Portraits of the Underworld | TABlog | Tokyo Art Beat

Katsumi Watanabe is the definitive photographer of Tokyo street life, known for his four decades of relentless focus on the hustle and bustle of Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. With a background as a photojournalist, Watanabe became a familiar face along the seedy side streets of Kabukicho and in effect gained insider status and behind-the-scenes access to many of the neighborhood’s forlorn storefronts and clubs. The Watari Museum’s current posthumous exhibit of a portion of Watanabe’s archives (easily over thousands of photos) serves as an authoritative, if unofficial history of the extremities of Tokyo’s social and cultural life.

Check it out here.