On June 18th, 1908, after 52 sailing the oceans (literally), the ship Kasato Maru arrived at the Port of Santos with a load of 781 Japanese inmigrants. Many ships followed the first one and hundreds of thousands of Japanese moved from the land of the rising sun to somewhat more tropical latitudes.

Today, it is estimated 1 million and a half Japanese descendants live in Brazil. 75% of them are found on the state of São Paulo. 10% on the state of Paraná. And the remaining 15% are spread through the states of Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. The population exchange works both ways. The Japanese Ministry of Justice estimates that in 2006 there were 313.000 Brazilians (descendants from Japanese emigrants) working in Japan (they are known as dekasseguis).

One hundred years later, Brazil gets ready to celebrate the hundreth anniversary of the arrival of the first Japanese inmigrants in Brazil, and to pay homage to their vast contribution to the development of the Brazilian nation.

All the information related to the activities organized to celebrate the centenary can be found at the website of the Associação para Comemoração do Centenário da Imigração Japonesa no Brasil. The calendar of events has just been announced and can be consulted, month by month, at the following pages: January, February, March, April. As new months are added to the list we will do so as well at this blog.

The outstanding moment of the centenary celebrations will be the Japanese Culture Week, which will take place in São Paulo from 13 to 22 June and will be crowned with a big party on the 21 and 22 June (Saturday and Sunday) which will be attended by Nahurito, Crown Prince of Japan.

Usual readers of the blog are aware of how fond we are of Japanese culture in their Brazilian embodiment. The oriental quarter of Liberdade, in São Paulo, has popped up a few times at this blog:

- Liberdade Japanese quarter, São Paulo
- Toyo Matsuri in São Paulo
- Tanabata Matsuri in São Paulo

P.S.: thanks to the Press Office of the Centenary Association for the information pack they sent us.

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The Toyo Matsuri, held at the beginning of December in the oriental quarter of Liberdade, in São Paulo, is, along with the Tanabata Matsuri celebrated in July, the most important festival of the Japanese community in São Paulo. The festival has been held for 39 years now. If during the Tanabata Matsuri the streets of the Liberdade were decorated with bamboo shoots, for the Toyo Matsuri white banners were hang.

This year the media didn’t contribute to the promotion of the festival – it seemed more concerned with promoting consumerism on the run-up to Christmas. Because of the lack of publicity, the quarter wasn’t as crowded as it was during the celebration of the Tanabata Matsuri. Thank God for that, as it was a really hot and sunny day. The program for the weekend included all kinds of folk performances.

Some of the performances were identical to the ones we saw at the Tanabata Matsuri – we didn’t mind at all. Other performers introduced new elements, customes and colours.

For us, the main event of the festival was the taiko bands (the traditional Japanese drum).

Taiko bands represent traditions from different regions of Japan.

The energy put into the performances is contagious.

The complete photo album of the pictures taken on Saturday is here: Toyo Matsuri in São Paulo.

Make a note, the Toyo Matsuri festival is held yearly at the beginning of December.

[article originally published in Spanish in the blog de São Paulo]

We can hardly hide it, we have a soft spot for the Japanese quarter of Liberdade, in São Paulo. It’s our favourite part of the city. An exceptional place with a unique atmosphere on its streets. We don’t know of any other place in São Paulo where we feel as if we were in a traditional quarter of a European city or even Buenos Aires.

Liberdade was originally a gathering point for the Japanese colony in Brazil (don’t forget São Paulo is the largest Japanese city outside Japan). Today the ethnic make-up of the population of Liberdade is more diverse, with Chinese and Koreans, as well as Brazilians.

It’s very easy to reach the Liberdade using public transportation. There is an underground station (estação Liberdade, blue line) at its main square.

Walking along the streets of Liberdade is excellent fun, discovering shops selling all sorts of Japanese goods, venturing yourselves into Japanese and Chinese restaurants, and finding out small surprises on the way.

We have just published a FREE GUIDE TO THE LIBERDADE quarter (so far, only in Spanish and Portuguese) that can be downloaded from the blog de São Paulo.

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This weekend the Liberdade Japanese quarter was host to the Tanabata Matsuri festival, also known as star festival. It’s a Japanese festival with a tradition of more than 1,000 years, celebrated in Brazil since 1979.

We went to the Liberdade on Saturday, on a shiny day with warm temperature. Liberdade is one of those places in São Paulo that always has a reward in store for its visitors. This weekend the prize was unbeatable: the streets of Liberdade were full of colour and life, with thousands of people (whether from the Far East or not) enjoying a quiet stroll along the streets.

Along the colourful decoration, the central element of the Tanabata are the tanzakus, messages hang from the trees where the public write their petitions to the Gods.

During the weekend there is schedule of colourful folk presentations.

The oriental community takes part in the festival en masse.

The whole album with the pictures I took on Saturday can be found here: Tanabata Matsuri in São Paulo.

Make a note on your calendar so you don’t miss the festival next year – it takes place at the beginning of the month of July.