[61] Harmonica Alley

This exhibition explores Miyakobashi Yokocho in drawings, photographs and text. It reveals previously concealed glimpses into Japan’s changing urban culture. Constructed in 1964, just in time for Tokyo’s Summer Olympics, Miyakobashi Shopping Centre transformed a formerly cluttered black market area into an orderly urban marketplace. Over several decades, courageous women converted Miyakobashi into the vibrant entertainment block it is today. Miyakobashi Yokocho is now home to sixty-one lift-sized spaces: ‘ sunakku ’ (snack bars), frequented by business men, local residents and the occasional tourist alike.