Central East Tokyo 2023 / OPEN START

Muneteru Ujino dormbeat, 2023, installation. Photo by TADA (YUKAI)

Area

Higashi-nihonbashi･Bakurocho Area

Nihonbashi Yokoyamacho, Bakurocho, Higashi-Nihonbashi, Chuo Ward, Higashi-Kanda, Chiyoda Ward

Outline

Central East Tokyo (CET) was a complex event combining art, design, and architecture that took place between 2003 and 2010 in the hollowed-out east area of Tokyo. Inheriting the idea of utilizing locality and the independent guerrilla spirit practiced by this initiative, this project is an attempt to reexamine its methodology in the current Yokoyama-cho neighborhood, surrounded by an area that has undergone redevelopment over the course of the 2010s.

Statement

We began to refer affectionately to the TMonyagai (wholesale district) of Nihonbashi, a distinctive triangular city block neighborhood comprising Yokoyamacho, Bakurocho, and Higashi-Nihonbashi, as the “Sankaku (Triangle) Wholesale District.”

Tonyagai is a business district trading in products for professionals that has been in existence since the Edo period. Crowded with wholesaler’s “pencil” buildings, so-called due to their slender form, the district is small in scale for central Tokyo. From around 2003, the area has served as the center for Central East Tokyo (CET). Described using various terms such as “a complex event of art, design, and architecture” and “legal occupation,” CET is a movement that continues to be talked about in various parts of the creative industry. While the project came to an end in 2010 with CET10 OPEN END, it continues to be a source for various activities, teams, and projects today.

Twenty years have passed, the city enjoys an increasing number of residents and new businesses, and the wholesaler industry is going through a period of major change. Enter a building, and you will glimpse spaces both small and large that appear unused. As was the case in the past, refined wholesale store owners and creators who find value in urban margins have gathered in this district. By combining their focus, what view can be seen today when looking at the area anew?

Excavating unused space and time, and momentarily putting various circumstances aside, we would like to create a time for free ideas and actions. A special time in which everyone can examine the area in an unbiased manner, regardless of whether or not they have money, taste, or skill.

For CET in 2023, we believe that by creating time to fully open up the “trivial” spaces within the city under the theme of OPEN START, we can envision a future different from that of cities shaped by prioritizing economic rationality. Design, art, architecture, and everything in between! This is exactly what CET once advocated.

So then, let’s discover the Sankaku Wholesale District.

Central East Tokyo 2023 Executive Committee

Website and Social Media




 Website
 Facebook

Artists・Members

Central East Tokyo 2023 Committee

Chairman: Takahiro Toriyama (Nitto Towel)

Fumiko Ikeda (gift_), Tadashi Iwamoto (MIZUBESOKEN), Yusuke Katsutoshi (Katsutata Maruyama Architectural Project), Tomohiro Karashina (Patchworks), Toshikazu Goto (gift_), Naoki Sato (TDB-CE/CET04-10 Producer), SHIMIZUYOSHIYUKI (TDB-CE/CET04-10 office-general), Masayoshi Takeuchi (MIKAN), Yuta Takeda (LOGS), Masataka Baba (OPEN A), Kinnosuke Hayakawa (Etoile Kaito & Co., Inc.), Maha Harada (novelist), Hiroshi Furuta (FULL_DESIGN)

In cooperation with

Urban Renaissance Agency

Participating Artists/Members

Masanori Ikeda, Mitsuhiro Ikeda, Masashi Isai + Daisuke Uzunami, Yukako Ishikawa + Daiki Kaneoka, Tadashi Iwamoto, Muneteru Ujino, atsuo ogawa, kagari yusuke, Yusuke Katsumata, Soichiro Kanai, Tomohiro Karashina, gift_ (Toshikazu Goto / Fumiko Ikeda), GROUND LEVEL (Motoko Tanaka + Masaki Onishi), Haruya Nakajima, Naoki Sato, Kenichi Shikata, Yoshiyuki Shimizu, Ryuta Shiroyama, Suzueri, Masayoshi Takeuchi, TADA, Takashi Tsuda, Kosuke Tsumura, TMPR (Iwasawa brothers + Junichiro Horikawa + Yu Miyama + Kazue Nakata), Asao Tokolo + Yasutoshi Kobayashi, Hiroshi Tomikawa + Go Hiyama + AISO, Takahiro Toriyama, Masataka Baba, Maha HARADA, Kazuya Matsumoto, Takahiko Yanagisawa and others.

LINKAGES