Telling stories from the Tokyo metropolis 5
I’ve lived in Japan since 2008, and from 2012 to 2023, I lived in Ikebukuro. This neighbourhood holds a special place in my heart to this day. It’s where I learned to carry my camera with me every day, to shoot whatever I encountered. In Ikebukuro, a metamorphosis took place within me. It’s where I learned to see.
Photography became intrinsic, instinctual, a part of everyday life—like breathing. It was no longer just something for special occasions. Every walk from my place to the station was a visual and mindful praxis. Each time I returned at night, I took the long way home, passing through the nightlife enclaves of Ikebukuro—another chance to see, to photograph.
Ikebukuro is where I learned that the mundane is not so mundane. A dented pipe, a bare wall saturated with colour, a decrepit parking lot, a hazy sunset over the urban expanse, a man smoking in darkness… Ikebukuro taught me that all is sacred when we truly see it. The camera’s only purpose is to save what we have seen for later consumption.
When I come back to Ikebukuro from time to time, I see it has not changed as much as the rest of Tokyo (though it is not unscathed). Whereas Shibuya has largely become a soulless theme park for tourists, Ikebukuro is still the raw, filthy, urban district that it was when I first got there over a decade ago. Though I’m sure even then it was already a shadow of what it was back in the 90s or the 80s… before my time. Aw well.
So, here are 20 photos of Ikebukuro, taken in a variety of genres and from myriad perspectives.
Ikebukuro
