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May 31 2013 11 Comments

Colourful urban art in a filthy Tokyo alley

There was rubbish all over the place, and the smell was positively rank, but thankfully just as striking was this very colourful piece of urban art.

Tokyo urban art

A figure that has intriguingly appeared in other parts of the city too — namely on a now demolished old love hotel.

Categorized: Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Martin says

    5/31/2013 at 10:55 am

    Be interesting to know what the figure represents. Seems to be holding a Japanese flag and wearing a nautical symbol.
    That is a gross alley, the places you go to entertain us ;-).

    Reply
    • Lee says

      5/31/2013 at 1:19 pm

      I know! The filth I don’t mind so much, but the smell was pretty awful. I didn’t hang about when taking the photo that’s for sure.

      Yeah, it’s an interesting one. A. very unique look. The other one appears to be holding a watering can too. Merely random objects or some kind of meaning?

      Reply
  2. winnie says

    5/31/2013 at 3:09 pm

    Again, thumb up to this picture and the artist too! 🙂
    It is as cute as the other one!!

    Reply
    • Lee says

      5/31/2013 at 4:08 pm

      Yeah, they are definitely out of the ordinary, and made for a lovely surprise.

      Reply
  3. Jeffrey says

    6/1/2013 at 1:26 am

    Reminds me of this.

    http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/adventuretime/index.html

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/1/2013 at 10:36 am

      Which one? The link shows a whole host of different characters/shows.

      Reply
  4. Hans ter Horst says

    6/1/2013 at 3:50 pm

    The yellow flag with the black dot stands for the letter ‘I’ and means ‘altering my course to port,’ in other words “I am going to the left.”
    I think you uncovered a silent protest to the huge rise in Japanese nationalism in politics in that alley 🙂

    Reply
    • Hans ter Horst says

      6/1/2013 at 3:51 pm

      The anchor on the arm only confirms this interpretation to me 😉

      Reply
      • Lee says

        6/1/2013 at 8:58 pm

        Haha, that’s a great piece of investigation! As doubtful as it is, I would dearly love for it to be true.

        Reply
  5. Zack says

    6/5/2013 at 12:57 pm

    that makes me think of Taiyo Matsumoto’s work. not the drawing style, but the way he integrates graffiti into his stories and how his Tokyo, through it’s insane caricature, becomes a kind of hyper-realistic version of Tokyo that has probably the highest level of verisimilitude to any shown in comics or film. check out my review/essay on Blue Spring, if you’re interested:
    http://foreigndemon.blogspot.com/2013/03/if-its-spring-and-you-know-it-clap-your.html

    Reply
  6. Bernadette Marchetti says

    6/13/2013 at 6:03 am

    Maybe this artist will be the next Banksy

    Reply

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