Harajuku

Harajuku (原宿 "meadow lodging")  listen (help·info) is the common name for the area around Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line in theShibuya ward of Tokyo, Japan.

Every Sunday, young people dressed in a variety of styles including gothic lolita, visual kei, and decora, as well as cosplayers spend the day in Harajuku socializing. The fashion styles of these youths rarely conform to one particular style and are usually a mesh of many. Most young people gather on Jingu Bridge, which is a pedestrian bridge that connects Harajuku to the neighboring Meiji Shrine area.^[1]

Harajuku is also a fashion capital of the world, renowned for its unique street fashion.^[2] Harajuku street style is promoted in Japanese and international publications such as Kera, Tune, Gothic & Lolita Bible and Fruits. Many prominent designers and fashion ideas have sprung from Harajuku and incorporated themselves into other fashions throughout the world.

Harajuku is also a large shopping district that includes international brands, its own brands, and shops selling clothes young people can afford.

Location

Girls at Harajuku Station on a Sunday afternoon

Rockabilly dancers in Yoyogi Park

Harajuku is an area between Shinjuku and Shibuya. Local landmarks include the headquarters of NHK, Meiji Shrine, and Yoyogi Park.

The area has two main shopping streets, Omotesandō and Takeshita Street (Takeshita-dōri). The latter caters to youth fashions and has many small stores selling Gothic Lolita, visual kei, rockabilly, hip hop, and punk outfits,^[3] in addition to fast food outlets and so forth.

Omotesandō has recently seen a rise in openings of up-scale fashion shops such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Prada. The avenue is sometimes referred to as "Tokyo's Champs-Élysées".^[4] Until 2004, one side of the avenue was occupied by the Dōjunkai Aoyama apāto,Bauhaus-inspired apartments built in 1927 after the 1923 Kantō earthquake. In 2006 the buildings were controversially destroyed by Mori Building and replaced with the "Omotesando Hills"^[5] shopping mall, designed by Tadao Ando.^[6] The area known as "Ura-Hara", back streets of Harajuku, is a center of Japanese fashion for younger people—brands such as A Bathing Ape and Undercover have shops in the area.^[7]

Styles

The term "Harajuku Girls" has been used by English-language media to describe teenagers dressed in any fashion style who are in the area of Harajuku.^[10] This fashion infuses multiple looks and styles to create a unique form of dress. The cyber-punk look takes its influence from gothic fashion and incorporates neon and metallic colors.^[9]

Harajuku Girls is also a fashion line created by Gwen Stefani in the U.S. It is considered a designer brand and is sold at various department stores.

Punk style in Harajuku is more of a fashion than a statement.^[1] Its fashion mainly consists of dark colors, plaid, chains, and zippers. Punk style is also one of the more gender-neutral fashions in Harajuku.^[1]

Ganguro is a style that symbolizes the average American teenager. The term translates to ‘black-faced’. The basic look is what Westerners would call a ‘California girl’, with bleached hair, dark skin, fake eyelashes and nails. It is not clear how Ganguro came to be. Many assume^[who?] it originated in the early 1990s, and was meant as a way of rebelling against the traditional Japanese ideas of beauty (pale skin, dark hair, etc.)

Cosplay is more of a costume-based style. A cosplay enthusiast will usually dress as a fictional or iconic character from a band, game, movie, anime, or manga.^[1]

Ura-Hara is another section of Harajuku, which caters to a mostly male population interested in a hip-hop, graffiti, and skater fashion and culture.^[9] Ura-Hara is seen as the opposite of Harajuku in that it’s more hidden and reserved.^[9]