The Art of the Japanese Manhole

The Japanese have a wonderful relationship with their manhole covers: they treat them as art. Here is a selection of the ornate, the artistic and the slightly bizarre.

Adolfo Farsari – The Man Who Shot Japan

In the 1880s at a time when most Europeans were denied access to the Japanese interior an Italian photographer managed to capture many images of Old Japan. These were then beautifully and realistically hand painted and serve as a remarkable record of a world long since disappeared.