60 Years Ago,

a woodblock artist,

 in the 1950s,by the name of Hide Kawanishi, produced a series of color illustrations that depicted the changing city of Kobe after WWII, he toured Kobe, and published the artwork in a book titled, One Hundred Scenes of Kobe (神戸百景色), it would become the artist’s last major accomplishment before passing away in 1965, some 60 years later, Takayuki Kita, enchanted by the work of Kawanishi, spent 2 years hunting down each and every location and photographing what the scene looks like now, above the Port of Kobe,

 the Neon lights of Moto-Machi, “I was driven by the magic of Hide Kawanishi in his enthusiasm of grasping the deep spirit and fantasy of Kobe out of the unique architecture scattered in the city,” says the traveler, who arranged his contemporary photographs alongside the artwork,

 and here are few from the wood block and the photographer, above Mt. Rokko at Night,

 Shiogahara Park,

 Hakutsuru Art Museum,

 Nada Sake Brewery,

 Nankin Machi (China Town),

Kobe Station, the illustrations themselves are beautiful and obviously can stand on their own, all 100 illustrations, along with their contemporary photographs (and google map location), 

are available on the official Kobe City website, and used copies of the original book are also floating around the internet if you’re interested, what a fascinating series of woodblocks and photographs.