Tokyo Times

Faded and long past their population peak old Japanese towns and cities are a common theme on these pages, and in most ways, this central Japan municipality had a similar look and feel with its quiet streets and shuttered shop fronts.

Strikingly, however, there was one key difference — the location’s beautiful and long unused public bath. A facility that was once an integral part of the community until its closure in 1988, meaning that nowadays it’s merely a time capsule of sorts. One that in many ways poignantly encapsulates the town itself, along with all those like it, providing a touching reminder of a different era that is slowly but surely fading away.

Almost two months ago I posted a series of photos featuring a variety of Tokyo citizens in places they lived, worked or spent a good deal of their time. Local, everyday locations that benefited massively from having a person in the frame, and in particular someone familiar with the environment.

These then are more photographs along the same theme. Little vignettes that in so many ways make Tokyo the city it is.

There are numerous series from faded Japanese towns and cities on these pages. Settlements that were once thriving and filled with dreams, but now, after decades of decline, are quiet, ramshackle and presumably long past the tipping point of ever being resuscitated.

Also, away from Japan’s big cities, such places are far from rare, which means it’s impossible not to wonder what the country will be like in the years to come. That though remains to be seen, so for now, these are photos from a few southern towns. Scenes of the present made up from elements of a far more expectant past.

July’s newsletter, Zen and the demise of old-school Japanese restaurants, covers similar themes, along with my thoughts on accepting the inevitable disappearance of such places. You can subscribe, or simply have a read here.

This walk wasn’t anything different from what I usually do. A friend and I chose a starting point, along with a rough idea of where our final destination would be. Adding in parts of the greater Tokyo area wasn’t especially unusual either.

What is different though is that rather than sequencing the photos in a way that I feel works best in regards each frame’s content, colours etc., they are instead laid out in the order they were taken. An order that admittedly does work pretty well, but more than that it was simply interesting to post a document of the walk in the way it unfolded.