Spotlight
Jūnisō Pond Chronology
This visual chronology uses rare images to show how Nishi-Shinjuku’s Jūnisō Pond changed between the 1860s and 1960s. Maps display the viewpoints.
Spotlight
Inside 1944
Shinjuku’s Lost Paradise (7)
Tank production at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1944. The Japanese militarism of the 1930s and 1940s initially benefited geisha districts like Jūnisō’s. But in the end it blasted most into oblivion.
Tokyo 1920s
Shinjuku’s Lost Paradise (6)
Shinjuku in the early 1920s. A railway and population explosion turned it into a thriving modern city. Jūnisō, no longer rural and remote, now became a geisha district, delighting some, enraging others.
Tokyo 1905/1906
Shinjuku’s Lost Paradise (5)
An extremely rare photo of Jūnisō Pond in 1905 (Meiji 38). Teahouses and restaurants already crowd the pond’s banks and its natural beauty is no longer the main attraction.
Tokyo 1890s
Shinjuku’s Lost Paradise (4)
A painting of Jūnisō Pond as it looked during the 1890s, the period when modernization first reached the area. This article introduces revealing first-hand accounts of these, seemingly innocent, early changes.
Tokyo 1860
Shinjuku’s Lost Paradise (3)
This print is the first known foreign depiction of Jūnisō. Thanks to foreigners, visiting after Japan opened its borders in 1859, we have detailed accounts of Jūnisō describing aspects that locals took for granted.