 [показать]
One of the most enduring images people have of Japan is the riot of multicolored neon light that illuminates major city centers with a vibrant nighttime glow.
What looks like a gaudy collection of signs during daylight hours:
[показать]
 [показать]
(images credit: Andrew Eckford)
...at night turns into a veritable forest of glowing signage. Ginza District at Night:
 [показать]
(image credit: Archidose.org)
 [показать]
 [показать]
 [показать]
(images credit: Jakob Oester)
 [показать]
(image credit: P!xeL')
Where did it all begin? Neon lighting itself is less than a century old and Japan's first displays were opened in 1926 at Tokyo's Hibiya Park. Advertisers soon saw the possibilities inherent in night lighting with neon, and one in particular was determined to make a name for themselves in neon.
 [показать]
In December 1957, switches were thrown and a giant neon sign nearly 36 feet wide in the center of the Ginza strip proclaimed the name "SONY" to the watching world. Each massive neon letter weighed almost 580 lbs.! It's hard to answer "What if?" questions, but without that sign, the history of both SONY and of neon advertising in Japan may have taken a different, less auspicious direction.
Instead, neon lighting caught on in Japan as the 1960s swung into gear. Tokyo Ginza at night in 1965:
|