Ginza Photomontage 

It was only after the Great Kanto Earthquake that Ginza became one of Japan’s leading shopping districts. In 1928 pioneering Western-style restaurant the Shiseido Parlor opened, in 1932 came the second clock tower of K. Hattori & Co., Ltd. (currently Wako) and in 1933 the 4,000-seat Nippon Theater, or Nichigeki as it was known, was completed. In this work, those three buildings are shown in a photomontage (with the Shiseido Parlor depicted after its renovation of 1934). At this time it was considered the height of fashion to go for tea or a stroll in Ginza—ginbura, as the activity was known. The man and woman shown wearing western clothes here would be doing just that. Shibuya Ryukichi, who was already well known in the advertising world, has created an avant-garde urban scene by incorporating the techniques of European Constructivism, such as oblique compositions and photomontage.
(KIMURA Eriko)