The Kimono Queen

Perhaps I've written this before in these pages.  Things happen to me here in Japan that wouldn't happen anywhere else.  I don't think there is an American equivalent to the "Kimono Queen", but if there were, I'm sure I would not be asked to do a photo shoot with her.

My friends Okamoto-san and Uchiyama-san at be-kyoto gallery needed someone to play a Western tourist for a PR project they were working on.  Of course they called me.

I sat in the serene washitsu of this machiya-turned-gallery with the lovely current "Kyoto Hospitality Ambassador" and former "Kimono Queen", Noriko Zugawa dressed in a gorgeous pearl-colored kimono.  For the shoot she was to serve me tea, point out the highlights in a Kyoto tourist brochure and show me the fine art of ikebana flower arrangement.

She arrived terribly late so the perfect afternoon light was rapidly slipping away.  This meant there was no time for small talk or getting acquainted.  Uchiyama-san sat me uncomfortably close to this immaculately dressed stranger with piercing black eyes and quickly began shooting.  Her close proximity and self-possessed gaze made me rather nervous.  Uchiyama-san, like any good photographer, helped us, or rather me, relax by making us laugh.

Zugawa-san asked me things in Japanese that I sometimes understood and sometimes didn't.  Thankfully Okamoto-san was just off camera to translate when I stumbled.  There was something about her that reminded me of someone I knew, but I couldn't think of who it was.

The shoot was over almost as quickly as it had begun.  There was a long series of bows and "arigato gozaimasu".  Then Zugawa-san was whisked away with her stylist in a big, black, luxury sedan.

Analogue

Analogue.  Sometimes, oh to just sit and listen to records.  A vinyl LP, a turntable, an amplifier and some speakers.  Just sit and listen.  Don't talk.  Don't look at your computer.  Don't eat dinner or do the dishes.  Just listen.

About a year ago I found a postcard-sized flyer with a black and white photo of a young Paul Weller.  In red and black letters it read "KYOTO 6T'S CLUB".  It was an announcement for a Soul party at a little nightclub here called "The Weller's Club".  Of course I had to investigate.  

When I'm missing my records and I want to hear some good 60s Soul I come here.  I've since become friends with the owner and a couple of the DJs and regulars.

You have to give it up to Japanese DJs spinning this music on vinyl in 2015.  It was never easy, even in 1965 when these records were new.  They were fairly obscure 45rpm discs in the States where they were made.  In Japan?  Forget it.  That is a serious record digger that has these gems in their collection.

There is a reason it is called Soul.  Because it makes you feel good; it is good for you.  This music, perhaps more than any other, moves me - literally!

Roots are deep.  And the older you get the deeper they go, the stronger they get.

Keeps On Burning.