A few years ago I went to the Toshima Ward Local Museum 豊島区立郷土資料館 (map). It’s similar to the many small, local museums in Tokyo and Japan: interesting, cheap or free, and not too large. I enjoyed one aspect of the exhibit in particular: a diorama of post-WW2 Ikebukuro, home to a large black market 闇市, pronounced yami-ichi ヤミ市. Here are pictures of the scene:

Here’s a description from the Toshima ward website (translated):  池袋ヤミ市 Ikebukuro black market City (Ikebukuro yami-ichi)

“After World War II, in order to provide food and daily necessities to war-damaged cities such as Tokyo, so-called black market cities (yami-ichi) emerged. Ikebukuro, a key transportation hub, became a typical black market city. The museum has a model of the southern part of Ikebukuro’s black market city at the scale of 1 to 20.”

A longer description is included on the museum website: link (Japanese)

A model of Ikebukuro’s post-WW2 black market, Tokyo Japan.

I believe the museum is now closed for renovations to the building. Hopefully the diorama will survive.

Art

The museum also includes a diagram of one of the artist’s communities that sprung up in Nagasaki Toshima in the 1930s: Nagasaki Atelier Village 長崎アトリエ村:

The following page has maps and old photos:

Today, there is a small park on the edge of the old artist’s community with a map of the area. The park is located here: map.

Some information relating to arts movements in Ikebukuro:

Black market information:

Other current uses of the term “Yami-ichi”

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