Japanese Art and Tokyo: Sakuichi Fukazawa (Mirage)
Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The Japanese artist Sakuichi Fukazawa was born into the charged atmosphere of the Meiji Period — an age of restless transformation, where smokestacks rose beside temple roofs and tradition found itself in constant dialogue with modernity. Economic acceleration reshaped the nation’s pulse, and in the great cities, social tremors rippled through every layer of life. Naturally, the art world could not remain untouched: new ideas clashed with inherited forms, Western influence pressed in, and the growing authority of photography and modern techniques challenged the very soul of older aesthetics.
Within this shifting landscape emerged One Hundred Views of New Tokyo (1928–1932), a remarkable collective achievement of the early Shōwa Period. The series brought together a constellation of artists — Maekawa Senpan, Un’ichi Hiratsuka, Kawakami Sumio, Kōshirō Onchi, Henmi Takashi, Suwa Kanenori, Sakuichi Fukazawa, and Fujimori Shizuo — each offering a distinct gaze upon Tokyo. Their prints do more than depict a city; they refract it. Streets, bridges, districts, and fleeting urban moods are rendered through multiple sensibilities, revealing a metropolis both unified and fragmented, modern yet haunted by its past.
The British Museum notes with quiet clarity: “Fukazawa was born in Niigata Prefecture, but his parents moved soon after to Tokyo, where he attended Tokyo Central School of Commerce and Industry.” This migration—from provincial origins to the capital’s dynamic heart—mirrors Japan’s broader journey into modernity.
Yet, with the benefit of hindsight, a shadow lengthens across these luminous works. It is difficult to reconcile their vibrant urban visions with the devastation soon to come. The Pacific War would engulf nations from China to Yugoslavia, leaving behind vast human suffering and cities reduced to ash. Tokyo itself would endure the horrors of aerial bombardment, its neighborhoods consumed in firestorms of unimaginable scale.
In this sense, One Hundred Views of New Tokyo becomes something more elusive — almost a mirage. The fading echoes of the Edo Period linger faintly in the background, even as the prints stride confidently into modern life. And yet, unknowingly, they stand on the precipice of rupture. What they capture is not only a city in motion, but a fragile moment suspended between memory and catastrophe—an urban dream just before the storm.
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