さあさ、お立ち会い。

URA-JAPAN

The Underside of Tokyo — a 90-minute private tour, during closed hours
with Shuhei Okawara
Adults only (20+) Max 12 guests Closed-hours takeover · Mon–Thu US$67 (≈¥9,900) · admission & one drink included Free cancellation (24 h)
Photo: Museum of Roadside Art
見せます、やらせます。

The Japan you know has museums.
This is the art they left out.

Raucous, unrefined, gloriously impure — expression that never asked permission.

You won't stand behind the rope.
You'll step inside the show.

大道芸術館

A museum that keeps
what museums refused

In Mukojima — one of Tokyo's last geisha districts — a former ryotei restaurant now houses the life's work of Kyoichi Tsuzuki, the legendary editor (POPEYE, BRUTUS) who spent fifty years collecting what Japan's art establishment wouldn't keep. He calls it endangered-species art.

Three floors. Sideshow banners painted to pull crowds into tents. The revived exhibits of the original hihokan "secret treasure halls." Works by artists the museums do celebrate — Shinro Ohtake among them — hung beside works no museum would dare.

AS FEATURED IN  NHK WORLD-JAPAN  ·  TIME OUT  ·  DOMMUNE  ·  TOKION  ·  SABUKARU
3F — the revived International Hihokan exhibit
Photo: Museum of Roadside Art

On weekday afternoons, the museum is closed.
It opens for you.

No crowds. No queue. Twelve guests at most — and the whole building, the banners, the dolls, the bar, the rooftop, belongs to the tour.

Hours no other visitor can enter. That is what this ticket buys.

Photo: Museum of Roadside Art

Shuhei Okawara performing before the sideshow banner mural, arms spread wide
A night performance at the museum
見世物、目の前で。

The banners advertise.
The showman delivers.

The painted banners on these walls once pulled crowds into misemono-goya — the sideshow tents of Japan. Fire-eaters, snake women, impossible bodies, painted twice as loud as life.

Here, the acts they advertise are not history. As your host walks you through the museum, he performs them — historical acts drawn from the exhibits around you, live, an arm's length away, for an audience of twelve at most.

Which act? That, you find out inside the tent.

触れる、成り代わる。

Touch. Wear.
Meet the residents

Touch — hyper-real, life-size figures by Orient Industry, Tokyo's legendary doll atelier, whose craft has been exhibited as art in its own right. Here they are met, not viewed through glass.

Wear — That Face, as reported by Reuters and the BBC, makes hyper-realistic masks from the faces of real, anonymous people who sold them. Put one on. Look in the mirror. Someone else looks back.

Photos encouraged. You will want proof this happened.

A hyper-real doll, face to face across a table
Photo: Museum of Roadside Art
番組立て

The 90 minutes

  • 13:00The door. A sliding door and a noren curtain on a quiet Mukojima lane. Find it — then press the intercom. Someone will come for you.
  • 13:05The show begins at the threshold. Your host guides you through the museum — and as you go, performs historical sideshow acts drawn from the very exhibits around you. The main event, woven through the tour.
  • 13:50Roam free. The building is yours. Linger with the collection at your own pace, meet the Orient Industry dolls up close, try on a That Face hyper-real mask. Mirror provided; courage assumed.
  • 14:05The rooftop. A chill-out space with Tokyo Skytree in full view. Catch your breath above the tiled roofs.
  • 14:15The bar, 2F. One drink included, beneath the dolls. Time to ask anything, and decide what you'll tell people back home.
  • 14:30Finish. Out by 15:00 at the latest — the evening is still yours.
The museum entrance — sliding doors and a noren curtain
Photo: Museum of Roadside Art
Shuhei Okawara, wearing a jewelled eye-piece mask
Photo: JOJI KOJIMA
口上役

Your showman

Shuhei Okawara runs Kamenya Omote — Japan's only mask specialty store — and organizes TOKYO MASK FESTIVAL, the country's largest mask event. His project That Face, the world's only business buying and selling human faces, has been covered by Reuters and the BBC.

He has spent his working life on one question: what happens to a person when the face changes? For ninety minutes, he is your guide, your barker — and your performer.

面白いものは、表通りにはございません。— The interesting things are never on the main street.
木戸口にて

Know before you go

Age
20+ only, ID checked
Days
Mon–Thu, afternoons
Duration
About 90 minutes · ends by 3 p.m.
Group
Small group, 2–12 · solo? book both seats and the show is yours alone
Price
US$67 per person (about ¥9,900) · museum admission & one drink included
Meeting point
Museum of Roadside Art, 5-28-4 Mukojima (8 min walk from Hikifune Stn. · easy from Tokyo Skytree / Asakusa)
Cancellation
Free up to 24 hours before
Included
Private access · guided tour · performance · mask try-on · one drink · your photos, unlimited
問答

Questions

Is this a haunted house? A costume party?

Neither. It is a surviving piece of Japanese showman culture and outsider art, handled with respect — and with a drink at the end.

Whose faces are the masks?

Real, anonymous people who sold their faces to That Face — willingly, with consent, and with a contract. That is precisely what makes it the only business of its kind on Earth.

Why adults only?

Parts of the collection are erotic art, and the tour ends at a bar. House rules; ID is checked at the door.

Can I take photos?

Yes — encouraged, for personal use. Your guide will point out the few exceptions.

Can I buy a mask?

Yes. Kamenya Omote, the producer of this tour, is Japan's only mask specialty store and the exclusive seller of That Face. Worldwide shipping available.

灯りは、そろそろ。

Photo: Museum of Roadside Art

木戸銭九千九百円也

The tent is small.
The seats are few.

Book — US$67 per seat

Pick your date on the next page — Mon–Thu, seats capped at 12 per day. Secure checkout in US$ via KAMENYA OMOTE. Minimum 2 seats per booking — solo travelers book both.