Tokyo Totem is a ‘subjective guide to Tokyo’ and is the result of a collaboration between international and Japanese authors and makers from various disciplines. What they have in common is their interest and fascination with cities, and in particular Tokyo’s urban culture. This eclectic group grew from an international urban research and exploration workshop on Tokyo organised by Amsterdam-based studio Monnik and hosted by Tokyo’s Shibaura House in 2012. Everyone’s efforts resulted in the essays, maps, photography collages, poems, manga, illustrations and observations that have been collected in this book. It is called a guide, not because it helps you to find places to see, or places to eat or drink, but because it helps you to read and see the city differently. You may look at the city through the eyes of a bathhouse connoisseur, a host, an architect, a topographer, a flaneur, a foreigner, an artist or a child.
The exhibition is a co-production between the makers of the book, Monnik and Studio RooieJas, and Eddie The Eagle Museum, and will show work by Aukje Dekker, Arthur van Beek, Yasutaka Yoshimura, Jasper van den Berg, Edwin Gardner, Christiaan Fruneaux, Simon Wald-Lasowski and Keez Duyves. The book is available for purchase at the exhibition for ¥2,700.