Media Architects Project Japan (1)

7/24/2019 Media Architects Project Japan (1)

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Media ArchitectsTange and Kurokawacreate and exploitthe spotlightThrough the swivel door, past the cloakroom,a guy in a three-piece black suit dashes into anelevator His black suits are made of British wool.The striking tie in archaic indigo blue and white isplant-dyed. The shirt is a subtle hue of ivory Perfect everywhere.

Life in Three Colours: The Prince of Architecture,Playboy, Japanese edition, February 12, 1974.

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A professional in Japan with a solid reputation earns the right to add the suffixka to their title: a famous architect therefore becomes a kenchiku-ka. Thismight be an early, non-pejorative version of the dreaded Western neologism,starchitect. Long before the negative correlation between celebrity and credibilityis established, from the late 1950s to the 70s Japans media lionizes its architectswith full sincerity. The growth of TV (95 percent of households own one by 1970),popular weekly magazines, and the architecture press itself transforms architectsfrom fusty technicians or mere assistants to builders into gurus capable of reorgan-izing the nation. Serious attention is paid in extravagantly illustrated articles andon lengthy TV specials to the Metabolists schemes, and, soon, to their clothes,cars, accessories, and leisure time.In tandem with the architectural reimagining of Japan, a project is underwayto create a new postwar, postimperial model of Japanese masculinity, partSamurai, part dandy. Yukio Mishima, the novelist and nationalist, is both;Kurokawa calls him my only rival in fashion and perhaps fame...Tange, in the late 1950s, is the first to set the stage and benefit from the mediaspotlight, but Kurokawa quickly emerges as the perfect figure to exploit the in-creasing (and increasingly personal) attention. How did Kurokawa dislodge hisformer teacher? The two giants represent opposite poles, and different genera-tions: Tange, the middle-aged bow-tied dandy, the public servant and pedagogue

with the clout of Tokyo University behind him, wheeled out whenever the nationneeds to assert its economic and cultural power (Hiroshima Peace Memorial in1955, Yoyogi National Gymnasia in 1964, Expo 70); Kurokawa the handsomeyouth who makes up for what he lacks in authority with audacity, knows how tospeak on TV (compared with Tanges fragile voice), and presents seeminglyoutlandish scenarios for the future with both deadpan seriousness and knowingplayfulness. Kurokawa, unlike Tange, also transcends his discipline of architecturealtogether in interviews with politicians (including the prime minister, KakueiTanaka) and in a TV spot on the national channel NHK, in which he monologueson his latest activities and theories; he systematically exploits this 15 minutes offame for the next 20 years, before taking the next step, from media to politics

441PROJECT JAPAN METABOLISM TALKS


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1961First media archi tect: Tange presents Plan for Tokyoin a special New Years Day broadcast on NHK.


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1959 MAY 10 SHUKAN ASAHI

First pose: Tange smokes thoughtfully in front of his recently completedSogetsu Kaikan Art Center on Aoyama-dori Avenue, Tokyo; in one of hisfirst major magazine features, the image of architecture and architectalready begin to merge...

Master of Tange School: An International Architectural Art Award

Bestowed on Tange

The Sogetsu Kaikan is one of the architectural works that brought Tangehe Pan-Pacific Art Award [from the American Institute of Architects]. Sofu

Teshigahara asked Tange to design the building completely as he liked, and sohe did. When you make a building full of creative ideas, youll get 80 percent ofpeople around you complaining at the beginning. But in half a year, the proportionwill be reversed. After all, the appreciation of living space is a lot about gettingaccustomed to it It makes me happier to be complimented on a building after10 years of usage rather than immediately after completion, says Tange .



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1959 JUNE 28SHUKAN ASAHI

Last stand: a nascent media elite, initially confronted with sarcasmas an avant-garde that sells, will soon be celebrated in popular magazinesand then galvanized by the emergence of TV, which Soichi Oya, theskeptical commentator writing here, dismisses as a sum total ofone billion in total idiocy.

Avant-garde Is Japans Favorite: Four Kings in Architecture, Drama,

Photography and Paintingby Soichi OyaOn the avant-garde: A new religious sect and the avant-garde members shareseveral things in common. Both contain gurus, meaning that they have passionatesupporters but no ears for criticism; they are left-wing, at least in speech; theyare often surprising, which is a tactic to get recognition; they are good at mysti-fying people by using buzzwords drawn from other disciplines, typically literature,philosophy, and sociology; they exercise showmanship, constantly displayingnew or bizarre gestures; they are essentially journalists and entertainers; theyhave a good sense of business. In short, they succeeded in reversing thecommon sense that avant-garde doesnt sell.

On Tange: The leap from ancient plan to glazed modernism is brilliant, exercisingif you will the dialectic synthesis of tradition and destruction. Based on his theorythat the ground surface belongs to people and therefore must be liberated, hisbuildings [raised on pilotis] give free passage underneath, like a treehouse in a

jungle. In Japan, this space sometimes serves as a home to hobos.

Tetsuji Takechitheatre director

Ken Domonphotographer

Tange

Taro Okamotoartist

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Best-Dressed Man in the Architecture Circle: Kenzo Tange

Kenzo Tange is acclaimed as the best-dressed man in the architecture circle.And the architecture he conceives is as urbane and articulate as his dressingstyle. Most of his works, including his own house in Seijo, Tokyo, sit on pilotislifted above the ground with columns) ... Tange is very popular internationally.

The World Health Organization of the United Nations will be building its newgigantic headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Tange has been chosen fromJapan among 15 competitors from around the world. Will he be able to stepup to the world stage?

By 1960, Tanges architecture is described in termsof his dressing sty le: urbane and articulate...

1960MAY 23SHUKAN SHINCHO



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Future City Floating on the Sea: The Dream of Kenzo Tange

At his studio, Kenzo Tange studies the model of a housing cluster on a man-made island Cars approach the cluster via high-speed motorways surroundingit. Yachts are also seen in the model The cluster is supported with a gigantictruss structure, which contains a large open space for communal activities andfacilities, including schools. On the outer surfaces are attached cells for living.

1960 OCTOBER 16SHUKAN ASAHI

Tanges strategic absence from Tokyo in 1959, at the moment ofMetabolisms gestation, is time well spent. He returns from MIT withthe notion of the A-frame, a slab pulled apart to create public spaceand a passage for high-speed transit running through the structureand applies it as a new typology in Plan for Tokyo...



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1964 JANUARY 31SHUKAN ASAHI

The Guru Pioneer: A Whirlwind in Architectural Society

Olympian: the upcoming Tokyo Olympics provide the media with anoccasion for transforming Tange into a national hero : he poses for thecover of Shukan Asahiconfident, sharp, yet avuncularas his iconicYoyogi National Gymnasia ( left) are about to be completed



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1964 APRIL 10 SHUKAN ASAHI

Future Figure Of Japans Architecture Circle Revives Japans Ancient Beauty

in Contemporary Design At the age of 36, Kiyonori Kikutake is already arecipient of two prestigious art awards.*The renowned governor of ShimanePrefecture recalls that when he brought Kikutake to the Grand Shrine for the firsttime, the architect did not sleep for the entire night, astonished by the ancientarchitecture.

*One of which is the Pan-Pacific award of the AIA, fo llowing in Tanges footsteps.

Reverant: eight weeks later, Shukan Asahiagain gives its coverto an architect, this time to a Metabolist. Kikutake though stillplays the role of serious, classic architect. On the left of the cover:his administrative building for the Izumo Shrine, Shimane,completed in 1963.

Visionary: for the article, Kikutake inspectshis Tokoen Hotel, under construction.



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From ink to screen: after the attention of the popular press, the Metabolistsplans become a form of worthy TV entertainment for an exponentially biggernational audience: their presentations are alternately theoretical (Asadas lectureon economic and urban growth), fantastical (Kurokawas Helix City) , andactually under construction (Sakaide Artificial Ground)...

19621964 NHK CHANNEL 1

1962, January 30Using a diagram(right), Asada explains the problemsof urbanization that could beexpected in a society where higheconomic growth has become thenorm, and the potential effects ofthese urban problems on peoplespersonal income.



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1969 AUGUST 24MAINICHI GRAPH

Building the Dream Future City

We need a city over a city. Multiple, diverse ... these are the philosophiesof this man. He has the ability to imagine the infinite, and the ability to integratethe imagination or vision of the future firmly into reality. He is also gifted with theability to construct thoughts logically, the ability to make compelling arguments,and also political power...

Enter Kurokawa: as the hype builds for Expo 70, the media finds a new,younger architect suitable for a new mode of character study andlifestyle coverage: the stylish, visionary 35-year-old Kisho Kurokawa.His political power is already sensed by Mainichi Graph...



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Within one article, the emphasis begins to shift from thearchitect-at-work (left page) to the architect-at-play (right);he author also acknowledges the alchemy of TV. Soon,he focus will shif t away from architecture altogether...

1969 AUGUST 24 MAINICHI GRAPH

Building the Dream Future City ... contd

Novelist Itaru Kikumura describes Kurokawa as guru-ish and a new type ofyouth borne by our time. Unconventionally, he thinks of architecture not in termsof everyday life but more metaphysically. Social engineering professor YujiroHayashi points to Kurokawas articulate and pleasant speech, avant-garde look,with the affableness of a 3-year-old and the modesty of an 80-year-old Besideshis own occupation, TV stations compete for his voice on marine development,space after Apollo, etc. Is it TVs magic that makes Kurokawas hard theoryaccessible to anyone?



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For a break, he goes out to Shinjuku at midnight once or twice a month.Not that he loves drinking, but he enjoys the atmosphere...

Kurokawa with the enigmatic Mariko Furuta at her legendary Shinjukubar, Nadja. According to Furuta, Kurokawa always takes the corner seat,quietly sipping a glass ... Kurokawa later writes that many of those whowere introduced to me [at the bar] became leaders in various creativefields. (Kisho Kurokawa Notes, 1994.)



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1969 JULY 25 YUKIO MISHIMA: KUROKAWAS ONLY RIVAL

Meanwhile, Yukio Mishimaman of letters, actor, nationalist, and the first personthe Japanese media calls a superstaris never far from Kurokawas mind.Mishima was the first to dance in a psychedelic club; had ranks in body building,boxing, and kendo; honorably became Japans first male nude model;experienced a supersonic flight on a jet fighter; sent out his party invites onTiffany paper; spent a fortune to make his own armywhile avidly writing novelsto become the first Japanese candidate for the Nobel prize for l iterature.*Occupying different fields, Mishima and Kurokawas profiles nevertheless alignthrough a shared dandyism, polemical flare, ability to manipulate the media, anda sensibility for engineering the identity of Japan ... to the extent that, in 1969,Kurokawa calls Mishima my only rival. **

*Yamato Shiine,Yukio Mishima in Heibon Punch, (Tokyo: Shinchosha, 2007).**A Revolutionary Who Cal ls upon Mobile Home, Shukan Yomiuri, July 25, 1969.

Nothing strikes me as more fundamentallyfashionable than Yukio Mishima in his militaryoutfit. For him, the body is inseparable fromthe spirit: the body exists to discipline the spiri t.As such, Mishima in his militar y look is disci plininghis spirit. That is truly the philosophy of fashion.(Kurokawa,Fujin Koron, January 1969).

Western decadence, Eastern purism: Mishimaposes in a sharp modern suit in a colonial parlour,and in a tailored military uniform during a parade of hissmall private army in 1969. (One year later, he makesa farcical coup attempt, which ends with his suicideby seppuku.) In his military mode, Mishima, angry atthe loss of traditional Japanese values during its rapidpostwar modernization (and at the emasculation ofthe Joint Security Treaty with the US, which prohibitsthe development of Japans army), campaigns forthe restoration of the Emperors powers and a resur-rection of the samurai mentality. Inside the uniformis a product of incessant toil ...



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1969 AUGUSTSHUFU-NO-TOMO

Sex Appeal of a Man Who Intoxicates Me

Kisho Kurokawa: Like a Fountain that Never Stops Gushing

by Junko Koshino, fashion designer

Step into a bar in Shinjuku, and he is always there, sitting in a corner, quiet.If I dont find him, the corner feels strange, missing something. Among theregulars of the bar, he is a type who talks at length on one subject, and it couldbe about a love affair, an eye for fashion, an episode from a journey ... But what-ever subject he picks, his story is so fresh its as if it washes ones eyes. Is it justme who sees in the depths of the eyes of this pioneer of architecture a certaintoughness, which comes from seeing to the farthest distance, and also thepain of a top runner?

Architecture to celebr ity: Kurokawa is one of several men (includinga photographer, a novelist, a tennis player) picked out as a muse bya board of celebrated women in the magazine Shufu-no-tomo(Housewifes companion). The new Japanese creative man still harborssomething of the samurai...



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1970 FEBRUARY 9HEIBON PUNCH

The Man: Kisho Kurokawa, Creator of the Expo

What kind of a person are you?Hmm, Im a novice architect with a salary of onemillion yen [$10,000] a month. My biggest dream is to design time. I want to besomeone who challenges time, like a movie director. Im also a man of the future.Nixon?Fail. I feel nothing.Napoleon?Pass. He slept no more than three hours a night. No one knows wherehe is, but he can do anything. I respect himI wish I could be like him. But I am I.f I was to be reborn, I definitely want to be me again.

What is the Homo Moven you are advocating?I cant but feel that the turbulenceof our lifethe city, architecture, art, technologyis actually swirling around thefirm spine of a movement. And I wonder what would the new value in such acondition would be. Those who carry such new value are what I call homomovens.

Cars he ownsPorsche 911S, Lincoln ContinentalClothes he ownsAbout 30 setsFavourite fashion designersCardin, Saint-Laurent, Lapidus, CourgesFavourite colour Black

Height162 cmWeight45 kg

Like a rapper, Kurokawa celebrates the end of his youthful pover tywith cars, clothes, and bravado. He already leads the exemplary li festyleof the homo moventhe man who values mobility for its own sake.

Kurokawa THE MAN appears perfectly alongsidean ad for the fragrance, Dandy.



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Laboring over the Capsule for Living, which he has one month tofinish before Expo 70 starts. Article 8 of his Capsule Declaration,made in 1969, offers philosophical clues to Kurokawas ability toexploit the media: The capsule mentality is opposed to uniformityand systematic thinking. The age of systematic thinking has ended.Thought disintegrates, is dissolved into separate, powerful words,and is capsulized. A single word, or single name, can spread,transform, permeate, stimulate an entire society and help to mouldthe thinking of the age



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1970NHK CHANNEL 1

Serious: in the build up to Expo 70, Kurokawa builds his TV profile asa spokesman for the nation-bui lding event. A year later, in a nationalbroadcast, he plays guest host to Mayor Lindsay. Two cities in crisis,Tokyo and New York, exchange wisdom, condolences...



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Frivolous: after the Expo 70 fever, the 11 p.m. Show, a nightly talkshow targeted at men, is the unl ikely venue for Kurokawa to present hisMetamorphosis project (1965), which is used as a table. The host,Ayuro Miki, a jazz cri tic, points to one of the shows models, who holdsa plan of Kurokawas Hishino New Town, now under construction.Japan itself serves as the TV backdrop...

1971NIPPON TELEVISION, CHANNEL 4

11PM Show



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1973 MARCH 27NHK CHANNEL 1

Dialogue with Prime Minister Tanaka

Transcending architecture: at age 38, Kurokawa is chosen by NHKo interview Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, also a qualified architect

and a polemicist, fresh from the publication of his book Plan forRemodeling the Japanese Archipelago(1972).



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It was just before I became a commentator for NHK,and the topic of conversation was a book the primeminister had written. In that book, Kakuei Tanaka hadwritten enthusiastically about creating 150 to 300cities with populations of about 150,000 to 300,000over the Japanese Archipelago. Land with pictures-que natural scenery where not many people lived,such as the vicinity of Lake Akan or the foot of MountFuji, would be purchased and entirely new citiesconstructed. I boldly told him that his thinking wasbasically wrong. I was all for invigorating local areasas an alternative to centralization around metro-polises such as Tokyo, but was it right to make

50,000 or 300,000 the uniform target for all newcities and to create a lot of small, similar cities com-peting against each other? I remember arguing rather

orcefully that, as we were entering an era of diversi-fication, a better alternative might be network cities:cities linked by a communication network that pro-moted synergy, in which each city, whether an existingcity of a million or 500,000 or a newly created city of300,000, was allowed to make the most of its owndistinctive size, history and character and to serve aunique function.was later admonished by various individuals for

having spoken so plainly on an NHK televisionprogram to a prime minister known for his fierydisposition. I had no previous acquaintance withPrime Minister Tanaka but we became close afterhat meeting. After the program, he told me, I found

your ideas quite interesting and enlightening. Whennewspaper reporters huddled around us to ask himor his reaction, he deliberately called over his private

secretary and ordered him to bring some paper. Theprime minister then began drawing an architectural

plan on the paper and told me, Mr. Kurokawa, didyou know that I was the one who created the first-class architects law [as a congressman in 1950] andthat I am registered as the first first-class architect ofJapan?I was summoned by the prime minister a number oftimes after that. And when I for my part felt a policyof the Liberal Democratic Party was questionable,I would telephone or visit him at his home in Mejiroand argue my case. The day after the [TV]conver-sation, the private secretary visited me to say,Thank you for yesterday. The prime minister said itwas highly enlightening. The secretary left behinda package. Wondering what it could be, I opened itto discover inside a bolt of splendid English clothcomplete with a tailors voucher. I was astonished.

This was before there was talk of Tanakas so-calledmoney politics. I was already acquainted with manypoliticians by then but that was the first time aconversation with one was followed by the deliveryof the makings for a bespoke suit.

From Kisho Kurokawa Notes(1994).



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As much as he is adored by young women, Kurokawa is also a rolemodel and icon for men. Appearing in Japanese Playboy, the sexualitysimmering beneath the surface in all his media appearances threatenso fully emerge...

When Yukio Mishimawas alive, an Italiancame to document hiseyes and mine in a film...he [Kurokawa] said,suddenly defreezing his

look into a smile. Hiseyes became smallerand gentler.

1974 FEBRUARY 12PLAYBOY, JAPANESE EDITION

Life in Three Colours: The Prince of Architecture

Through the swivel door, past the cloakroom, a guy in a three-piece black suitdashes into an elevator. Stepping out on the eighth floor, he begins walking moreslowly... His black suits are made of British wool. The striking tie in archaic indigoblue and white is plant-dyed. The shirt in a subtle hue of ivory...Perfect everywhere.

Why do you live in a hotel? I am out of town for almost half a year. For onethird Im outside Japan, and for the rest moving back and forth betweenTokyo and outside. I need to stay in a hotel to meet writing deadlines.Why do you wear black, navy blue and white only? Because I like them.Do you wear suits also on construction sites? No, I do wear jeans.Shall I put them on?

He changes for us, but it turns out to be a soft-cotton jeans blazer jacket,bell-bottoms, and light blue shirts. He then changes again for us, into a whiteturtleneck sweater and an Italian double-sided long leather jacket. Brown is a rarecolor for him ... His large Gucci travel bag is ready to go. He is departing Japan

the next day. So I ask, where to this time? Tanzania for development. Then,a lecture at Cambridge, followed by an international conference...



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Accessories of the homomoven, including eight (8)bunches of keys for variouscars and properties.

His Montblanc fountainpen and ballpoint penhave been used for15 years. Two packs ofcigarettes and a fortunecharm of Toshogu Shrineare must-haves.Underneath the shirthides a Tiffany pendant.He keeps his namearound him in case ofairplane crash...



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1977 APRIL GEKKAN GENDAI

Friendship through Tanzania: Yoshiko Yamaguchi

Member, House of Councillors

As the young homo moven enters middle age (he is now 43), he beginsto develop his political network, meeting: Yoshiko Yamaguchi (nowOtaka, no relation), a member of the Diet who made a similar transitionfrom the world of culture to media to politics. Before marrying IsamuNoguchi in 1958, Yamaguchi was an actress and singer in Manchukuo,n Japan, and in the US, and was famous during the war as Li Xianglan ;she later hosted a TV talk show; in 1982, Yamaguchi and Kurokawa visitLibya together on a diplomatic and architectural mission

When I first met Kurokawa, at a reception given by an ambassador from theMiddle East, he was designing Tanzanias new parliament. Friendship began:he invited me to lecture at his forum and I consulted him on political issues.Sharing the same way of thinking, I felt relaxed talking to him from thebeginning At his office, I find him taking actions in various parts of the worldMiddle East, Africa, Italy... Which reminds me of Chaplins film, Dictator.



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1985 JANUARY 22 MAINICHI SHIMBUN, TARO MAKI

Prime Minister Nakasones main network

n his column Eyes of a Reporter, Taro Maki diagrams the brains behind PrimeMinister Yasuhiro Nakasone (in power from 198287). Kurokawas Institute forSocial Engineering, formed in 1969 and now producing regular reports for variousministries, is identified as Nakasones academic and cultural brain. The ISE isalso closely connected to former Premier Masayoshi Ohiras policy researchgroup. Kurokawa himself plays up his growing relationship to political powersince the late 60s: A political policy research group was formed at the timeof Prime Minister Sato (196472), comprising of experts in various disciplines.t discussed various topics from international politics and domestic politics tooreign policy, and presents advice to the Chief Cabinet Secretary, who has even

attended the groups meetings. The group has continued for nearly 20 yearso date. Whats unique about this group is that no matter who comes into the

position of prime minister, or into his regime, it has remained neutral andcontinued its activity. The members besides Kurokawa included politicalscientists, economists, sociologist, a playwright, and a natural scientist.Kisho Kurokawa Notes, 1994)

Media to politics: Kurokawa gradually leverages his media profile toacquire presence and a voice in the political scene. Unlike Tange,Kurokawa maintains his image as a private architect, and a businessman,well aware that it is this very independence which allows him to exercisea more politicized role...



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1987 JULY 20

At the Prime Ministers official residence, Tokyo

Nakasones brain: Representing hundreds of guests chosen from the culturaland entertainment world, Kurokawa addresses Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasoneand the highest ranking politicians in the incumbent Liberal Democratic Party:(from left) Chikage Ogi (member of the House of Councillors and former actress),Sosuke Uno (later prime minister, JuneAugust 1989), Noboru Takeshita (laterprime minister, 198789), Shintaro Ishihara (member of the House of Representatives;later governor of Tokyo), Kurokawa, Yasuo Fukuda (prime minister, 200708),Ayako Wakao (Kurokawas wife and actress), Prime Minister Nakasone, andMasajuro Shiokawa (minister of education).



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1987 NIHON TV

Kurokawa and Takeshi Kitano

Kurokawa, now an official commentator on NHK, moonlights on Nihon TV toaunch another private initiative designed to help the nation ... The overheatedminkatsu(free market) economy resurrects the idea of building on Tokyo Bay;Kurokawa discusses his new scheme for the bay with the comedian TakeshiKitano, two years before he appears in and directs Violent Cop(1989)



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CA. 1991NHK CHANNEL 1

Kurokawa, TV Column

The property bubble also resurrects the decentralization debate that startedin the mid 60s. Kurokawa seizes the moment to present his concept of twonational axes (kokudojiku). His hope is that Japans regional cities, if they arebetter connected, can absorb some of the demand for, and reduce the pricesof, real estate as the bubble threatens to burst...



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Media Architects Project Japan (1)