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I’d been trapped by Japanese culture since I was a child. My father toke me to a tatami to learn Judo, not just in order to self-defence but, specially, to get the discipline and the proper behavior that Japanese martial arts teach.

When I finally went to Japan, my childish idea of Japanese society had changed, not in a worse way, only in a different one. I was well aware that the complexity of this society didn´t allow me coming deep enough to find out the whole pack. With these limitations, the respect that I always had and with no intention to judge, only to know a bit more about these fascinating people, I peered through my lens along the Tokyo streets.

I felt very well treated. In my opinion, japanese people are respectful, polite, clean and very kind.

Of all the topics, there was one that attracted me over the others: the duality tatemae-honne.

The concept “tatemae” (建前, “built in front”), describes the behavior and opinions  a person  displays in public.

In contrast with this, the word “hon’ne”(本音, “true sound”)  describes a person’s true feelings and desires.

In many cases tatemae leads to outright telling of lies in order to avoid exposing the true inward feelings, because the true feelings could lead to break the “wa” (social harmony), wich is the main point in japanese society.

The honne–tatemae divide is considered by some to be of paramount importance in Japanese culture.

This serie was taken in September 2017 in Tokyo.

I use silohuettes to suggest the dark side of each person and reflections and views through glass in order to highlight the duality between both concepts (Honne and Tatemae) itself. Citizens are under the watch of the endless city, with its great architecture, always growing up, a metaphor of the society limitating the individuality.