Cats are the unofficial mascot of Yanaka, one of the quirkiest (and undiscovered) Old Tokyo neighborhoods. It’s filled with traditional shops, shrines and temples, and is a must-visit in April, when the Nezu Shrine’s can’t-believe-your-eyes azaleas are in bloom. The shrine also puts on a lively celebration of New Year’s in January, and celebrates the brilliant autumn leaves in November.
Let’s start at the Nezu Shrine, which is my favorite shrine in Tokyo. It’s a jewel of red and gold lacquerwork that’s on more of a human scale than the massive Imperial shrines…
and walking through its long tunnel of orange torii gates is one of life’s great pleasures.
The shrine entrances are marked by giant red lacquered torii gates…
and the main gate is a masterpiece of intricate woodwork.
The very best time of year to be here is…
April
when the hill surrounding the shrine bursts into bloom with an incredible display of azaleas!
With the tunnel of orange torii gates peeking through the bounty of blooms, this is a sight worth traveling all the way to Japan for.
The Nezu Shrine is also a great place to make your first shrine visit of the new year in
January
because it’s lively in the best possible way, filled with food stands, festival games and traditional entertainment like these taiko drummers.
Not to be outdone,
November
is also an especially visit-worthy time, with red Japanese maples and torch-on-fire gingko trees making a bright backdrop for the colorful shrine buildings.
Nezu Shrine
Shrine hours: 7:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Admission: free
But enough with the culture! Let’s go shopping! On our way to one of the best traditional shopping streets in Tokyo, we’ll pass plenty of shops that have been in business for centuries. The owners of this store have been making wooden buckets since the 1500s, and have the Muromachi Era tools (still in use!) to prove it.
Lollipops made by skillful snipping and pulling of hot candy are another traditional art, and Amezaiku-ya sells everything from whimsical bunnies to adorable animals representing each zodiac year…
but the best part is watching the artist at work, through the window at the far end. If you’d like to take photos or video, order a lollipop from the many choices on the menu, and he’ll make it for you as you watch.
Now, on to Yanaka Ginza, a narrow lane lined with small shops selling delicious street food, everything from skewered chicken to…cat tail donuts?
These shops sell household goods with adorable animal themes, traditional Japanese goods, and other tempting stuff. But what makes it especially fun is that once you begin to look, meowingtons are everywhere! The street’s carved mascots…
are a mash-up between the shi-shi lion dogs that flank the entrances to Japanese temples (see how one’s mouth is open and the other’s is closed?) and the raised-paw maneki neko that beckon good fortune into businesses and shops.
But these aren’t the only cats in town. If you check out the rooftops, you might catch a glimpse of some carved sentinels modeled on real life residents…
that were made by this artist. The Yanakado shop specializes in maneki neko…
and you can order a custom sculpture painted to look exactly like your own cat (which does take six months and requires a good photo when placing the order).
If you can’t bear to wait six months for your cat’s portrait, you can make one at the cafe next door. Cafe Nekoemon serves up a cake set that includes the drink of your choice, a cat-themed dessert, and a blank maneki neko cat figure to color yourself.
Next, let’s try (and fail) to resist buying everything in Isetatsu, the paper store that sells traditional patterned chiyogami that’s still handprinted from the original Edo woodblocks. They carry the usual all-over patterns, but also sell fantastic prints that hilariously feature cats indulging in all kinds of seasonal delights.
This store has been in business since the samurai era, and Van Gogh even used some of their prints in his paintings! Each one is meticulously printed in multiple colors and suitable for framing, but they cost half the price you usually pay for woodblock reproductions.
At the end of the Yanaka Ginza shopping street, let’s peek into the Asakura Sculpture Museum, which is the former residence of a sculptor who specialized in lifelike bronze figures. Selections of his impressive work are installed throughout the grounds, but what makes a visit to his studio and home especially worthwhile are the house and garden itself.
The details in the rooms are exquisite, and the materials used are quite unusual. If you love Craftsman and Art Nouveau design, do not miss this very Japanese interpretation.
Yanaka is also the home of a venerable art university, and there are plenty of shops specializing in custom-made brushes and the powdered gemstone pigments used by the traditional nihonga painters who train there. The Kinkaido pigment and brush store is small, but a great place to see how lovely these pigments are, and how crazy expensive!
As in all Japanese shops, please be an excellent visitor and look with your eyes, not your hands—it stresses them out to have casual visitors picking up the precious merchandise, and we don’t want to be the ones who caused a “no foreigners” sign to go up in Yanaka!
By now you might be curious how a master uses ground-up rocks to make his paint, so let’s drop into Art Sanctuary Allan West. Allan is a renowned nihonga master whose paintings hang everywhere from mountain temples to five-star hotels. He welcomes visitors to his studio and gallery every afternoon from 13:30 – 16:00 (except on Thursdays) to learn about the venerable art of painting with powdered gemstones on gold and silver leaf.
He’s often there himself to answer questions, and his studio is always worth a visit.
After soaking up the painterly goodness, let’s meander over to Zensho-an Temple with its tall gold Kannon statue and magnificent peonies (in May). If you’re there in the summer instead, dare to nip into the temple’s Ghost Museum (¥500). It’s only open in August because telling ghost stories is one of the traditional ways Japanese kept cool in summertime. (They supposedly “send a chill up your spine”!)
Next up is one of the quirkiest destinations in Yanaka—Puppet Shokichi is the atelier of an eccentric artist who displays his creations and puts on puppet shows. The shop is filled with puppets posed in poignant tableaus of traditional Japanese life…
…and surprisingly recognizable puppet caricatures of celebrities.
These surround the stage where the performances take place and you can get your portrait painted by a puppet! Just ask the proprietor if he has time for a portrait, pay him ¥1000, and take your seat…
As we make our way back toward Sendagi Station, it’s impossible to resist the pull of Mister Donut‘s “Pon de Ringu,” which is pure, chewy, only-in-Japan goodness. If you haven’t tried one, I warn you: you won’t be able to eat just one
And finally, let’s see if there’s a show at the Yayoi-Yumeji Museum we’d like to see. They occasionally curate exhibitions featuring works of artist Takehisa Yumeji alongside the Jazz Age kimono outfits worn by the models in his paintings.
Their Taisho and Showa Era kimono collection is well worth seeing if any of it is on display!
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And here are the other places I take my friends when they come to town
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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly e-magazine Japanagram, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had
Jonelle Patrick writes about Japan 