SONY

Tsuneo Yamashita Photo Exhibition GARDEN CITY

Denentoshi is how the “Garden City” urban planning concept posited in England by Ebenezer Howard in 1898 was translated when the idea was introduced in Japan. That all began when Denentoshi KK, a development company founded by Eiichi Shibusawa in Tokyo in 1918, developed Senzoku Denentoshi. He also founded a railway company and used it to market the suburban residential area on the less-than-an-hour commute to the city’s center. That railway company later became Tokyu Railways and, over the 40-plus yeas from 1959, spearheaded the development of Tama Denentoshi between Kajigaya Station and Chuorinkan Station.

I moved near Saginuma Station for college in 1982 and began photographing the rapidly changing landscape alongside the tracks. That was when I first learned of the Kintsuma residential area near Tama-Plaza Station, which was just one station over. They leveled a bunch of hills, built new roads and a subway to create a new town around a big shopping center.

This year, I decided to walk the area along the tracks again. The areas that had been developed early on had lost some of their color and new homes were being built on the unused hill slopes. I photographed the mixed landscape of nice-looking homes with waxed cars in the garages and the remnants of the once-farming village like it was my hometown.

Tsuneo Yamashita

Tsuneo Yamashita Profile

Born in Tokyo in 1961. Graduated in Photography from Nihon University’s College of Art in 1984.

Solo Exhibitions

2022
From the Cheering Section in July, OM System Gallery
2020
Along the River, Canon Gallery Ginza
2019
Day by Day Ⅳ, Sony Imaging Gallery Ginza
2018
Fragments of a Journey 1993-1997, Tosei Gallery
2017
Day by Day 15 Years On, Roonee 247 Fine Arts
2016
Day by Day Ⅲ, Epson Imaging Gallery
2015
Shimaumui Continued, Konica Minolta Plaza
2012
Shimaumui, Konica Minolta Plaza
2009
Another Time on the Ryukyu Islands, Tosei Gallery
2008
Day by Day II, Roonee 247 Photography
2007
Another Time on the Ryukyu Islands, Konica Minolta Plaza
2005
Okinawa Yaeyama Islands 3, Konica Minolta Plaza
2004
Day by Day, Ginza Kodak Photo Salon
2003
Okinawa Yaeyama Islands 2, Konica Minolta Plaza
2001
Okinawa Yaeyama Islands, Konica Plaza
2000
Déjà-vu, Canon Gallery Ginza/Umeda/Sendai/Fukuoka
2000
Seaside Photography, Ginza Kodak Photo Salon
1980
High School Diary, Canon Gallery Ginza/Hiroshima

Publications

2012
Shimaumui, Riverside Books
2008
Another Time on the Ryukyu Islands, Toseisha
2006
Okinawa Yaeyama Islands, Creo