shashasha

“In Tokyo’s northeast, enclosed by four rivers: the Arakawa, Sumida, Kyu-nakagawa and Kita-jukken, is a roughly triangular urban tract known as Mukojima. The district today is an involved maze of alleys lined with old wooden dwellings, row houses (or nagaya), and workshops that have miraculously sidestepped the ravages of both the Pacific War and the economic bubble of the late 80s. Enter the convoluted milieu of this town and soon all sense of direction is lost. Wandering astray through the streets you can sense that cumulated strata of the life of the city in their yet unfaded colors. An original city landscape now vanished from Tokyo - vanished from Japan - comes back to life, drawing forth a sigh for things that are now only memories..”

-Excerpt from Nakazato Katushito’s afterword, April 24th, 2006.