Street Level Japan by Hiroki Harada

How can you capture the essence of a vast and varied country with a population of 123 million? If you’re Japanese photographer Hiroki Harada, you focus on street scenes. His book features over 200 striking photos of the alleys, cityscapes, chaos, infrastructure and storefronts of modern Japan – including shots of his hometown Tokyo, as well as images from other Japanese cities such as Kyoto, Yokohama and Osaka.

Harada’s photos capture the light, shadows and commotion of city life from morning to night. They include commuters on foot, on bikes and in cars, shopkeepers and taxi drivers, modern and traditional structures, lanterns and neon.

Harada identifies the location of each photo and a brief caption has more information. Some of his notes are personal:

This is one of my favorite alleys ... I hope it remains as it is forever.

Others highlight the area's character or history.

Osaka is famous for its food and many tourists visit Namba for its food culture. One of the most unique features of the restaurants here are the huge three-dimensional signs featuring giant crabs, octopuses, dumplings and more.

This yakitori restaurant is in Nakano Gobangai. The distinctive typeface on the sign, lanterns and t-shirt is called Kantei-ryu, which was originally designed for signs promoting the traditional performing art of Kabuki.

The book’s large size does justice to the photos, with a layout that amplifies their impact. Most pages feature only one image. The photos are rich in detail and each deserves a closer look – at the stools and tiny tables outside an izakaya (bar), for example, or the anime billboards and posters, iconic vending machines, or intersecting train tracks.

If you've explored Japan's narrow alleys or experienced the energy of its larger cities, many of Hirada’s street scenes will look familiar. I can almost smell the smoky streetside grills, see the flashing neon, and hear the high-pitched chirping of the pedestrian crossing signals. If you haven’t yet been to Japan, this is not a travel guide, but rather an introduction to both the glamour and the grit of street life. While Hirada’s images include temples, golden statues and kimonos, there are also scenes of “darkness and chaos”, locals simply going about their lives, cigarettes and rain.

Although the captions indicate the city where each photo was taken (and sometimes the name of the street or alley) more detail about specific locations would be useful. One of the strengths of the book is that the photos could be all (or none) of the sights a visitor to Japan might see. They might both mirror your own experiences and reveal unexpected perspectives.

Reviewer: Anne Kerslake Hendricks

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