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)
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 the Nagasaki district of Toshima-ku in the 1930s: Nagasaki Atelier Village 長崎アトリエ村:
Note, I recently wrote an article on the artists’ colonies of ‘Ikebukuro Montparnasse’ and Mejiro Cultural Village, published in Metropolis Japan (January, 2018). See: “Bohemian ghosts around Ikebukuro”.
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:
- Toshima museum page (Japanese)
- Toshima Nagasaki 長崎アトリエ村 atelier village
- 池袋モンパルナス Ikebukuro Montparnasse
- Ikebukuro tourism (mentions the atelier village)
- Quake of ’23 gave Ikebukuro its Bohemian roots (The Japan Times)
- さくらが丘パルテノン跡 Sakuragaoka Parthenon ruins
- アトリエ村資料室開設 Atelier Village Library
- アトリエ村最後の一軒 (photos)
- Timeline: link
- Ikebukuro Montparnasse- A Tooth-Grinding Utopia (Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre)
- アトリエ村の夢のあと~池袋モンパルナスを訪ねて・リターンズ。 After the atelier village of dreams – visit Ikebukuro Montparnasse -returns. (photos)
- 長崎アトリエ村をゆく(2) Going to Nagasaki atelier village (2)
Black market information:
- Excellent photos of post-war black market 闇市
- Japanese Wikipedia entry for 闇市 (black market)
- Ikebukuro – Mejiro walk 池袋~目白散歩
- THE BLACK MARKET AS CITY: NEW RESEARCH ON ALTERNATIVE URBAN SPACE IN OCCUPIED JAPAN (1945-52)
- 終戦――焼け跡行商 わが原点 ヤミ市攻勢、同業者も退散京セラ名誉会長 稲盛和夫(5) The end of the war – peddling in the ruins of a Yami City (black market)
- Book: 盛り場はヤミ市から生まれた Black Markets as the Origin of Amusement Quarters (Sakariba wa yamiichi kara umareta)
- Need, Greed, and Protest in Japan’s Black Market, 1938-1949
- A post-war black market in Yokohama: Noge Joyful, Yokohama 野毛ジョイフルマップ
Other current uses of the term “Yami-ichi”
- Internet Yami-ichi (official page)
- Internet Yami-ichi (Berlin edition)
- The Internet Black Market That Brings Online Browsing to Life
- A tour of Internet Yami-ichi, the offline Internet flea market
See also:
[…] Another example of post-WW2 black market: IKEBUKURO’S YAMI-ICHI (POST-WAR BLACK MARKET), IN MINIATURE […]
LikeLike
[…] writing about Ikebukuro’s post-WW2 black market, I learned about the arts movements that thrived west of Ikebukuro station prior to World War […]
LikeLike
[…] Ikebukuro’s yami-ichi (post-war black market), in miniature […]
LikeLike
Reblogged this on the tokyo files 東京ファイル and commented:
Pre-war artist colonies and post-war black markets of Ikebukuro and Toshima-ku.
LikeLike
[…] See original post: Ikebukuro’s yami-ichi, in miniature […]
LikeLike
[…] Ikebukuro’s post-war black markets […]
LikeLike