Now wait a second- in a city full of manholes and electrical poles, how did I know that this was the same spot as in the original photograph?
Good question.
The December 1995 issue of Asahi Camera ran a feature of Araki’s work and on a two-page spread an earlier shot of this same corner appeared.
In this shot you can see the address marker. The area is literally just around the corner from another one of Araki’s often-photographed locations:
This is what it looked like in 2015:
And this is what it looks like as of February 20, 2021:
Incidentally, this was one of the first re-photos I did- it was sparked years ago by noticing the scene while Roppongi from Nogizaka. Often I research images to determine their location but this was the opposite- I knew the spot from a photo.
The roof of the brown building on the corner, a famous and old ramen shop called Daihachi (大八), has caved in and is now surrounded by a massive new construction project. The place is slowly being buried by bulky trash items (粗大ゴミ) which locals don’t want to pay to have picked up by the ward.
