Sakuragicho - On The Wall

For a long time this was THE graffiti wall in the Tokyo area. Some of Tokyo's most iconic and skilled writers honed their skill on this near-kilometre long wall. It was shown in countless music videos and advertisements including the animation Cowboy Bebop, for which the city profited. Some times the wall was deemed legal, other times not. Still it remained covered in art constantly. A few years ago nearly half of it was covered over by a city-run project of murals by non-graffiti writers. Some graffiti writers responded by re-painting these murals with throw-ups and tags as they felt the art was of a poorer quality than what they had done there without permission previously. At that point the city of Yokohama, working with several prominent local graffiti artists and NIKE as a corporate sponsor, allowed artists to re-paint Sakuragi-cho legally (These photos are from this period). For reasons which remain un-known to us the wall was painted gray soon after these photos were taken. We are truly saddened by the loss of the only high-profile legal graffiti wall in the Kanto region and an Asian hip-hop landmark. R.I.P. SAKURAGI-CHO. GRAY DRAB WALLS FOR GRAY DRAB SOULS