Breathing new life into Little Tokyo

Breathing new life into Little Tokyo

The weeklong Little Tokyo Design Week showcases cutting-edge design, green technology and pop culture in a neighborhood known for preserving traditional culture.

Crowds browse the exhibits during Little Tokyo Design Week. The weeklong event ended Sunday. (Gina Ferazzi, Los Angeles Times / July 17, 2011)

By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times

July 17, 2011, 9:19 p.m.

Mason Keefe never used to come to Little Tokyo. The Burbank teenager's most prominent cultural influence was her mother's Texan background; Japan was a distant country.

But two years ago, the 14-year-old's passion for comic books led to the discovery of Japanese manga, which fueled an obsession with Japan. Now she adores sushi. She studies Japanese. And she comes to Little Tokyo regularly — most recently this past weekend to check out Little Tokyo Design Week, a five-day festival showcasing Japan's cutting-edge design, technology and pop culture.

Featuring baby seal robots, eco-friendly homes and other inventive products, Design Week, which ran through Sunday, was aimed at expanding Little Tokyo's appeal to new kinds of visitors like Mason. As the historic heart of the Japanese American community, Little Tokyo is best known for its iconic reflections of traditional culture: the Buddhist temples and Japanese gardens, the kimono and rice cake shops, the sushi and noodle restaurants.

But Design Week organizer Hitoshi Abe, the Japan-born chairman of the UCLA architecture and urban design department, thinks it's time to update the neighborhood with Japan's imaginative modern culture. In doing so, he and other festival sponsors hope that Little Tokyo can attract a younger, multiethnic crowd to help sustain the neighborhood first settled a century ago by issei immigrants but largely vacated by their children.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,......................