KASAKI, Yasuko. Harajuku Takenokozoku.

(Tokyo): Daisanshokan 1981. First edition. Quarto. Absolutely amazing book documenting the Takenoko-zoku phenomena of dancing groups on the sidewalk of Harajuku which became widely popular in the 1980s. The Takenoko-zoku phenomenon followed an eccentric sensibility that was completely inverse to fashion trends at the time. The Harajuku district was renowned for being at the cutting edge of Japanese fashion and yet Takenoko-zoku was more anti-fashion characterized by extremely gaudy, cheap materials, in vivid colours cut extremely loosely imitating Kimono or Chinese dress style. So attired the 2000 or so members of this sub-culture danced all day to cheesy candy pop music attracting around one million spectators at the peak of the craze. This is a very good copy in stiff card covers with dust jacket. Jacket showing some wear and tears along the edges. Very scarce documentation of this long gone 80’s sub-culture.