Japanese Retail Aesthetics

Retail consumption and retail brand awareness are important to the average Japanese city dweller. It is difficult to walk down any street in the city centers of this country without spotting a number of designer brand name logos on the shop bags of many passersby. Not that this is unique to Japan in anyway, it is perhaps a keystone of modern capitalist societies. However, not all cities pay so much attention to the retail stores themselves. Some of these outlets are like galleries (or works of art) and are entirely unique, but still have a certain familiarity; the clean lined and hyper detailed Japanese aesthetic - also found in Japanese landscape gardens, formal tea ceremony rooms, and architecture. Pictured is the Onitsuka Tiger store in Kyōto, one of my personal favorite brands of overpriced shoes originally made in Kōbe.