Once at the forefront – today a follower of fashion

7__The Bamboo Boutique

Once at the forefront – today a follower of fashion

Many fashion trends originated in the streets of Harajuku. This was the case in the early 1980s, when a completely new look appeared. Young people wore imaginative outfits that they bought in the boutique named Takenoko (bamboo shoot). After the shop that initiated this style of fashion they were known as Takenoko-zoku (the tribe of bamboo children).

In 1978 the owner, Takenori Otake, established his boutique in Takeshita-Dori. As the character for bamboo occurred in both his first name and his family name, and the boutique was situated in the ‘street beneath the bamboo’, the name of the shop was an obvious choice. It sold fashion that differed sharply from the style of the time. The materials were shiny and seemed cheap. The colours were gaudy, with luminous shades of red, pink and purple to the fore. It was a wild stylistic mixture of the Arabian Nights and kimono. The clothes were worn loosely on the body. The ‘bamboo style’ would never have been accepted in the world of established fashion.

From the late 1970s a section of road in Harajuku was closed to motorised traffic on Sundays and put at the disposal of young people. The bamboo children met there to sing and dance to the sounds of disco music. At its peak it attracted up to 2,000 young people, and many onlookers. Following the attack carried out in Tokyo in 1995 by the Aum sect, this Sunday happening was judged by the authorities to be a safety risk. The official status of a pedestrian zone was therefore reversed step by step up to 1998, and the young lost the space where they could be themselves. This sealed the end of the bamboo children. Years earlier, their look had already been overtaken by newer fashion trends.

Today Takenoko no longer sets the style for young people, but follows trends on the street. For more than 40 years this store has braved the buffeting of time, like a bamboo in the wind.

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Address ブティック・竹の子, Boutique Takenoko, Jingu-mae 1-6-15, Shibuya-ku, 150 – 0001 Tokyo | Getting there JR-Yamanote Line to Harajuku, 5-minute walk | Hours Daily 11am – 8pm | Tip 5-minute walk from the boutique, in the Ota Ukiyoe Museum, you will fi nd well-known Japanese prints.