Kita-senju Shutter Art

A new Japanese art form takes to the streets

By Saskia Gilmour

Community writer

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These colorful shutters feature beautifully painted folk scenes with insets of flowers, including peonies

This tempura store is decorated with a beautiful traditional folk scene

A half-opened shutter allows a curious peek into this shop front

This mural is believed to be 'Mount Nantai', a mountain near Nikko, north of Tokyo. The second kanji (Japanese character) you can see is an older form of writing which is today replaced by the character "体", meaning "body".

These stores really stand 'cheek-to-cheek', with each store often displaying unrelated murals

A detailed photograph of the store with the outstretched cat painted on the front

Shutter art seems to be one of Japan's least appreciated art forms. All around the country it is not uncommon to see murals painted on the closed shutters of various residences and businesses. An art form in its own rights, they tend to picture traditional stories, local themes and totems, or even outlandish pop-culture references. Perhaps one of the most recognized of Tokyo neighborhoods to see shutter art is at the stalls lining Asakusa's Senso-ji Temple.

Yet the Kita-senju neighborhood in Adachi, in north-east Tokyo, really makes shutter art its own. A popular shopping and restaurant street, Shukuba machi-dori, is endowed with an array of peculiar shutter art. It offers a phenomenal insight to this what is both a sleepy-eyed and vibrant neighborhood.