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Journal — reading the cultural index
Collections region

Tokyo, in residence.

A cultural region · 412 works

The most-read region in the index — a threshold city of memory and nocturnal movement.

Curated from the Tokyo regional index. 412 works across film, anime, novel, and television.

Tokyo entered the index sideways. We had been compiling pathways through longing for two years before we noticed that almost every anchor work was made in, set in, or thinking about this city.

This collection is an introduction. Six anchor works, the monthly rhythm of a city that reads itself slowly, and the sister regions where the same weather is forming.

A threshold city of memory and nocturnal movement — where the corridor, the convenience store, and the late commuter train become rooms in a single, unwritten novel.

Anchor works.

  1. Film · adjacent
    In the Mood for Love

    Wong Kar-wai · 2000

    98 min
  2. Novel
    Norwegian Wood

    Haruki Murakami · 1987

    296 pp.
  3. Film · foundational
    Tokyo Story

    Yasujirō Ozu · 1953

    136 min
  4. Anime
    Perfect Blue

    Satoshi Kon · 1997

    81 min
  5. Music · scene
    Boku no Lyric no Bouyomi

    Various, comp. 2009–2014

    Indie pop
  6. Novel
    Strange Weather in Tokyo

    Hiromi Kawakami · 2001

    176 pp.