Bengaluru is hosting an exhibition that uses decades of photographs to examine how Tokyo changed from a pre-war city into a dense global metropolis. The Tokyo Before/After exhibition at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath brings more than 80 images from the 1930s and 1940s through the post-2010 period, offering Bengaluru a visual case study in managing rapid growth without erasing urban memory.
The exhibition is particularly relevant as Bengaluru undergoes another phase of infrastructure expansion. Roads, flyovers, technology districts and new commercial development are reshaping neighbourhoods across the city, while older areas continue to carry architectural, cultural and social histories. Tokyo’s experience shows that urban transformation is rarely a clean replacement of one city by another. Images displayed across different periods reveal older neighbourhoods and everyday activity existing alongside modern infrastructure. The contrast provides a useful lens for Bengaluru, where redevelopment pressures can affect not only buildings but also local businesses, public spaces and established communities. For urban planners, the comparison also raises a broader question about what constitutes heritage. Preserving a city does not necessarily mean freezing historic structures in place.
Streetscapes, neighbourhood networks, local livelihoods and everyday public life can also form part of a city’s identity. That distinction matters for Bengaluru as land values rise and infrastructure projects extend into established areas. Heritage-sensitive planning can help cities accommodate new mobility and economic activity while reducing the social cost of displacement and avoiding unnecessary loss of existing urban assets.The photographs also challenge the idea that Tokyo’s development was simply a story of technological advancement. Different generations of photographers captured changing streets, people, popular culture and urban landscapes, showing how modernisation alters the experience of a city as much as its physical form. For Bengaluru, the Tokyo Before/After exhibition therefore offers more than a cultural retrospective. It provides an accessible way to consider how a rapidly growing technology city can retain continuity while accommodating new infrastructure, investment and population growth.
The exhibition is open at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath until August 22, with free entry. Its wider relevance lies in the question it leaves for Bengaluru’s next phase of development: how can the city expand its economic and physical footprint while keeping its streets, communities and collective memory part of the urban future.
