Tag: Street Art

TOKYO, JAPAN STREET ART: STAR by FANAKAPAN

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Fanakapan is a London-based street artist best known for his insanely realistic helium balloon and chrome-style murals.
He paints freehand with spray paint and creates 3D illusions of mylar balloons, shiny metal, and other reflective objects that look like they’re literally floating off the wall. 
He’s often described as a pioneer of “balloon style” or “balloon-graff”, mixing classic graffiti techniques with trompe-l’œil realism. 

ASAKUSA, JAPAN STREET ART: SHIRANAMI GONIN OTOKO

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This is Nippon Daemon (日本駄右衛門) – the leader of the “Shiranami Gonin Otoko” (白浪五人男), a famous gang of gentleman-thieves from Edo-period kabuki plays.

You see statues of these kabuki characters around Asakusa because the area is closely linked with traditional theatre and old Edo culture.

In Asakusa’s Denbōin-dori they’ve hidden statues of all five thieves, but I only noticed two!


This is Benten Kozō Kikunosuke (弁天小僧菊之助) – one of the five dashing thief characters from the kabuki play Shiranami Gonin Otoko (Aoto Zōshi Hana no Nishikie).

29nov25

TOKYO (ASAKUSA,) JAPAN STREET ART: KABUKI / NOH

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A kabuki/noh-style performer—a powerful, possibly supernatural figure with wild hair, dressed in luxurious kimono, holding a theatrical or festival drum, surrounded by falling gold “confetti.” It blends traditional stage symbolism (white face, wig, colours, drum) with everyday urban life (a metal shutter), which is very Japanese: old culture embedded right into the fabric of the modern city.

November 2025