100 Colors
If this scene moves you, prints and downloads are available:・Order prints, digital downloads, or licenses・Explore gifts and merchandise“100 Colors No. 53” at Takanawa Gateway Station South Exit, TokyoTimestamp: 2025/07/16・17:33Fujifilm X100V with 5% diffusion filterISO 3200 for 1/210 sec. at ƒ/9Velvia/Vivid film simulation
If this scene speaks to you, prints and downloads are available:・Order prints, digital downloads, or commercial licenses・Explore gifts and merchandiseLone salaryman passing by the “100 Colors No. 53” art installation at Takanawa Gateway Station in Tokyo, JapanTimestamp: 2025/07/16・17:54Fujifilm X100V with 5% diffusion filterISO 160 for 1/150 sec. at ƒ/2.8Velvia/Vivid film simulation
If this scene speaks to you, prints and downloads are available:・Order prints, digital downloads, or commercial licenses・Explore gifts and merchandiseLocal office worker enjoying the splash pad at Takanawa Gateway Station in Tokyo, JapanTimestamp: 2025/07/16・18:37Fujifilm X100V with 5% diffusion filterISO 400 for 1/250 sec. at ƒ/2Velvia/Vivid film simulation
If this scene speaks to you, prints and downloads are available:・Order prints, digital downloads, or commercial licenses・Explore gifts and merchandiseStudent walking past the splash pad at Takanawa Gateway Station in Tokyo, JapanTimestamp: 2025/07/16・18:38Fujifilm X100V with 5% diffusion filterISO 320 for 1/250 sec. at ƒ/2Velvia/Vivid film simulation
A Century in 100 Colors: Emmanuelle Moureaux’s Takanawa Gateway Installation
エマニュエル・ムホーによる高輪ゲートウェイのアート作品「100色の道」で描く100年の時の流れ
The French artist and architect Emmanuelle Moureaux created this vibrant rainbow installation, 100 Colors No. 53, just outside the North Exit of Takanawa Gateway Station on Tokyo’s Yamanote and Keihin-Tohoku Lines, which is just one stop north of Shinagawa Station.
Moureaux, who has lived in Tokyo since 1996, based the 100 Colors Series on a concept called shikiri (色切), which means "dividing and creating space through colors." This piece, displayed in Gateway Park, is the 53rd work in the series. Previous installations have appeared in locations worldwide, including São Paulo (Brazil, 2021), Downtown Dubai (UAE, 2018), Brussels (Belgium, 2017), and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (US, 2015), as well as sites across Japan.
True to its name, each piece in the series incorporates 100 colors. For No. 53, each vertical slat is engraved with a year from 2025 to 2125, symbolizing “the passage of time in 100 colors.”
This area was once home to the Tamachi Depot. Old satellite images from November 2014 show the depot in its final days before the massive Takanawa Gateway City redevelopment began. The project is transforming the rail yard into a modern urban district with a new train station, four high-rise towers, office and retail space, luxury residences, schools, and entertainment facilities.
When I visited, my plan was simply to check out the new station, explore the high-rises, and maybe capture a few street shots. I hadn’t expected to find this striking artwork at the base of two gleaming steel-and-glass towers, so stumbling upon it was a welcome surprise.
There’s something refreshing about visiting Tokyo as a tourist with my small, lightweight camera, rather than as a my normal salaryman carrying a briefcase and wearing a necktie. It changes the pace, the perspective, and the way I see the city.
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