Nakazaki

This guide to Nakazaki in Osaka opens with the nagaya, long wooden row houses that survived the firebombing that flattened much of the city near the end of the Second World War, saved by nothing more than shared timber beams and walls. It follows the neighborhood's slow abandonment through the 1980s and 90s, and a performance artist known as Amanto who took over one crumbling house around 2001, turning its restoration into an open, public performance. Over a thousand volunteers are said to have cycled through, picking up a hammer or a paintbrush along the way.