shashasha

Tokyo is where I was born and raised. Even after the post-war convulsions and the subsequent period of rapid economic growth, this home town of mine never ceases to transform. “Tokyokei” is a series of snapshots of the streets and the people of Tokyo in the 1970s and 1980s. When I review these photographs, I see that my eyes unconsciously captured aspects of Tokyo that were later to fade from the city. I also realise that the city is made up of a multitude of diverse people, people who live here their whole lives, people that move here dreaming of success, people who make it, people who do not.

The Tokyo of my youth has vanished, but still there are times when I feel joyously nostalgic, sensing the happiness at festivals in the shitamachi (“low city”) area, or observing the unconscious actions of passers-by. My image of my home town is actually the sight of the daily lives of the people who live here. As well as being a record of a certain period in Japanese history, this book is also my own private perspective on my home town, and one that I want to hold in my heart for ever.

― Issei Suda

“Tokyokei” presents 106 previously unpublished photographs of the streets and people of Tokyo in the 1970s and 1980s. Published by Zen Foto Gallery in association with Nazraeli Press.