The Osaka High Court has rendered a verdict regarding a dragon in downtown Osaka.
The Dotonbori district is one of Osaka’s biggest tourist draws, boasting a unique urban landscape of neon lights, bridges over its canal, and lots and lots of restaurants. Because Dotonbori has so many places to eat, restaurants have to do something special to stand out from the pack, and many of them do that with creative, eye-catching three-dimensional signs and decorations.
One of the most famous examples is the Dotonbori branch of Kinryu, a ramen restaurant whose name means “Gold Dragon” and which has, appropriately, a giant dragon greeting guests from above its dining area.
Kinryu’s dragon has made it a local landmark and won it word of mouth even from foreign travelers who can’t read the restaurant’s name or know what it means. But while Kinryu’s choice of decoration is a great fit thematically, it turns out it’s not such a great fit geographically. As you can see in the above image, Kinryu’s dragon has an extra bit of architectural flair in that it appears to be coming out of the wall. Walk around to the other side, and you’ll find the rest of its body and, bursting through yet another wall, the tip of its tail.
That’s also where you’ll find the problem, because the tail juts out far enough from Kinryu’s restaurant that it’s actually crossing over into the adjacent property lot, which Kinryu doesn’t own. The real estate company that owns that lot isn’t happy about this, and four years ago they filed a lawsuit against Kinryu, asking them to remove the tail of the dragon.
Looking at the situation from the angles shown in the above video, the tail doesn’t appear to extend more than halfway across the alley. However, such walkways in Japan are sometimes private property, not public roads, so it’s likely that Kinryu’s property stops close to its building exterior, and the walkway technically belongs to the neighboring lot, whose owners allow people to use it.
Regardless of where the exact property line is, back in October an Osaka district court ruled in favor of the real estate company, ordering Kinryu to remove the dragon’s tail. Kinryu then filed an appeal, and the case was passed up to the Osaka High Court, who once again ruled in favor of the plaintiff in May.
Since then, Kinryu had been mulling appealing the decision once again, but as of last week says that it’s finally giving up the fight to save the dragon’s tail, saying that the ongoing legal struggle is making it difficult to focus on making great ramen and serving it to their customers. Not that this was an easy choice for the restaurant to make, though. “It is with a heavy heart that we have resolved to abide by the court’s ruling and cut off the dragon’s tail,” said the restaurant in a statement, adding “That three-dimensional sign is the very symbol of our company, and it is not just a simple tail to us.”
The silver lining to Kinryu’s predicament is that the restaurant itself is doing just fine, and will continue operations with or without the tip of the tail, and that the rest of the dragon is being spared. An exact date for the tail’s severing has yet to be set, but it’s expected to take place sometime before the end of this month.
Sources: MBS News, FNN Prime Online
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12 Comments
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Antiquesaving
Sounds petty on the part of the real estate company, but a simpler solution must have been available.
An agreement to keep as is with the shop agreeing the tail is over the property line and would remove if construction in the future by the owner. (I can only guess that one worry by the real estate company is that in some cases use without objections become grandfather clauses )
But if the real estate company refuses then instead of the money spent on legal fees the Ramen shop should have just modified the tail, making it run along the wall turning it up towards the Ramen shop roof to keep the visibility.
tamanegi
"Kinryu’s dragon has made it a local landmark and won it word of mouth even from foreign travelers who can’t read the restaurant’s name or know what it means."
Really Casey? I would have thought the majority of customers are SE Asian and of them mostly Chinese and Taiwanese.
TheDalaiLamasBifocals
Whatever legal fees they incur are probably much smaller than an ad campaign of this size would cost.
Make a big spectacle of the tail cutting. Bring in Shinto priests, Buddhist monks and Chinese Wizards. Call on the local hosts clubs for their finest youthful peacocks to do Osakan tribal dances in their pointy shoes and tight suits.
Then store the cut tail in front of the shop in a diamond-encrusted golden box to show the world what the dragon sacrificed to bring delicious ramen to the world.
falseflagsteve
tamanagi
Im afraid this is Sora News level mate.
We were round there Monday night, my niece is staying with us at the moment and her and my son wanted ramen. He wanted to go to the 24 hour Ichiran, there was a one hour wait, one hour! Can you believe it?
Well, we decided to walk 100 meters or so to Kinryu, no wait at all. This is the problem with all the tourists about I guess, lol
owzer
So remove it and redesign it so it flows along the building. There is obviously room for it.
SaikoPhysco
The point is... you let one company get away with it other's may follow. I agree with the courts 100%.
Desert Tortoise
Have the tip of the tail poking back out of the front of the restaurant above where the tail enters the building.
Hawk
I thought something similar, but I think it would look better below the rest of the tail.
N. Knight
Chainsaw will do the trick
ThonTaddeo
@Tamanegi - I agree, and not just for Asian tourists; kin (gold) and ryu (dragon) are words that people who love Japanese culture but aren't fluent in the language have a good chance of knowing. No need to talk about those customers so condescendingly.
DanteKH
This is another proof of 'tsumaranai Japan' way of doing things, sadly.
“The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.” is part of the Japanese culture, even if it's the worst thing to apply to people in general, since you cut out any possible Leaders development, smart persons have to dumbdown for the majority, etc.
Or in this case is not the nail, but the tail.
ebisen
Are you for real, man? Show me a country where you can just plant a dragon's tail over others' property and not get the same reaction. Complaining without thinking is not very healthy...