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Diary Observatory

Writer Observatory

Kafū Nagai

1879–1959 · Tokyo, Japan

Primary areas: Azabu / Ichikawa / Asakusa / Ginza / Mukojima

Areas listed only when connected in verified sources; details remain source-needed per place.

DiaryWeatherWalkingGardenUrban ChangePublishingWarFoodIllnessOld Tokyo

Forty-two years recording modern Tokyo as it vanished.

Born
1879
Died
1959
Country
Japan
Primary city
Tokyo
Primary diary
断腸亭日乗
Observation status
Active
Verification status
Partial
Last updated
2026-08-02

A city recorded through repetition

  • Observation/ 観測
  • Observation/ 観測
  • Interpretation/ 解釈

Primary diary

Timeline

Confirmed items only. Month/day not invented.

  1. 1879

    Fact/ 事実verified

    Born in Tokyo.

  2. 1917

    Fact/ 事実verified

    Begins keeping Danchōtei Nichijō.

  3. 1920s–1930s

    Observation/ 観測partial

    Continuously records Tokyo streets, publishing, relationships, garden, walks, and meals.

  4. 1940s

    Observation/ 観測partial

    Records wartime Tokyo, air raids, and changes in living conditions.

  5. 1945

    Fact/ 事実partial

    Records urban life around the end of the war.

  6. 1959

    Fact/ 事実verified

    Dies. The diary record ends.

  7. 2026

    Observation/ 観測verified

    Diary Observatory begins matching Tokyo in the diary against the present.

The axes of Kafū’s diary

Selected day

January 1, 1918 · Tokyo

原文引用ではない。確認済み内容の要約のみ。Daily Observatory へ接続。

Provenance: Partial · Bibliographic trail incomplete · Not a Reference Entry yet

Open excavated day · 発掘済みの一日を見るSame Day

January 2, 1918 · Tokyo

Coming entry — not yet summarized from a verified edition.

Coming entry · /entries/1918-01-02-kafu-nagai

January 3, 1918 · Tokyo

Coming entry — not yet summarized from a verified edition.

Coming entry · /entries/1918-01-03-kafu-nagai

Repeated life

RepetitionCalendar

Indexing in progress

No sample counts. Future heatmaps by month/year will attach when entry indexes exist.

  • Weather observed
  • Garden observed
  • Walk taken
  • Visitors
  • Pain or illness
  • Writing
  • Food and drink

Kafū’s Tokyo

Azabu

District

Lived / recorded geography

Diary period — details source-needed

Existing · 現存Status: ExistingSource needed

Related entries: Indexing in progress

View entity

Ginza

District

Urban walking / cultural geography

Diary appearances — source-needed per entry

Changed / district transformed · 変容・地域変容Status: Changed / district transformedSource needed

Related entries: Indexing in progress

View entity

Asakusa

District

Downtown / pleasure geography in diary

Diary period

Changed / district transformed · 変容・地域変容Status: Changed / district transformedSource needed

Related entries: Indexing in progress

View entity

Mukojima

District

Recorded place in diary geography

Diary appearances — source-needed

Existing · 現存Status: ExistingSource needed

Related entries: Indexing in progress

View entity

Ichikawa

City

Residence / living geography (details source-needed)

Source-needed for exact years

Existing · 現存Status: ExistingSource needed

Related entries: Indexing in progress

View entity
  1. Azabu / 麻布
  2. Ginza / 銀座
  3. Asakusa / 浅草
  4. Mukojima / 向島
  5. Ichikawa / 市川

No map API. Future decade maps can attach coordinates when verified.

Tokyo, layer by layer

  1. 1910s

    partial

    Connected to the diary’s opening years — details per entry source-needed.

  2. 1920s

    needs-source

    Only when diary or verified research is attached. source-needed.

  3. 1930s

    needs-source

    General literary geography — entry-level verification pending.

  4. 1940s

    partial

    War entries require confirmed diary text location before detail.

  5. 1950s

    partial

    Late diary years — body and city change; details source-needed.

Weather as archive

Weather terms

晴 / 雨 / 雪 / 風 / 寒 / 暑

Indexing in progress

Seasonal observations

花 / 落葉 / 樹影 / 鳥 / 日照

Indexing in progress

Body relation

歯痛 / 疲労 / 外出 / 睡眠

Indexing in progress

The body inside the diary

  • Dental pain

    Indexing in progress

  • Fatigue

    Indexing in progress

  • Sleep

    Indexing in progress

  • Appetite

    Indexing in progress

  • Mobility

    Indexing in progress

  • Aging

    Indexing in progress

  • Medical care

    Indexing in progress

未確認の病名や診断を推測しない。Indexing in progress.

When war enters an ordinary day

  • March 10, 1945

    Tokyo air raid

    Archive research needed

    Diary text location not yet confirmed — no concrete content.

    Related Same Day scaffold
  • August 15, 1945

    End of war

    Archive research needed

    Diary text location not yet confirmed — no concrete content.

    Related Same Day scaffold

World Survival

What remains from Kafū’s Tokyo?

  • Existing · 現存Status: Existing4
  • Demolished · 解体Status: Demolished0
  • Destroyed by war · 戦災焼失Status: Destroyed by war0
  • Reconstructed · 再建Status: Reconstructed0
  • Renamed · 改称Status: Renamed0
  • Relocated · 移転Status: Relocated0
  • Changed / district transformed · 変容・地域変容Status: Changed / district transformed3
  • Unknown · 不明Status: Unknown1

Indexed entities: 8. Not collapsed into a single Survival Rate.

This is not a score of preservation. It records how a city survives through reconstruction, renaming, memory, and disappearance.

From Kafū to Nishimura

Kafū Nagai

1917–1959

Weather / Walking / Garden / War / Old Tokyo

Kenji Nishimura

Late-Heisei

Publishing / Television / Used Bookstores / Urban Change

Shared

  • 東京
  • 日々の移動
  • 出版
  • 食事
  • 身体
  • 不機嫌
  • 失われる都市

Differences

  • 荷風:長期、反復、天候、戦争
  • 西村:出版産業、テレビ、古書店、平成文化
Compare Kafū and Nishimura

Read the primary text

  • Public-domain text

    Source verification pending

  • Modern editions

    Edition details needed — no invented bibliography or URLs.

原典(作品)と現代の編集版・校訂版の権利を分けて扱う。長文転載はしない。

Sources

Primary source / 一次資料

  • 永井荷風『断腸亭日乗』Verification pending

    Primary text — edition details needed. No long quotation.

Verification sources / 現況確認

  • Place verification — addresses, buildings, streets, shop changeSource needed

Editorial references / 編集参考

  • Biographical sources — publishers, literary museums, official recordsSource needed
  • Historical context — earthquake, war, air raids, urban historySource needed

    Attach only verified public-history sources; do not invent events.

  • Editorial references — diary literature, Kafū studies, Tokyo essaysVerification pending