swarm on the ground.

When you walk in what it is, the area is full of sour fruit scents.

 When I looked up, I saw a big evergreen, a bright red, and a little fruit.

・・... "Japanese bayberry." ・・・・・・・・・

When contained in the mouth, a small grain but sweet and sour scent spreads in the mouth.

Even at the "Japanese bayberry" Tsukiji Market Fruits and Vegetables Department and outside the venue, they are lined up in stores for about a week in mid-June.

I told the wife of a standing drink in Tsukishima.

"It's the taste of my first love that I tasted with my lost husband during my honeymoon in Kochi ... nostalgic ..."

　The sweet and sour scent of Japanese bayberry, which was sold in red, reminded me that I would never forget it.

　Looking for it, it seems that there are two or three large trees in the park of this "Japanese bayberry".

　During the rainy season, during the morning and evening walks, why not enter the evergreen forest and enjoy the scent of Japanese bayberry?　Green trees deliver sweet and sour scent.

The Sanno Festival, one of the three major festivals in Edo, is being held, and the Shitamachi Union imperial procession was held on the 15th, where 12 portable shrine units such as Nihonbashi, Kyobashi and Hatchobori travel along Chuo-dori from Kyobashi to Nihonbashi.

 
I grew up in Nihonbashi Tachibana-cho (Higashibashi 3-chome), so I'm in Kanda festival, but since I was familiar with the festival where I used to elaborate drums on the floats of the town council before I was carrying a child portable shrine, I went to see the Sanno Festival Shimomachi Union imperial procession.

The fine portable shrine of each town is coming one after another. portable shrine can continue to carry it without a break, so there is a large number of people in one portable shrine, and the total is quite large.
 

The highlight is the portable shrine in the sense of giving the gods in front of the shrine parishioner of Kanda Myojin (the shrine parishioner of Kanda Myojin on the north side of Nihonbashi, and the shrine parishioner of Hie-jinja Shrine on the south side of this year).

 
The spectators were also surrounded by triple and four times, and applauded with portable shrine's rhythm.

In portable shrine, Nihonbashi, there were many people wearing happi coat, a well-known company nearby, such as Mitsui Fudosan, Takashimaya, Taro Sakae, Kokubun, Nomura Securities and Tokyo Tatemono. It's the most popular festival in Edo Tokyo.