The Japanese architect and philosopher Toshiro Tanaka, better known as “Von Jour Caux”, challenged the monotonous uniformity of modernist architecture with buildings designed to stimulate the imagination and enrich everyday life. Often described as the “Gaudí of Tokyo”, he believed that architecture should do more than simply provide shelter. His apartment buildings were intended to have a positive effect on the mind and create spaces that inspire emotion, and a sense of joy.

Born 1934 in Tokyo, Tanaka studied and worked in Chicago from 1962  before returning to Japan in 1969, later becoming a lecturer at Waseda University. Drawing on Japanese culture, Art Nouveau, symbolism, and working with other artists and architects, he developed a highly personal architectural language – playful, colourful, organic, and deliberately unconventional. Today, his work remains among the most remarkable architectural oddities of Tokyo.

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