Sugamo Jizo dori in Toshima ward (in Tokyo)

Tokyo Skytree and Asakusa district by night and day

This archival footage of Asakusa is from 1912 and 1913 and I think it’s instructive in its documentation of change and preservation:

I find it important to look at places in terms of their historical context and not just what you see in the moment. Not long after this recording, a particularly devastating earthquake* struck the Tokyo area:

Source: Association of East Asian Studies

*Japan, Hawaii, and California are in the “Ring of Fire” and are particularly susceptible to seismic activity.

Cafe Noble in Koenji neighborhood (Tokyo)

Sengokuhara Susuki (Pampas) fields

Then

Now

Sengokuhara Pampas Grass Field – Hakone Travel

War in Gaza and Grave of the Fireflies (1988 and based on a semiautobiographical account of wartime aerial bombings in 1945)

*The sketches (lower half) are based on Isao Takahata’s animated film. Copyright violations are likely committed, however, there is belief/conviction that the filmmaker’s work is larger than himself and that its message is an important one.