is a downtown covered shopping arcade that serves as the main shopping area in the city of

Gifu is a city located in the south-central portion of Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and serves as the prefectural capital. The city has played an important role in Japan's history because of its location in the middle of the country. During the Sengoku ...

Gifu Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,991,390 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture to the northwest, F ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

History

Yanagase first shot to nationwide fame when

Kenichi Mikawa is a Japanese singer and TV personality, known for his outspoken views and style. Mikawa was born in Suwa, Nagano as . He recorded a number of hit songs as a male ''enka'' singer in the 1960s and 1970s. The most well-known of his songs include ...

released ''Yanagase

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

'' in 1966.Gifu Yanagase & Gekijō-dōri North Shopping Area Website
Accessed November 16, 2007. Many visitors from throughout Japan came to Gifu to shop here as a result of the song. Gifu's position as a center of the fashion industry also helped make Yanagase a popular shopping area.

Location

Yanagase is located approximately 700m north of JR Gifu Station on the city's main street (Nagarabashi-dōri), which also forms its eastern border. It covers an area approximately 500m wide and is bordered on the west by Chūsetsubashi-dōri. Kinkabashi-dōri runs through the center of Yanagase, effectively dividing it into eastern and western portions.

Major Facilities

Gifu

Takashimaya is a Japanese multinational corporation operating a department store chain carrying a wide array of products, ranging from wedding dresses and other apparel to electronics and flatware. It has more than 12 branches strategically located in 2 ...

: This is Yanagase's number one department store. Sales reached a peak of 24.9 billion yen (approximately $184 million) in 1991, but had dropped to 15.6 billion yen (approximately $116 million) by February 2005, at which point Takashimaya began renovating the store to support sagging sales. The resulting renewal has again increased sales at Takashimaya. In December 2006, Takashimaya opened a branch of

MUJI (), or is a Japanese retail company which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. Muji's design philosophy is minimalist, and it places an emphasis on recycling, reducing production and packaging waste, and a no-logo or "no-bran ...

in a neighboring building. MELSA: Part of the

Meitetsu , referred to as , is a private railway company operating around Aichi Prefecture and Gifu Prefecture of Japan. Some of the more famous trains operated by Meitetsu include the ''Panorama Car'' and the '' Panorama Car Super'', both of which of ...

chain, MELSA is primarily devoted to women's fashion and gourmet foods. MELSA Hall, a concert hall, is located on the eighth floor.

Daiso is a large franchise of 100-yen shops founded in Japan. The headquarters are in Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture. Daiso has a range of over 100,000 products, of which over 40 percent are imported goods, many of them from China, South Ko ...

, a popular 100-yen shop, is located on the fifth floor.

References

{{Shopping malls in Japan Buildings and structures in Gifu Tourist attractions in Gifu Prefecture Shopping centres in Japan

History

Location

Major Facilities

See also

References