Protests and poetry: The death of Kyoto’s original counterculture hub

Story highlights

Café Honyarado was a hub for Kyoto's artistic and anti-war movements

Japanese photographer Kai Fusayoshi reflects on its influence and legacy

Fusayoshi's black-and-white photos capture decades of Kyoto life

CNN  — 

In the spring of 1972, three Kyoto dropouts – a folk singer, a photographer and a poet – decided to build a space where their creative and political ideas could meet.

For the last 17 years, the US and its allies had been fighting communist Vietnam in a brutal and unpopular war.