Palaceside Building is already dressed for early summer —. On the 1st, in the central corridor of the B1 and 1F arcade at Palaceside Building in Takebashi, Tokyo, the seasonal symbols of early summer — koinobori carp streamers and musha-nobori warrior banners — made their debut, delighting families on spring break, office workers, and OLs in the building.
The "Palaceside Building Famous Shops Association" (chairman: Sen Nakajima, president of Akasaka Hanten), organized by volunteers among tenant restaurants and shops, has staged this every year at this season for four years so people using the building can touch Japan's traditional seasonal customs. From handrails and ceilings on the 1F corridor hang fukinagashi, magoi, higoi, and aogoi carp streamers, swimming through the atrium of the central corridor; above the east and west "Dream Staircases," a musha-nobori seven meters long is draped diagonally as if watching people on the stairs. The musha-nobori designs depict the Battle of Kawanakajima between Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen, and battles in the Chugoku region between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Kato Kiyomasa. Small koinobori also appear at entrances of member shops.
The koinobori and musha-nobori in the central corridor were dyed by Watanabe Some-ten and Watanabe-sho
Kichi of Gujo-Hachiman in Gifu Prefecture — a traditional indigo dyer designated an intangible cultural property — using Gujo hon-zome techniques passed down in Gujo-Hachiman for 430 years; the rich colors are the charm. In Gujo hon-zome, cloth with various patterns hand-drawn in rice paste is dipped many times in dye fermented in jars with indigo balls, charcoal, lime, bran, and more, then rinsed in the Yoshida River flowing through central Gujo-Hachiman in winter.
The koinobori display is scheduled through May 2. On May 1 and 2, people passing through B1 will receive iris leaves on a first-come basis. Palaceside Building is closed Sundays and holidays, but on Sunday, April 7, it will open in support of the "Chiyoda Sakura Festival," with several shops in the arcade open. For the festival, on the 6th and 7th a free shuttle bus circling Marunouchi and Otemachi will extend its route to Jimbocho's used-book district, Kudanshita, and Takebashi; a temporary stop "Takebashi / Mainichi Shimbun HQ" will appear in front of Palaceside Building's main entrance, with shuttle buses about every 15 minutes.