Tokyo

See Tokyo’s modernization through the “100 views” tradition, from the gas-lit 1870s to the jazz era 1930s. From MIT Visualizing Cultures, with the Smithsonian Institution. This course shows the emergence of modern Tokyo through artist renderings of its neighborhoods, daily life and nightlife, nested between its recurring destruction by [...]

Identify the geopolitics historically involved in the practice of “visualizing postwar Tokyo.” The history of postwar Tokyo reveals an essential feature of the modern city, i.e., the city as a place of visualities. In postwar Tokyo, countless gazes fell upon others; gazes from and upon Americans and the Emperor, [...]

Analyze the history of change and development in postwar Tokyo from different perspectives using archived photographs, films, and TV programs. Tokyo emerged out of the ruins of war to become a large city of 10 million people in only a quarter of a century. During this process of change, [...]

Learn about the rich history and social development of Tokyo as we explore the cultural heritage of the city’s northeastern neighborhoods. In recent years, Tokyo became a global tourist destination as interest in the city increased in the lead-up to the planned 2020 Olympics.