Another good reason why I should upgrade my Japanese (errmm probably I should start from the basic Nihon Go class again, as far as I check the only word that is still ring a ding is just “Kawai”), besides reading the final chapter of Garasu No Kamen (if there is any), is to know more about Ruins Deflation Spiral or Haikyo Defure Supairaru.
Ruins Deflation Spiral is an online photo gallery which dedicated to urban exploration activities. In Japanese, Haikyo means “ruins” and Defure is a Japanese-English word suggesting that these buildings are gently “deflating” over time. The man behind this project is 29 years old visual art designer, Hiroyuki Tsuzuki, who described himself as a haikyo enthusiast.
Haikyo is a new subculture in Japan where people go find abandoned buildings throughout (mostly rural) Japan and photograph them. While many of us regard “Keep Out” signs with a certain amount of trepidation, the urban explorer or haikyo enthusiast sees them as a challenge, if not an open invitation. If urban exploration were considered a sport, it would be a total sport effort combines aspects of orienteering, potholing, squatting, breaking, entering, hiking, photography and space exploration.
In his images, Tsuzuki managed to delivers a collection of mysterious and haunting images that remind me of the economic crushing that befell Japan in the 1990’s. Amenities, buildings and leisure parks during the boom years that were forced into closure, never demolished, but just deserted. One of my personal picks is the abandoned amusement parks, where his images bring me to the day where the music stopped, the fun ended, the rides halted and the gate closed up for good-that day the park feel into the brooding silence, deep and desolate, yet fraught with echoes and after images of former joy
More on his haunting stuff
the pics looked lil creepy….