What this site is
zawa is an independent index of tokyo exhibitions, compiled from public venue websites and announcements. dates and hours can change without notice — always confirm with the venue. every page shows when its data was last verified.
Who runs it
zawa is operated by an independent individual based in tokyo, japan. it is not a company, and it sells nothing. every enquiry — including legal, takedown and data-protection requests — goes through the contact form, which reaches the operator directly; there is no public mailbox. we will provide the operator's name and postal address to any person or authority with a legitimate need for them, on request through that form.
Images
images remain the property of the venues and artists. we show them small and with credit, to identify the show and never as a reproduction of the work: listing thumbnails are desaturated, and the single larger image on an exhibition page is shown in its original colour, because the palette is part of deciding whether a show is worth the trip. any venue or artist can have an image removed — use the image takedown form. we act on takedowns without argument and without requiring proof of ownership.
Visitors — what we collect
privacy-preserving usage statistics only. no ad trackers, no tracking cookies, nothing sold or shared, ever. no other company is involved: the site is built so that it cannot load anything from anywhere else, analytics included.
our web server keeps standard access logs (ip address, page, time) for security; they rotate away automatically and are never used for profiling. from those logs we keep only daily totals — how many times a page was viewed, which site referred the visit, the approximate country the visit came from, and the browser's language setting.
on top of that the site records what was done, never who did it, so we can tell which parts are worth keeping. that means: pages opened, what people typed into search (and especially searches that found nothing — that is how we learn which galleries to add), how far down a page you read, how long a visit lasted, which links out to instagram or maps were followed, whether the app is installed and being used, whether sign-in worked, and any error or slowness the site hit on your device.
how that stays anonymous, precisely:
- no cookie is used for any of it. a random number groups the pages of one visit together, and your browser throws it away when you close the tab
- that number is never stored as we receive it — we scramble it with a secret that is replaced and destroyed every night, so two visits on two days cannot be joined up, by us or by anyone
- we record no ip address, no device name, no screen size. your device works out a rough category for itself — "phone", "ios" — and only that word is sent
- we never record which member did what. a visit is marked only as signed-in or not, so we can compare the two without the statistics ever becoming personal data
- your device keeps a single mark meaning "has been here before", so we can tell a first visit from a return. it stays on your device; only the word new or returning is sent
- your location is never sent, on near-me or anywhere else — distances are worked out on your device
- we keep this detail for 120 days, then only the daily totals remain
to turn it off: members have a switch on the account page. everyone else — the site obeys your browser's global privacy control setting automatically, and sends nothing at all when it is on (brave and duckduckgo have it on already; firefox has it under "tell websites not to sell my data"). the site works identically either way; nothing is withheld from anyone who opts out.
if you write to us through the contact form, we keep your message, name and email so we can reply, plus your ip address briefly (to prevent spam — it's discarded automatically, not stored on the message).
Members — what we store
- your email address (that's the whole login)
- your lists: want to go, wanted to visit, visited + ratings
- your home district and language preference, if set — and a record of when you changed your home district
- what you told us you are — collector, artist, gallery staff and so on — if you answered. it is your own description of yourself, we never check it, and it is shown to no other member. change it or clear it whenever you like on the account page; nothing on the site is withheld from you or unlocked for you by it
- whether you want our emails, and when you last changed that
- feedback you send us
- one sign-in cookie so you stay logged in, plus a small companion cookie that only records that you are signed in so pages don't have to ask the server. neither tracks your browsing, and we set no others
- which member features you use (for example, that you opened near-me) — a simple counter. your location itself is never sent to us: distances are computed on your device
- whether you have left the anonymous usage statistics above switched on
- a running stamp count: a tally of the actions above, so you can see your own use of the site. it records nothing your account does not already hold — the same shows, the same dates — only with a number attached. stamps buy nothing, cannot be bought, and cannot be given away, transferred or exchanged for anything; there is no ranking and no leaderboard, so your count is never shown to anyone but you
- if you joined through another member's invite link, which member invited you — recorded once, at registration, because it is how their stamp is granted. we never tell them who you are: they are shown a number and nothing else. the invite code itself waits in your own browser's storage until you register, and is not a cookie
- shows and corrections you send us: what you wrote, and whether we used it. the information may end up on the site — your name and email address never do
stored in japan. we never sell your data, and we never share it for marketing — privacy law (japan's APPI, the EU GDPR) forbids passing your details to third parties without your consent, and we wouldn't anyway. two narrow exceptions: sign-in codes and the emails described here are delivered through brevo (an eu email provider), which processes your address solely to send them; and we would disclose data if a court or the law genuinely required it.
registration includes district alerts and the occasional newsletter — a few emails a season. none of it is being sent yet: the list has not started, and consent given at registration applies from the day it does. every one carries a one-click unsubscribe link, and your account page has a switch that turns all of it off at once. unsubscribing does not close your account, and sign-in codes keep working because those are how you log in, not marketing.
our email is sent from an address that cannot receive replies. write to us through the contact form instead.
Your rights
ask for a copy of your data, correct it, or delete your account at any time using the buttons in account settings — or via the data request form. deletion is immediate and removes your lists, preferences, feature counters and stamps; messages you sent us are kept but detached from your identity, as are any shows or corrections you sent in. where you invited somebody, or somebody invited you, that connection is cut in both directions — their own stamp count is left alone, because it is theirs. we honor these requests under japan's APPI, the EU GDPR, and applicable US state privacy laws (e.g. california's CCPA), wherever you are.
Our picks
a few shows carry a small red heart. that is us saying we think this one is worth the trip — nothing more. picks are chosen by hand, one at a time, by the person who runs zawa. a pick has never been paid for, and never will be. no venue, gallery, artist or agency can buy one, ask for one, or find out how to get one, and we take no money, no commission and no free entry from anybody we list. if that ever changes it will be written here first, in plain words, before it appears on a single show.
Disclaimer
listings are provided as-is; zawa is not responsible for changed hours, cancelled receptions, or a disappointing show — the stars are yours to give.