The top two images are of Ameyoko and the bottom two represent the Ginza 4-chome Intersection both before and after the apocalypse. Images by: Megadem & Hisaharu Motoda
Picture this bustling street market, empty of human life, absent of familiar sounds, smells, lights. Crumbling, overgrown, silent.
If you can wrap your head around that image, then you’ve got an idea of what Japanese artist Hisaharu Motoda conveys in his series of Neo-Ruins lithographs: exceptionally detailed, vivid representations of a futuristic, post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where humans are nowhere to be found and nature fights back in a bid to take over our concrete jungles. Compare Motoda’s rendering of Ameyoko street market in Tokyo’s Ueno district to the photograph above:
All lithographs created by Hisaharu Motoda via Pink Tentacle
Motoda states:
“There is a Japanese saying ‘anything is impermanent’. Perhaps, I want to send a message ‘Anything is impermanent’ through my work. And, I feel beauty on such fragile things, and would like to express it in my work.”
The images certainly are beautiful, and invoke a sense of human vulnerability, reminding us of the power and resilience of the natural world.
Ginza 4-Chome crossing
Ginza Chuo Dori
Shibuya Center Town
Kabukicho
If you liked these images, check out these incredible visions of post-apocalyptic Tokyo by Tokyo Fantasy and London after a massive flood.