The liminal nature of alleyways: Understanding the alleyway roji as a ‘Boundary’ between past and present

This paper presents a study of the roji, a form of Japanese urban alleyway, which was once part of people’s personal spatial sphere and everyday life, but has increasingly been transformed by diverse and competing interests. Marginalized through the emergence of new forms of housing and public spaces and re-appropriated by different fields, the social meaning attached to the roji is being re-interpreted by individuals, subcultures and new social movements to fit hybrid and multiple concepts of living and lifestyles. Focusing on the case of Tsukuda–Tsukishima in central Tokyo and drawing on ethnographic data supported by a conceptual framework derived from theories of place and place-attachment, this paper investigates the kind of functions the roji fulfilled in the city in the past, and the qualities of urban life that have been lost or changed as the alleyway has ceased to be an everyday part of the urban landscape. Providing multiple narratives of change, the paper’s main purpose is to critically reflect on the potential of the recovery of the Japanese urban alleyway roji, arguing that the interstitial place of the roji can be characterised as a boundary between past and present (lifestyles), which is valuable space as it is desired and needed to express local voices, thoughts and personal opinions about urban change. In this sense, it continues to exist as imaginary, having a shared or social presence as mental space and an alternative landscape of reminiscence.

► This study is focussing on the changing alleyway in contemporary Tokyo. ► The paper is critically reflecting on the potential recovery of the alleyway. ► It provides multiple narratives of urban change at the grass root level. ► It argues that the alleyway can be characterized as a boundary between past and present. ► The paper concludes that the alleyway functions as alternative landscape of reminiscence.