Photography
The colours and quiet scenery of a slowly declining Japanese town
There’s no shortage of quiet and faded old towns and tourist spots on these pages. Slowly deteriorating locations that offer hints galore about the past, but little in regards the future — except that is the sad inevitability of further decay and population decline.
Here then is a series from another such town, and just like all the others, it was an endlessly fascinating place to explore and photograph. The shop-lined streets and shuttered businesses hark back to a more prosperous, and presumably bustling era. Scenery that makes you wonder what will ultimately happen to all these settlements, but whatever the coming years and decades may bring, for now at least they remain crumbling time capsules still semi-occupied in the present.
Scenes from a saunter through some of Tokyo’s western suburbs
We are now more than halfway through September, but summer in Tokyo shows little sign of letting up, with the still intense temperatures making long walks more of an endurance test than something to look forward to.
These then are photos from a recent saunter starting in the late afternoon. A chance to avoid the worst of the heat as well as wander some of the capital’s nearer to me western suburbs.
Like the images in a recent post, they don’t really show anything particularly striking or unusual. They don’t tell any kind of story either. Instead, these are all just small moments of life in a city that contains the lives of many millions.
An old and mostly shuttered Tokyo shopping centre
Of late I’ve been posting photos of old and dilapidated markets from other regions of Japan. Locations that in some respects are quite shocking in their semi-dereliction, and yet at the same time, the combination of a shrinking population and urbanisation makes such sights wholly understandable. In fact, it’s probably fair to say that away from the country’s main cities and tourist spots, such scenery is increasingly becoming the norm.
Far more unexpected, on the other hand, is to see similar scenes in Tokyo, and while certainly a lot rarer, they aren’t all that uncommon either. The mostly shuttered shopping centre below being one such example.
Recently I mentioned that a key aspect of my photography is returning to places I like to try and build up a series of photos. In that way I can try and tell some kind of story, or at the very least produce a more representative set of images. Something I’ve tried to do in this area, with the most recent visit being last week, and the first back in 2020.
Needless to say there have been some changes over the years. The shutters were painted a while ago to try and brighten things up a bit, and perhaps not surprisingly, one or two more businesses have closed down. Also, the government housing buildings that are a part of the shopping complex, and completely surround it, are, just like the stores, becoming increasingly unoccupied. A sort of vicious circle that will presumably see the whole area demolished at some point. For now though, it remains the kind of urban landscape almost never associated with the capital.
The life and retirement of an elderly Tokyo pickle maker
Regularly photographing in Tokyo’s older areas means slowly but surely documenting disappearing structures. All too often that sadly involves the loss of life as well. The latter in particular an aspect I didn’t really envisage when starting out.
Now, after so many years, it’s something I’m acutely aware of, especially when a business has closed, or yet another home is torn down. A change that begs all kinds of questions, such as did the owner finally retire, want a change, or worse? Getting answers, on the other hand, is sometimes easier said than done, and the fate of the pickle shop owner below was one such unknown.
His colourful little corner was a part of the street I always enjoyed seeing. Then one day he simply wasn’t there anymore. Gone. No sign indicating why. Nothing. Just an empty space and a new building where he had previously always been. That was 5 years ago, so as time went on, I presumed he had passed away, with only the faintest of hopes that he’d simply pickled one too many vegetables and decided to call it a day.
Then, when once again walking by his old spot just recently, there was an old man sitting there. A sight that stopped me in my tracks. It couldn’t be, could it? What would the odds of that be? Still, I had to check, but bringing up a photo on my phone didn’t convince me either way. The only option then was to go and see, and the smile that immediately spread across his face when I asked gave me the answer I was looking for. An absolutely lovely moment to say the least.
He had indeed retired, and living nearby, he was simply chilling out on his former stomping ground. Maybe he was even reminiscing about all the years he’d spent there. That though is the past, and now, having reached 90, he is happy to relax, watch TV, and perhaps more than anything, not work.
The simple pleasure of old Tokyo scenes and personalities
There’s nothing spectacular or particularly unusual in any of these recently taken Tokyo photos. Quite the opposite really, as they are mostly everyday scenes that can be witnessed in some form or other all over the capital. They are though especially prevalent in the city’s older neighbourhoods, which is why I favour these locations for a lot of my photowalk tours, and my own meanders.
The decidedly ordinary nature of the images, however, doesn’t make them any less worthwhile, or indeed enjoyable. At least not for me, anyway. The commonplace and mundane all too easily end up missed or ignored, and yet when appreciated for what they are, these small moments and brief interactions often feel genuinely memorable.
