青幻舎 SEIGENSHA Art Publishing

At the center of Tokyo lies a darkness ringed by a spreading expanse of lights that seems to eat away at its edges. The darkness comprises the Imperial Palace and cemeteries—spaces marked by death and the chasm of the past; the surrounding brightness emanates from the flurry of commercial activity going on throughout. In this sense, Tokyo’s beauty may be characterized as belonging to a capitalism-driven landscape that diffuses outward while cradling a great void of death at its core.

——Yoshimi Shunya (sociologist), from the book

Sato fixes his lens on Tokyo not from the low level of the street or the heights of the sky, but from the fire escapes, an intermediate vantage point that at once reveals the light and darkness of the city. The nightscapes he captures in these pages extend from areas at the geographical and historical heart of the capital—the Imperial Palace and the Marunouchi and Otemachi districts—to its traditionally working-class eastern neighborhoods, offering glimpses into the continuity between the Tokyo of today and of yore.

Released eleven years after Tokyo Twilight Zone, this work marks the culmination of the Tokyo Series of photobooks also including Risen in the East and Night Lights.

Sato Shintaro, born in Tokyo in 1969, worked as a staff photographer at Kyodo News before turning freelance in 2002. His major works include Tokyo Twilight Zone (2008; Photographic Society of Japan Newcomer’s Award), Risen in the East (2011; Hayashi Tadahiko Award), and Night Lights (2014), all published by Seigensha.