Tsukiji gallery paints patina of the past

Most people think of only one thing when they hear the name Tsukiji: fish. And no wonder, since the place lends its name to Japan's largest seafood market and one of Tokyo's biggest tourist pulls. But just beyond the hoarse voices of the tuna auctioneers and crowds lined up for seats at the market's myriad sushi restaurants lies another side of Tsukiji: a quiet neighborhood of old homes and narrow alleys that could almost be diorama of what Tokyo used to be.

The recently opened Tsukiji TASS Gallery (LOUIS TEMPLADO)

It's here we find Masahiro Sato, lifetime Tsukiji resident, former haberdasher and now gallery operator, pointing out the best view of his corner of the neighborhood--a venerable pre-war building corroded to a celeste shade of green.

"Most people who come to take photos shoot from that corner over there," he says. "Right by that fireplug."

The two-story structure is Sato's home, but in March it became an art space, called Tsukiji TASS Gallery Wakamatsuya, with a show of paper-craft objects as its opening act.

The building attracted the attention of painters and photographers long before it became a gallery. A legacy of the 1920s, the home-shop is shingled in copper, in a once popular building style called kanban-kenchiku. The style has all but disappeared from Tokyo, but Sato is intent on keeping his example alive.

"Back then, this sort of structure was considered quite advanced," says the 71-year-old. The structure was built soon after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which struck near noon, when kitchens were busy, and set off fires that leveled much of Tokyo. Buildings built after the disaster were covered with copper or slate as a form of fireproofing.

Before the war, the building served as a dyeing studio. Afterward, it became Wakamatsuya, the haberdashery where Sato grew up. His family has been rooted in Tsukiji, Chuo Ward, for about 10 generations, he says.

The idea of opening a gallery came to him a couple of years ago, when it became time to strengthen the sagging building against future earthquakes. Until then, he had no interest in historic preservation or any art-world pretensions.

"My interest here is that it's my home," he says. "I wanted a way to do something with it, but without spending a lot of money." A first-floor exhibition space, with him living above it, seemed the most workable solution.

There's a strangely isolated feel to this side of Tsukiji, as if it's an eddy in Tokyo's time stream. On one side, it's bounded by the phalanx of posh brand outlets that make up the Ginza district and on the other by the Sumidagawa river. In between, much of Tsukiji remains a neighborhood of single homes built on small lots, although these are giving way to newer and taller condominiums and apartment buildings. Many of the long-time locals are senior citizens, a couple of generations removed from the working professionals who've moved in over the past few years, as part of the urban "U-turn."

"What surprised me when I opened the gallery is how many of my neighbors are interested in art--speaking in a broad sense to include calligraphy and flower arranging. It's something I never suspected all these years," says the newly minted gallerist.

Sato hopes to turn the gallery into a neighborhood nexus, with art bringing old-timers and newer residents into contact. He brought the idea to the Chuo Ward office, and got an infusion of cash from its Marugoto Museum program to bring culture into what many see primarily as a business district.

No one believes that a single gallery is going to preserve the neighborhood, but it can serve as an example. If a couple of places follow his lead, then Tsukiji--the neighborhood and not the fish market--might just become a destination in itself. Already change is in the wind, with the planned (but still debated) relocation of the fish market across the river to the Toyosu area in Koto Ward only several years away. "We have to work together and find a way to keep our unique character," Sato says. Otherwise, its thinning shadow will eventually disappear in the gray goo of development.

Visitors walking by might see just an old house, its copper shingles a patina of the past. To its resident, though, the building is a tangible embodiment of the neighborhood's spirit.

Sato thinks back to the spring of 1945, when incendiaries dropped from American bombers hit downtown Tokyo.

"This house should have burned down then. But all the neighbors formed a brigade and splashed it with buckets and buckets of water," Sato says. "Of course we're just two doors down from the public bath, which was lucky."

"That effort they made back then--I can't let it come down to nothing now."

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The gallery is located at 6-12-3 Tsukiji. The next show (May 12-17) is traditional dyeing by Yoshikazu and Tetsuo Fujimoto. (IHT/Asahi: April 25,2008)