[61] Harmonica Alley. Yokohama: meet the team
| Dates: | 9 March 2016 |
|---|
| Times: | 12:00 - 16:00 |
|---|
| What is it: | Outreach and enrichment activities |
|---|
| Organiser: | School of Environment, Education and Development |
|---|
| How much: | Free! |
|---|
|
Sign up to get a personal introduction to our research project 'Harmonica Alley, Yokohama: a visual ethnography'.
The project explores Miyakobashi Yokocho in drawings, photographs and text. It reveals previously concealed glimpses into Japan’s changing urban culture.
Miyakobashi Yokocho (Yokohama, Japan) is home to sixty-one lift-sized spaces: ‘sunakku’ (snack bars), frequented by business men, local residents and the occasional tourist alike. Constructed in 1964, just in time for Tokyo’s last Summer Olympics, Miyakobashi Shopping Centre transformed a formerly cluttered black market area into an orderly urban marketplace. Over several decades, courageous women created independent livelihoods for themselves in converting Miyakobashi into the vibrant entertainment block it is today.
The narratives of Miyakobashi clients and proprietors provide an intimate account of small-scale urban transitions and synchronous cultural and social change; they expose the difficulties (and successes) faced by contemporary Japanese women; and they put into perspective current efforts to redevelop this along with similar urban areas in view of Tokyo’s forthcoming Summer Olympics 2020.
The event is part of the University of Manchester's JustFest 2016.
It builds on research in Yokohama, Japan, and was funded by the Daiwa Foundation, the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, the University of Manchester and the Manchester Metropolitan University.
Twitter: @61sunakku
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
3rd Floor, Manchester School of Architecture
Benzie Building
Cavendish Street
