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Dreamlike Photos of Tokyo in the 1970s and 1980s

By Alyssa Coppelman on June 27, 2014

Photographer Issei Suda, born in Tokyo in 1940 and raised through the war and post-war years, has documented the changing face of his city throughout the course of his career. Tokyokei, published by Nazraeli Press, is a group of 106 previously unpublished photos depicting daily life in Tokyo in the 1970s and 1980s. Compared with the more popularized visions of the modern-day megacity, Suda captures a stillness, a moment of pause, in the much quieter city streets, even in the midst of a degree of hustle and bustle.

In the book’s introduction, Suda writes: “When I review these photographs, I see that my eyes unconsciously captured aspects of Tokyo that were later to fade from the city. I also realize that the city is made up of a multitude of diverse people, people who live here their whole lives, people that move here dreaming of success, people who make it, people who do not. The Tokyo of my youth has vanished, but still there are times when I feel joyously nostalgic, sensing the happiness at festivals…or observing the unconscious actions of passers-by.”

Tokyokei, by Issei Suda, is published in limited edition by Nazraeli Press and is available here. Many more images from Tokyokei can be seen here.

Issei Suda