A Japanese Life Exihibition

Today I attended At Home in Japan – beyond the minimal house.
This is a small exihibition at the Geffrye Museum of the Home, giving people a peek of what it is like inside a typical Japanese home. Based on ethnographical research by Dr Inge Daniels (University of Oxford), and includes project-specific photography by Susan Andrews (London Metropolitan University). The idea was to dispel some of the misconceptions that people may have on the way people in Japan live.

Walking through the glass door into the installation you are met with atmospheric sounds and music. Their are plants and a Japanese mail box as if I were standing outside someones home.

The next room is made to look like an entrance hall with a place to store your shoes, although it was not necessary to take of your shoes for some reason I felt a little rude for not doing so.


Throughout the exhibition you are incouraged to touch items on display to really get a feel for the place.
There is also numerous draws to open to discover what is inside.

From neatly folded linens to slighly cluttered kitchen draws. The attention to detail is amazing.

There is a bathroom area with a great lifesize photo of a Japanese bathroom accompanied by actual items from where the photo was taken.


The largest area and probably the most detailed is the kitchen/dining area. With fully stocked shelves, cupboards and a large table with all place settings laid out ready for a family meal.

What does not show up so well in my terrible photography is just how good the overal effect looks, with the life sized photos backed by light screens this effect really makes you feel as if its actually a window you are looking out of. That with the added sounds of conversations and the sounds of people having a meal it really did put me right slap bang in the middle of Japan for at least an hour or so.
Another room is the traditional room complete with tatami flooring and folded bedding.

Even the photo albums on the table were full of photos.

Out of it all of the scenes, for some reason the view in this photo really took me to Japan and when you are there the effect really works well.

If you are reading this post then you most probably love Japan and I encourage any one near the London area to check this event out. Its the closest you will get to Japan without getting on a plane.

The exihibition is on at the Geffrye Museum until Aug. 29

If you would like to see the rest of my photos I took while I was there you can see them here.