Tokyo:

‘Drawings from the floating world’

After two days of drawing in Tokyo I have blisters on my fingers. As soon as I have cast my eye on a scene my sketchbook fills up as quickly as the teeming salarymen and women are stuffed onto the morning commuter train by the white-gloved peak-capped guard. Fishing for inspiration is easy here in Tokyo.

This is a country of masks and costume. From the surgical masks of the black suited commuters to the Prada clad Ginza shoppers via Sumos on bicycles and bewigged geisha and Meiko shuffling in wooden shoes, moonfaced and gift wrapped. Amidst the first burst of plum blossom in Harajuku Park we watch a bride having her elaborate costume adjusted while nearby teenagers premed each other and pouted before a gathering crowd dressed as Gothic Lolitas , Kimono punks and French maids.

These disguises conceal true emotions in a way that is both beautiful and sinister. My own lack of disguise leaves me exposed leading to difficulties whilst drawing in public. I fall prey to security guards and I’m removed from areas where my pencil and paper are seen as being more subversive than the many hands clutching cameras and video recorders.

Freezing with my sketchbook in the bustling sanctuary of Tsukiji Fish market I try not to get in the way as electric cars whizz past, piled high with crates of fish that resemble alien life forms. Despite their urgency fishmongers stop to chat and joke. Emotions run higher here and nothing is concealed. Everywhere you look the slithering treasures of the ocean have been brought  to the surface by the world’s  fishermen and crammed into icy polystyrene  crates open for viewing . Two worlds collide in the damp halls of the market, marine and metropolis, and a few hours later I am tasting the best Sushi I have ever eaten.

I have tried to render the contrasts of this breathtaking modern city as faithfully as I can with the limited tones of my pencil in the limited time that I had. And everywhere I have been images and pictures by Hokusai and Hiroshige peer over my shoulder and I dream that one day I might draw with such effortless insight.

‘The floating world’ derives from a Buddhist metaphor for the transient world of fleeting pleasures that gave its name to the style of woodblock prints known as ukiyo-e in the Edo period in Tokyo.

Go to the sketchbook from Tokyo

Also see sketches from Bankok