Honoring Golden Week, Omotesando lined its streetside with wondrous bamboo sculptures. I recognized the deft hand of flower master Hiroshi Teshigahara; he had once filled his Sogetsu headquarters building with similar fanciful forms, a display that visitors could walk among, and those of us who did will probably never forget. Here they beautified trees, enhanced mailboxes, decorated posts and stood alone in swirling, free-form designs. A few may still be there.
I was there for my Peek-a-Boo haircut. I have been going there for most of the 25 years since Fumi Kawashima and his friend and manager Yasuo Kobayashi opened their first shop with five assistants. Now there are six shops and 190 employees. Usually there will be a few observers, hopeful men and women who want to study hairdressing and come for an introduction to how it's done. Kawashima-san takes a great interest in those looking for a career in cutting. He travels all over Japan giving lessons to young people, inspiring them, helping them and bringing many of them to Tokyo for training and encouraging them eventually to set up their own shops. Most of them never want to leave. His own training was with Sassoon in London where he was the European artistic director.
Afterward, I had coffee with Kobayashi-san at an outdoor place nearby. As we talked, I became aware of music. It was a Christian hymn. Then I realized there was an imitation chapel behind us with stained-glass windows and big white doors. He explained there was a wedding in progress, that three or four were held each day during weekends. The adjacent shop that sold beautiful giftware, crystal and jewelry was part of a wedding enterprise that included banquet halls and a restaurant with rows of outdoor tables lining what was soon to become an aisle for the new bride and groom to walk down. We, and all the others who were slowly gathering, would become part of the ceremony.