During the hot weather my wife and I moved our long exercise walks to the early morning hours. Our most recent walk took us to Nippori Station for breakfast followed by a tour of the nearby Nippori Fabric Town, a collection of nearly 90 shops serving retail and wholesale customers with fabrics and accessories for dressmaking and costume design.

History

Shops that sold surplus and imperfect stock from textile producers began to concentrate along Nippori Chuo Dori in the Taisho Era.

Because their activities did not fit war production needs, many shops closed during the war years beginning in 1937.

In the immediate postwar period, shops selling odds and ends, military surplus, hand me downs from United States occupation forces, and used clothing from the United States concentrated in this area.

In 1989, Arakawa Ward opened a multi-function hall on the main Fabric Town Street as part of a revitalization program, emphasizing fashion rather than left overs.

More recently, there has been an effort to cater to foreign tourists with multi-language materials that cover not only the fabric shops, but also eating and drinking establishments in the area.

And, of course, there is a mascot.

I briefly interviewed Takeo Arai who handles public relations for the wholesalers association. He estimated that perhaps 20-30% of custom had been coming from foreign visitors. 

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