This station was once the terminus that connected the capital to the north of Japan (Tohoku).
Between the people who came to look for work in the city, those who returned to the North, employees on business trips, students on school trips, those who said their goodbyes on the platforms and those who came to pick up their loved ones, the station employees, the surface technicians, the shoe shiners and those who had made the station their home... all worked to build a place where people felt good.
At the very organized Tokyo Station, you couldn't really sit in a corner and eat your bento. But at Ueno, you could definitely afford to. …Yes, Ueno Station was really for and for everyone.
In this station, emotions, feelings and thoughts crossed paths. Each day brought its own new batch of stories; for me, Ueno Station was like an agora that created intermissions of life. What I would like is for the station to not only be a place of passage, but a real place of encounters.

MOTOHASHI Seiichi

東京の上野駅は100年以上続く歴史ある駅だ。パリの北駅に初めて降り立ったとき、ぼくは上野駅を思い出したものだった。 かつての上野駅は、東北地方と東京とを結ぶ終着駅だった。田舎から都市に出稼ぎにきた人びと、帰省客、出張するサラリーマン、修学旅行の学生たち、出迎え見送る人びと、駅職員、車内や構内の清掃の人たち、靴みがき、そしてこの駅に定住する住人（浮浪者）たち……。この多種雑多な人たちがみな、それぞれの居心地のよい空間をつくりだしていた。慌ただしい東京駅では座り込んで弁当を食べることもできなかったが、上野駅ではへっちゃらだった。そう、上野駅は誰でも佇むことのできる広場だったのだ。 駅では人びとの思いが交差し、日々ドラマが生まれた。ぼくにとって上野駅は、幕間を生む広場だったのだ。駅は通り過ぎるだけの通路ではなく、広場であってほしい。

October 2019, 2019

Opening: Friday 08.11.2019 18:00 – 21:00

Conversation with photographer MOTOHASHI Seiichi: Sunday 10.11.2019 15:30 – 16:30