JP

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Katsuo Hanzawa |Hello Darkness

A couple of years after the Great East Japan Earthquake and the nuclear accidents, costume-clad young Japanese people started flocking and partying in the Shibuya Center-gai shopping street on the night of Halloween, a totally foreign holiday cerebration for them. A feeling of being trapped in the stagged society and uncertainty about the future cast a shadow over inner worlds of the youth, urging them to present themselves as "monsters" in the Shibuya Center-gai, which has been the symbol of the young consumer society. Naturally, people and media criticized their reckless and wild behaviors. The number of those monsters, however, increased year after year, which attracted more and more people coming from all around Japan and world to see them. Since 2019, local authorities have imposed stricter rules for the event. Then, it tentatively vanished due to the covid-19 pandemic. This pop culture coming out of the dark side of the youth had caught my attention, leading me to take hundreds of portraits on those young energetic monsters from 2015 to 2019.

Venue |COCOTO

Address |209-2 Nabeyacho, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto >Google Map

Open: 9/17-10/17 14:00-23:00
Open everyday
Tel: 075-708-8703


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