Masashi Asada, from Asadake (2008) Review by Dan Abbe for Japan Exposures. Earlier this year, a friend mentioned to me that he’d recently seen an award-winning show at the Konica Minolta gallery. It had apparently made a real impression on him, so when I next found myself in Shinjuku I decided to stop by. As it turned out, the show was “Asadake”... 

This is an exhibition by our friend and close neighbour Saito-san, who has has depicted life around the lake Teganuma in Abiko, Chiba pref. (our hometown). Teganuma and Abiko became famous in the Taisho era (1912-1926) when many famous Japanese writers and artists lived in the town and, sadly, once more in Showa period due to becoming the most polluted...