ArtGuest UserNovember 14, 2020japanese, subculture, original, art, artist, illustration, illustrator, post apocalyptic, tokyo, tokyo genso

A Post-Apocalyptic Japan by Tokyo Genso [2015/2020]: Tokyo Reclaimed by Nature

ArtGuest UserNovember 14, 2020japanese, subculture, original, art, artist, illustration, illustrator, post apocalyptic, tokyo, tokyo genso

First published in 2015, the Tokyo Genso (東京幻想) artbook portraits a post-apocalyptic Japan through a collection of illustrations depicting an empty and desolate Tokyo landscape reclaimed by nature.

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“I became interested in ruins 20 years ago when I backpacked my way through Southeast Asia,” the artist Genso says.

“When I saw Angkor Wat (in Cambodia), I was struck by how nature was about to swallow up that massive structure. It was a terrifying spectacle, but also very beautiful.”
-Tokyo Genso

“I’m also from a generation that grew up watching Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘Laputa: Castle in the Sky’ (1986),” he says. “In my mind, these two influences merged into one and it filled me with a sense of nostalgia. I try to re-create this sentiment in my work.”