The deep world of “stray chairs” set up at bus stops and in the city without permission

Collections are interesting. It is fun to look at a substantial collection that has been assembled according to a specific theme, but it is even more interesting to hear about people who are crazy about collecting. In this series, I will visit various collectors and collect episodes related to their collections. Why do we collect things?　What lies beyond what we collect?　Friday’s Collecting Original” is a collection file of collectors.

There is a thing called “street observation studies. The late Genpei Akasegawa organized the Street Observation Society, which was active from the late 1980s to the early 2000s. Even today, there are many observers who have followed in his footsteps and are studying various topics such as gas tanks, water towers, and single-handed gloves on the street.

Mr. Tsubaking is an observer of the “stray chairs” that have been installed on the sidewalk without permission. While listening to his commentary, I went around the site where many stray chairs have appeared.

Stray Chairs Must Exist in the Landscape

Today, I’d like to take a look at the stray chairs around Jujo Station on the Saikyo Line and Koenji Station on the Chuo Line, guided by Tsubaking. First, we came to Jujo station. We heard that the stray chair we were looking for was located at the Kokusai Kogyo Bus stop “Jujo Station” right outside the south exit of the station. (It took about two minutes for the author, editor, and photographer to walk there, led by Tsubaking.)

Tsubaking: Yes, this is the first one. This stray chair is one of the most stylish I’ve ever seen. But it’s difficult to take pictures here. I really want to take pictures that include the sadness of blending in with the city, but with my phone’s camera, I can’t get the angle of view I want. ……

I can’t get the angle of view I want with my smartphone camera.

Tsubakingu: You can get a certain angle of view by using an in-camera for selfies, but the problem with that is that the image quality is a bit degraded.

I have a professional photographer with me today, so I’m sure he’ll be able to get a good shot (laughs).

Tsubaking: The appeal of stray chairs is basically their “sadness. A stray chair was probably originally used as an indoor chair, but now it has finished its role and is living a second life as a chair, exposed to the rain outdoors.

It’s not a second life, but a chair life. That’s certainly a good point. Nowadays, we have smartphones with cameras and the Internet has developed, making it easier for people to publish their hobbies and research results. Perhaps because of this, I feel that more and more people are taking up street observation as a hobby. Are there any other people besides you who are doing wild chairs?

Tsubaking: Probably not. As far as I know, I haven’t seen anyone who is putting this together.

But as far as I know, I’ve never seen anyone put this together.

Tsubakking: When someone notices the existence of something and names it, it finally becomes visible to everyone.

When you take pictures of wild chairs, do you always use the same composition or do you have a set format?

Tsubaking Each location has a different environment, so I can’t really set a format. However, I try to include the surrounding scenery as much as possible, instead of just shooting the chairs. A stray chair is just a chair, even if you take it out.

So the stray chair is only a chair when it’s in the landscape, like the sadness I mentioned earlier. So, let’s move on. We crossed the crossing of the Saikyo Line and headed to the west side (again, about a five-minute walk for the four of us).

Tsubaking The next property is a really great situation, but …… Oh, I see some of you have already used it!

There are stray chairs on some lines and not on others.

This is the bus stop at Jujo Station on the other side of the tracks, where local grandmothers are sitting on stray chairs waiting for the bus. But this is exactly how stray chairs are being used.

From the right to the left, there is a pink pipe chair with a broken back, a yellow plastic chair that looks like it was made for school children, two plywood chairs with peeling paint, two stools carved out of logs, and finally a round velvet sofa that looks like it belongs in a karaoke bar! A round velvet sofa!　If it rains, it will soak up water and become soggy (laughs).

Tsubaking According to my personal definition of a stray chair, I don’t think this log stool can be called a stray chair. Originally, a stray chair is one that was used indoors and then taken outside.

Oh, I see!

Tsubaking There are quite a few places where stray chairs are gathered like this, but the appeal of these places is that you can see a variety of the first chair students. I don’t know how they were active in the past, but they are gathered here now.

Some of them came from offices, some of them graduated from school. Some of them were in the water business (laughs).

(laughs) Tsubaking: People who used to be active in white-collar jobs have become old men, and now they are registered with the Silver Temporary Employment Service and work at bicycle parking lots. I feel something similar to that.

I know what you mean!　Why are there so many stray chairs concentrated in this area?　Is it because there happen to be a lot of elderly people in this area, or is there a facility for the elderly like that? ……

Tsubaking It’s a strange thing, but some lines have them. It’s strange that some lines have them and some lines don’t have them at all.

I think it’s the existence of people who put them there. I wonder if there are people in the area who are willing to put them there for the elderly, because the elderly are not likely to put them there themselves.

Tsubakking: It’s hard to come up with the idea of putting a chair where there isn’t one, but when the first one is put up, people start putting them up one after another.

Stray chairs call for stray chairs!　By the way, Tsubaking, you tweeted about this on Twitter just yesterday.

Yes, he said, “If you see one stray chair, you can be sure that there are 20 stray chairs on the street. That’s exactly what I did.

─ Did you know beforehand that there were many stray warblers here?

Tsubaking: That’s the difficult thing about street observation, you can’t do research beforehand. You have to go to the site to find out. I rarely come to Jujo, but when I went to a public bath in Higashi Jujo to cover a story for “SPA!” (Tsubaking is also a writer), I took a stroll around the area and found this street.

Are stray chairs unique to urban areas?

Tsubakking: Yes, they are. When I go to the countryside and tell people about stray chairs, they don’t get it, or they don’t understand it very well.

I wonder if that means that in rural areas, bus stops have official benches.

Tsubaking: I don’t think that’s the case. This is just a hypothesis of mine, but in rural areas, there are not many buses to begin with, so people look at the timetable at home and leave the house just before the bus arrives. This is my hypothesis.

Oh, I see!　Also, in the countryside, there is almost no traffic jam, so the bus will come at the exact time.

Tsubakingu: I once went to Osaka to sell T-shirts and zines made by Stray Chairs, but the people in Osaka didn’t really get it.

I’ve been interested in this stray chair since I first saw it, and I love the paper cranes.

What a stray chair and a stray dog have in common

I arrived at what was probably an electronics recycle store. On the sidewalk in front of the store, there are two pipe chairs and a wooden round chair.

Tsubaking: These are not stray chairs by my definition.

Hmm?　What’s the difference from the others?

Tsubaking: The chairs are placed here for the customers of the recycle store, and they are part of the store’s overhang.

It’s just a part of the store. So it’s the same as the chairs that are placed in restaurants for customers who are waiting for their turn.

Tsubakingu: If it functions as part of the store’s equipment, it is not a stray chair.

Tsubaking: Stray chairs don’t belong to anyone, they belong to everyone in the community. Somebody puts them there somehow, and if they break, somebody fixes them somehow.

There is a similarity with community cats. Not every house has one, but someone feeds them somehow.

Tsubaking By the way, the name “Nora Is” is deliberately written in katakana. I thought it might be mistaken for “stray dog. I thought it would be fun to have a poodle outside.

Hahahaha!　Now I’m at the Kamijujo 3-chome bus stop, and the stray chair here has been repaired with duct tape. The back side of the chair has a bare plastic cover hanging down like a dog sticking out its tongue.

Tsubaking: Like the chairs at the karaoke hostess bar I mentioned earlier, these cushioned chairs are easily damaged by rain and wind, and their life is short.

The urethane cushion absorbs rainwater, so you have to be careful when sitting on them.

Tsubaking: I call it “being bitten by a stray chair” when I sit down and get my butt wet because it’s sunny.

Oh, I like that!

The property is on the border between stray and domesticated chairs.

It’s probably just a coincidence that there are so many stray chairs in this area, but when I see them all at once, I feel as if there will be stray chairs all the way to the end of the line (laughs). Oh, stray chairs are not limited to bus stops, are they?

Tsubaking It’s not limited. I’ve lost track of the exact location, but I’ve seen stray chairs placed endlessly on the promenade. It must have been a walking course for the neighbors to take a rest on the way. Stray chairs appear suddenly.

It’s been going well up to this point, but I’d like to see a pattern that says, “Oh, it’s been removed! I’d like to see a pattern of “Oh, it’s been removed!

Tsubakking: Haha, but really, there is always that fear.

Now, I can see what looks like a stray chair on the other side of the street, so I’m going to cross the signal and go over there.

Tsubaking From a distance, it looks like there are no stray chairs here. But when you get closer, you see that there are two pipe chairs in the storefront, which are either stray chairs for the bus stop or domesticated chairs for the store, or something in between.

They are either stray chairs for the bus stop or domesticated chairs for the shop. It’s true that this could be taken either way.

Tsubaking If it’s important, you can ask about it here, but it’s not that important (laughs).

Hahaha. If you come at night, you might find out.

Tsubakking: Yes. If it’s left out at night, it’s a stray chair. If it is stored in the store, it is a domesticated chair.

I wonder if the duct tape used to repair the chairs and the duct tape used to hold the cardboard boxes in the store are the same.

I wonder if the duct tape used to repair the chair and the duct tape used to hold the cardboard box in the store are the same. …… So that’s the stray chair in Jujo for now.

From Jujo, take the train to Koenji!

The next stop was Koenji, where Tsubakingu-san lives. The trend in Koenji is that there are a lot of young people, which is a change from Jujo, isn’t it?

Tsubaking: The faces of the people passing by are also somewhat different.

In addition to being a broadcaster and writer, Tsubaking is also a drummer, playing drums in bands such as Boogie the Mach Motors and The Buttz. Koenji used to be a town with a lot of record stores.

Tsubaking There are a lot fewer now, though. …… (After that, we talked about used record stores and good ramen shops, but that’s not the point, so I’ll skip it).

Yes, it’s a bus stop just before you get to Ome Kaido after going all the way south on Konan Street.

Tsubaking I think the area around the bus stop, with the stray chair in the center, looks spacious here, but surprisingly, it’s hard to take pictures.

─ Oh, the chair is facing the roadway, so if you want to take a picture from the front, you have to step out into the roadway.

Tsubaking: It would be better to turn the chair toward the sidewalk, but basically, I don’t want to move the chair.

I don’t want to move the chair.

So, here’s a photo I took a few years ago: …… (He shows me a photo on his smartphone. It was a bird’s eye view composition taken from the top of the spiral staircase of the apartment building you can see behind the above photo.)

─ Wow, I can really feel the sad situation that this lovely folding chair is in!

Tsubakingu: If you look closely at the past photos, you can see that this chair has been replaced. So, you might think that stray chairs are just thrown away or dead, but there are people who use them a lot, and when they are done, they are metabolized, so they are actually alive.

I wonder what the passersby think when they see us sitting in front of the chairs, talking and taking pictures.

Tsubakking: That’s a typical example of street observation. I wondered what four grown men were doing together. If you don’t know anything about wild chairs, you can’t see what’s there even if you follow our line of sight.

I was also disappointed when people stared at my face and said, “What, no Tamori-san? (laughs).

(laughs). A stray chair that is built on a balance of neither forward nor backward movement.

So, I walked a little to the west after reaching the Ome Kaido road, and came to the “Shinkoenji” bus stop. This is not a stray chair, but a bench for the bus stop, but let’s keep this in mind as a contrast.

Half of the stray chairs are made out of kindness, but on the other hand, there is a lot of talk in Tokyo about “exclusion art” to keep out the homeless.

Tsubaking At the end of last year, stray chairs became a topic of conversation, and I think it was in Aoyama 2-chome. I think it was in Aoyama 2-chome. Then, in the margin of the sign, someone wrote a direct appeal, “My 80-year-old grandmother uses it, so can you please leave it for her?

─ Oh, I have an 85 year old grandmother too, so it makes me cry when I hear stories like that.

Then someone tweeted about it, and there was a lot of buzz on Twitter about whether the chair was illegally dumped or whether it was a kind gesture to the local residents. As a result, the stray chair was removed, but an official bench was installed.

Oh, public opinion has moved the government!

Tsubaking: Stray chairs are definitely illegal dumping under the law, but that doesn’t mean that someone should take them away without permission.

But that doesn’t mean someone can take it away without permission.

Tsubakking: That’s why even when the government takes care of it, they have to go through a complicated process, so it’s very troublesome, and even after three years it’s still there.

So the best thing to do is to leave it as it is.

Tsubaking: You can’t move forward, and you can’t move backward. It’s a complicated equilibrium, and that’s what makes a stray chair work.

So, I crossed the Ome Kaido and came to the Shin-Koenji bus stop on the other side.

Today, whenever we come across a stray chair, we wait for the next bus to come if there is an old lady sitting there, and take a picture of her when the chair is empty.

Tsubaking: When I see an attractive stray chair, I wait for it, but if it looks familiar, I don’t go that far.

Oh! (Pointing to a sample photo printed on the wall of the 3-minute photo machine by the bus stop), there was a time when I used to collect these photos. I thought there would be many different models, many different variations. But after collecting several patterns, I realized that there was little chance that this field would become particularly interesting in the future, so I stopped.

Tsubaking Hahaha. I often use this as a compliment: “You didn’t go through a meeting.

I often use this as a compliment: “You didn’t go through the meeting. For example, the samples for the certificate photos have gone through a lot of meetings, so it seems that there are only safe ones. Stray chairs, on the other hand, have not gone through any meetings, so they may come up with something out of the ordinary.

The chair that can’t sit behind the glass

Tsubaking When I find a stray chair on the other side of a road that is about three lanes in each direction like this, I feel a sense of pleasure or frustration, or maybe it’s a battle with my own next schedule.

I know what you mean. Koji Ishii, a researcher of one-glove photography, said, “If I see a one-glove on the street while I’m traveling, I’ll get off the train and take a picture of it. I’ll get off the train and take a picture.

Tsubaking: Do you consider it a waste of time or a necessary time for your collection?

That’s the question, isn’t it?

Tsubaking: Yes, this is the last stop for today.

I crossed the Ome Kaido Road again and came back to the sidewalk on the north side. The bus stop is called “Nishimabashi”.

Tsubaking: This is the place where I wished I was a stray chair! This is a place where I wish I was a stray chair.

What the heck is this?

Tsubaking: When I start thinking about stray chairs, everything I see immediately looks like a stray chair. I often travel by bicycle, and when I do, I immediately think, “Hey, isn’t that a stray chair? But when I rushed back, I found that it was not a stray chair. That’s what this place is about.

This is the kind of place. There’s no one else but Tsubaking who’s nervous here (laughs). That was a good ending.

After-talk (I heard more stories at a diner)

─ Thank you very much for leading us today. Please tell us again the definition of a wild chair.

Tsubaking: There are three definitions: the first is that it is a former indoor chair, the second is that it is not abandoned, and the third is that it does not belong to a store. The second is that they are not discarded, and the third is that they do not belong to a store.

The third is that it does not belong to a store. As I looked around, I couldn’t decide if the chair was a free stray or if it was owned by a store.

Tsubaking: The last garden bench I saw today is obviously for outdoor use, so it is not a stray chair according to the definition 2, but I allow such exceptions as part of the fun.

What made you decide to start collecting stray chairs in the first place?

Tsubaking At first, I didn’t have a name for the stray chairs. I just thought that the chairs at the bus stop looked sad and cute, so I started taking pictures of them. Eventually, I began to see the reason for this sentimental feeling.

─ Oh, I understand!　At first, I would collect them in the dark, but as I gathered more and more, I began to see a direction and a theme, and suddenly the collection began to have meaning.

Tsubaking: Like the “Jujo Station” with the seven chairs you saw today, the first place that triggered this collection was the “Suginami Tax Office” bus stop in 2016, where there was a collection of about five chairs with different histories.

Tsubaking Even though their history is different, they are now gathered in the same place to support the lives of the people in the city. These chairs do not belong to any one place, but they are loved by the people of the city. That’s how we came up with the name “stray chairs.

The moment a name is attached to a collection, it is brought to life.

Tsubaking Since then, I have been consciously looking for stray chairs. It used to be something that I would find in the course of something, but now it’s something that I go looking for with an intention. I think this is a “collector’s thing,” but there are times when the enthusiasm for collecting anything cools down. When that happens, I intentionally try to “keep the love alive” by forcing myself to spend money and time on it.

What exactly do you do to “keep the love alive”?

Tsubaking: I went to Shizuoka Prefecture to look for stray chairs. It took two days and one night, but I only found one. But that’s what keeps me going (laughs).

(laughs) ─ Collectors of face-painting signs at tourist spots are divided into two groups: those who stick their faces out of the holes themselves and those who don’t. Are you one of those who sit on a stray chair?

Tsubaking: No, I don’t, but there are people on Twitter who sit on abandoned chairs. I don’t sit on it, but there is a person on Twitter who sits on discarded chairs and posts pictures of them on Twitter.

There are all kinds of people out there. …… (*After searching later, I found that it was Sumimasanori, who was active in the early days of Daily Portal Z.)

Tsubaking: In that sense, I’m extremely anthropomorphic (or is it pseudo-inu?) of stray chairs. In that sense, I am extremely anthropomorphic (pseudo-innu?) of stray chairs, so maybe I don’t feel the need to include myself in them. I see them as living things rather than as scenery. I also like Buddhist statues, but I don’t think of them as “being” there, but as “being” there.

─ Speaking of which, in your profile you mention that you are a Level 1 certified Buddhist statue. What is this?

Tsubakking: I’ve liked Buddhist statues as figures since I was young. And as I was looking at Buddhist statues, I became interested in the teachings of Buddhism. When I thought about it, my father’s family was a temple, and my cousin is the head priest now, so he taught me many things, and we even had a Buddhist wedding ceremony.

I have the impression that many collectors have various hobbies, but I didn’t expect to find a Buddhist statue (laughs). By the way, I think that stray chairs are not there forever, but they are disappearing, but do you keep a record of the stray chairs you find?　Do you keep a record of the stray chairs you find? Date, place, type of chair, etc.?

Tsubaking I don’t have any data, but I created a special account on Instagram for stray chairs, and I write down the date and location. It’s very true that stray chairs are disappearing, and basically they share the same fate as bus stops.

So they share the same fate as the bus stop?

Tsubaking: When a bus stop is discontinued due to a change in the route of the bus, the stray chair that was placed there also ends its service. In other words, the death of the bus stop is also the death of the stray chair.

(When Tsubaking showed me the above photo on his phone) Wow, this is amazing!　It’s like the last scene of a full-length novel, or maybe it’s just that Mr. Tsubaking, who has a legal name, witnessed the end of a certain stray chair. No, no, no, no, I was shown something amazing at the end.

(Postscript)
Mr. Tsubaking is a writer, broadcaster, drummer, hot spring sommelier, and a first-class Buddhist statue examiner. I followed him when I saw the “wild chair” on his Twitter timeline, and we quickly became friends because we had many friends in common. I heard that in terms of generation, they were influenced by VOW (a column in the magazine “Treasure Island” for posting strange signs and other things in the city) before the street observation society, but in terms of being amused by the unconsciousness of the city, I am exactly the same. I’m sure the experience of actually visiting the site will change the way you look at the city.

(This series will be updated on the first Friday of every month. The next installment is scheduled for February 4th. Please look forward to it!)