Tokyo has no shortage of “Cool Japan” experiences. Think sword-wielding samurai, taiko drummers dancing to neon lights and the now-defunct Robot Restaurant’s costumed automatons gyrating to music cranked to 11. Come to Japan, crawl through Shibuya Scramble intersection on a video game-inspired yet legally distinct go-kart and then head back home without wondering too much about what it all meant.
It’s an image of Japan that many businesses think Western tourists want. If they’re wrong, however, and there are tourists out there searching for even just a brief glance at a more authentic side of Japan, Suigian offers it.
Located beneath a small park hemmed in on all sides by the commercial high-rises of the Nihonbashi neighborhood, this moodily lit venue hides a restaurant, bar and eye-level stage under the throngs of salarymen above. The stage dominates the space here, as does the backdrop: a roughly 5-meter painting of a stately pine tree that dates back to the Edo Period (1603-1868) and originally backstopped a stage in Kyoto’s Nakagyo Ward, not far from Minamiza, the former capital’s epicenter of kabuki.