「Smiles」 and 「Smiles」 for stores. What are the thoughts behind the tapestry that appeared in Kakinokibatake Shopping Arcade 【Kanazawa Topics】

Located behind Kanazawa City Hall and close to 「the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art」, 「Katamachi」, 「Korinbo/Hirozaka」, and 「Tatemachi」, Kakinokibatake Shopping Street is an area with many restaurants. Starting with Japanese cuisine such as izakaya (Japanese style pubs) and oden (Japanese style dumplings), there are also restaurants offering Chinese, yakiniku, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Thai, Georgian, and many other gourmet specialties from various genres and countries.

Who is depicted?　And why the smiles?

In this Kakinokibatake shopping street, tapestries with large smiling faces printed on them have appeared since late March. The face on the tapestry displayed in front of the store is that of the store owner. Why in the world?

The Kakinokibatake shopping arcade, bustling with locals and tourists, could not escape the effects of the new coronavirus, including cancelled events and shortened or closed hours. So, shopkeepers decided to join forces and raise a tapestry to enliven the shopping street. The tapestry of smiling faces was created because the shopping arcade is full of smiles and humanity of shopkeepers, local customers, and tourists, and it is called 「Ninjo “Syo” tengai」.

There are 20 stores to be posted. The tapestry is decorated with a variety of stores, including restaurants such as the long-established Chinese restaurant 「Bishu Rakuen Zenkai Kosyo」 and the izakaya 「Itaru Honten」, which is listed in the 「2021 100 Best Restaurants」 section of 「Tabeog」, the musical instrument store 「Big Boss Kanazawa」 and 「Kikunoya Ryokan」, which was founded in 1919. The tapestries are rich in information, containing not only the smiling faces of store owners, but also QR codes linking to the store’s website, SNS, and the official website of the shopping district.

When you see this tapestry in a shopping street, you may be tempted to smile. Even if you have never been in a store before, the owner’s smile and store information may make you feel less intimidated to try.