Traditional wooden houses are disappearing one after another from the Tokyo landscape. I realized this more than 30 years ago when I moved to Yanaka, one of the old areas of Tokyo known as shitamachi. A native of Tokyo, I had long witnessed the city changing through its policy of “modernization.” A sense of impending crisis came to me, however, when I realized that some changes were not simply visual but actually destroying the Japanese sense of community.

This prompted me to sketch and paint the distinctive housing, the streets, and the lives of people living throughout the whole of Tokyo. The aim was not merely to record, but to show how rich and beautiful the lifestyle of these areas is and was. I want others to realize that such a connected lifestyle is especially important in today’s modern world.