NZ photographer explores decline of Tokyo’s ultramodern drea

8 May 2018

Shibazono , Danchi

Japan is famed for its ultramodern cityscapes. But what happens when the ultramodern becomes old? A New Zealand photographer has turned his lens to Tokyo to find out.

DANCHI Dreams launches this Saturday at a former factory turned into a gallery in the Tokyo district of Koto. It is the second international exhibition by 27-year-old Cody Ellingham. Originally from Paki Paki in rural Hawke’s Bay, his DERIVE series of neon Tokyo cityscapes found fame in 2017.

Mr Ellingham’s latest exhibition has seen him explore around 40 large public housing blocks known as ‘danchi’ (‘group land’) over the past year, visiting at dusk and in the early evening.

He said danchi could be viewed as “mountains of steel and concrete”. They are often built in clusters, sometimes of up to 70 buildings, each numbered rather than named, with each apartment the same as its neighbours from the outside. One of the largest complexes at Takashimadaira houses around 20,000 people – a similar population to the town of Levin.

“The exhibition was inspired by places. It started as an interest in form, but it’s evolved into an interest in why – the way place influences lives. It comes back to growing up in rural New Zealand. It can be very lonely. There aren’t many people around, so you photograph places.”

Mr Ellingham said while his interest in danchi started as an aesthetic fascination, it progressed toward the history and social significance of the residences, once proud but now solemn and decaying. Part of his goal is to record a history that could be lost.

The apartment buildings replaced wooden dwellings destroyed during World War II. They were originally a vision of a futuristic new life for a rapidly growing population.

“Talking to older people, danchi were a dream for them. Something to aspire to. The old houses were little villages made from earth and wood. Danchi represented a new and modern way of life. If you go back to the 1960s, this was how people saw the future.”

The demographic of danchi-dwellers has changed since the 1960s. Today the apartments are largely inhabited by immigrants and the elderly. Although he visited at a time where most people were home, he rarely saw people and was never approached for conversation.

Mr Ellingham said this lifestyle was alien to most New Zealanders. Even the most desirable of danchi often had no elevators and tiny rooms.

He said danchi were now seen as archaic, sterile and decaying – “Kafka-esque” residences where each person has the same life. The majority no longer meet earthquake or fire standards, and face demolition to make way for the next building boom.

But despite the anonymous, ‘carbon-copy’ lifestyle of the fading monoliths, he sees beauty rather than despair in the buildings, which for many people are the only home they know.

“There’s a certain kind of nostalgia in these places. The look of it is cold concrete, but deep down, you find glimmers of hope, playgrounds, mural art, community facilities, and the original dream: that tomorrow will be better than yesterday.”

ENDS

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