The red lanterns
Shaped like flowers.
Denis Rizzoli — CC BY-SA 3.0 · ProtoplasmaKid — CC BY-SA 4.0 · NoemyLemos — CC BY-SA 4.0
Liberdade is São Paulo's Japanese quarter, in the city with the largest Japanese community outside Japan. Japanese settlers began arriving in 1912, when many left the coffee farms of the interior for work in the capital and rented the cheap basements of the old houses here; over time Chinese and Korean immigrants joined them. Its streets are hung with red lanterns shaped like flowers, marked by Japanese-style gateways, and lined with shops selling Asian food, goods and stationery, and restaurants for sushi, ramen and dumplings. The name has a dark history: before the 20th century this was the Field of the Gallows, where slaves and convicts were executed, and it is said that death was the only liberty open to them. It is liveliest at weekends, when a food and craft fair fills Liberdade square. The district is on the metro and very crowded on Saturdays, so keep an eye on your belongings.
Shaped like flowers.
Food and crafts.
Japanese, Chinese, Korean.
Liberdade, south of central São Paulo
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