A Japanese Restaurant!?

Entirely made of found materials, cobbled together from pieces of cardboard and scrap wood, a small rectangular dwelling sits in a public area. Sakaguchi writes, “Although this one resembles a Japanese restaurant, it is not open for business. A man lives alone in this house. The green plant and discarded public telephone help to further the atmosphere.”

This work is part of Sakaguchi’s documentation of informal homes built by Tokyo residents, which he calls Zero Yen Houses. He began this work as an architecture student at Waseda University after learning about housing inequity in Japan. Deeply inspired by the concept of “architecture without an architect,” the homes he photographs are, he states, “built out of the resourcefulness of human nature, not by purchasing power.” His work engages with broader themes in Japanese society, grappling with housing inequality, economic precarity, autonomy, and sustainability.