Scenes of Showa era silence

Hello again from Tokyo

Just like the last newsletter, this one is also very heavily photo weighted. A set of images that was inspired by a little Showa museum we visited during the recent eight-day Winter Scenery and Old School Streets workshop that my good friend Giovanni and I organised and ran. A natural extension in many ways of my regular Tokyo and Osaka Photowalk Tours.

A much larger selection of shots from the trip can be seen here, which include my usual street and documentary stuff, along with some rarely shown, non-urban landscapes. A trip that due to what we saw, and even more so the lovely people that joined us, was an absolute blast from start to finish. An outing that we will definitely run again next year, so if you are interested, I’ll post the details once they go live.

And now, back to the main topic.

Post-war looks and nostalgia

Dating from 1926 to 1989 (marking the reign of Emperor Hirohito), the Showa era holds a special place in the hearts of many Japanese. Mine too, as despite not growing up in Tokyo, or actually experiencing any of those years here, the look and feel of so many places from the post-war period in particular simply have something special about them.

Peak Showa era

The peak period, in regards cultural significance and general aesthetics, is probably from the mid-1950s through to the 70s. Now though, those heady days of financial growth, along with an incredibly appealing mix of tradition and modernity, are rapidly fading. The economic miracle that fuelled Japan burst a long time ago, and add to that changing tourism trends, urban migration, plus a rapidly shrinking population, and it’s no surprise that a lot of the buildings from that period have either been demolished, or now lie decaying and abandoned. Relics of a different time, and yet even in silence, they somehow still seem to speak, quietly whispering little snippets of stories that we’ll never actually know.

That last photo with its Good Life poster and stark, abandoned surroundings always gets me. A room I’ve visited quite a few times now, and it hits home every single time, so it definitely seemed like the best image to end with. One that also wraps up another newsletter.

Thanks as always for reading this far, and please spread the word if you enjoy these monthly updates.

Cheers

Lee