MEASURING IDENTITIES OF TRANSIENT PLACES: THE CASE OF TOKYO

La Facult nentend donner aucune approbation ou improbation aux opinions mises dans les Mmoires. Ces opinions doivent tre considres comme propres leurs auteurs.

Mmoire prpare en vue de lobtention du diplme de Master II ASPU de lINSA, Strasbourg

MEASURING IDENTITIES OF TRANSIENT PLACES: THE CASE OF TOKYO

Prsente par

V ERONIKA A NTONIOU

Directeur de Mmoire M. Gatan Desmarais Matre de Confrences, INSA, Strasbourg

Septembre 2011

P OUR M AYA ET R EN . . .

CONTENTS

CONTENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii LIST OF FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER 1: 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 IDENTITY OF PLACES AND NON-PLACES . . . . . . . . . ix xi 1 7 7 8

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . What is place? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Place-Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Shifting identities and new meanings of places . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 1.4.1 1.4.2 Placelessness and Non-places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Our contemporary world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1.5 1.6

Urban memories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 TOKYO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

CHAPTER 2: 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Tokyo, an introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Image through urban conguration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Vanishing memories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 2.4.1 Tokyo on the move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

CHAPTER 3: 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4

REINVENTING IDENTITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Ugliness vs. Beauty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Wakon Yosai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Transience and reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 3.4.1 3.4.2 3.4.3 Buddhist and Shintoism teachings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Nature and The City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Creative chaos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

3.5

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 THE INTERVIEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

CHAPTER 4: 4.1 4.2

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Impression and Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 4.2.1 4.2.2 Map Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Memories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Identication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Public Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

4.3

Identication and Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 4.3.1 4.3.2 4.3.3 4.3.4

4.4

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 APPENDIX A: APPENDIX B: APPENDIX C: QUESTIONNAIRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 ON INDENTITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 TOKYO FACTS AND FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

ABSTRACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

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LIST OF FIGURES

1 1.1 1.2 1.3 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9

A street in Tokyo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Tokyo with Mt Fuji view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Approach of the question of identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Tokyo, Narita Airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Tokyo, Satellite view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Tokyo view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Yamanote and Shitamachi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Tokyo train map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Edo Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 View of Daiba Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Arata Isozaki, unrealized project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 T.Ando and K. Tange Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Canals and highways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

2.10 Kisho Kurokawa, Capsule Tower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 2.11 Toyo Itos Tower of Winds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 2.12 Love Hotel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 2.13 Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Tokyos dual identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Mix use districts in Tokyo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Pet size building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Tokyo shrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Sakura blossom in Shibuya, Tokyo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9

Tokyo People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Map 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Map 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Map 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Map 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Shibuya train station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Shinjuku underground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Unimportant others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Unimportant others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

4.10 Washoku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 4.11 Fashion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 4.12 Matsuri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 4.13 People manifesting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 4.14 Tokyo tower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 4.15 Department store 109 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Un voyage se passe de motifs. Il ne tarde pas prouver quil se suft lui mme. On croit quon va faire un voyage, mais bientt cest le voyage qui vous fait, ou vous dfait. Bouvier, Lusage du monde, 1963.

This thesis is written using the pronoun "we" and not with the rst person. The reason is that this work is the result of a collective process, a long journey that crossed the path of many individuals. In the few lines that follow, I would like to express my gratitude to those who made this thesis much more than it otherwise might have been. First, nothing would have been possible without the long-lasting support of Professor Gatan Desmarais. I had the good fortune to work under his direction as he has been encouraging and open-minded in my endeavors. Particularly I would like to thank him for the consecutive extensions obtained that made possible this work to conclude. I am particularly thankful to my partner Dr. Rene Carraz for being next to me and offering me unconditional support to nish this work. We had countless fruitful discussions that helped to improve my understanding of the essence of writing a thesis, as well as how to manipulate it. Thank you for reading and editing my work and above all for the improvements of the style of the text. It goes without saying that this work would not have been possible without the willingness of all the people at that I met randomly in the street, that gave me a lot of their valuable time in order to answer my questionnaire. Special thanks go to all the members of the lively team of Yiorgos Hadjichristou Architects, the ofce

that I currently work who provided me with long-lasting, never fading support and their understanding in giving me days off work. Last but not least, the loved ones, the family, friends and my beautiful Maya, that without her the thesis would not be such a long and joyful experience. To them I will be short as no words could show how much they helped me during this journey. Thank you.

xii

INTRODUCTION

Traditional representations presume stable objects and xed subjects. But the contemporary city is not reducible to an artifact. The city today is a place where visible and invisible streams of information, capital and subjects interact in complex formations. They form a dispersed eld, a network of ows. Allen and Agrest, (2000, p.40)

In this thesis, we are going to enquire on the identity of the city, as a complex and perplex place of our contemporary era, contradicting and unstable engendering situations of transience and transformation (Graham, 1998). Cities under the shadow of global world markets, exchangeable cultures, and rapid urbanization are no more one single entity in space and time (Wadwekar and Kobayashi, 2009, p.1). Koolhaas in his book S,M,L,XL questions whether the classical model of the city and professional practices such as urbanism and architecture still have a role to play in dealing with urbanization processes that characterize the 21st Century cities (Koolhaas, Mau, Sigler, et al., 1998, p. 959-971). As the new places emerging in cities are marked by urban features that make them hard to identify, we have to look for new methods at representing the city besides the traditional use of cartography and analysis of urban organization (Sepe, 2010). In this work, we are going to demonstrate how and why the contemporary city is not only an articial construct, but identied by a set of habits, customs and life styles. All these elements that portray the city are inter-related and are to be viewed as a holistic element in order to consider the identity of place and the identication of the city (Castells, 1997).

Particularly under the light of rapid urbanization and fast changing societies, we are facing the threat of erasure, vanishing memories and creation of new collective memories. Given these occurrences, the concepts of place, identity and memory are worthy of discussion, investigation and debate. In developing countries around the world and especially in Asia, the fast changing societies are transforming fundamental and even everyday life meanings, collective memories are being revised as new places arise. Chang (2005, p.247) in his article about New Asia wrote:
The nexus of place, memory and identity nds particular resonance in Asia where changes in society, economics, politics and culture, since the 1990s, have engendered much discourse on the so-called Pacic century, Asian renaissance and the rise of a New Asia.

The reason why it is appealing to look through these ideas is the fact that in our contemporary era notions of the postmodern place are entering a new phase. Massey said that we are living in a place that Marx once called the annihilation of space by time and what modern theorists like David Harvey call time-space compression (Massey, 1994, p.146). Places attain new meanings; they do not have permanent or xed values (Twigger-Ross, Bonaiuto and Breakwell, 2003), but are processes that change over time (Massey, 1994). In this thesis we will question the identities that result in such places, and above all, we will investigate how a place succeeds in maintaining a sense of particularity in an ever-changing world. The research will be directed from discursive talks of what are the related meanings of place identity, the role of memory in the contemporary urban fabric where place is viewed under a different context. Moreover, questions regarding the identity of the city nd justication under the processes of rapid urbanization and fast changing societies. Our concerns are epitomized through the case of Tokyo, because enduring continuous constructions constantly transform its urban structure. Tokyo was chosen because its distinctive features of complexity, liquidity and impermanence that make it a suitable city to conduct such a study. Furthermore, Tokyo is an appropriate example of the contemporary city because of the very fact that it belongs to a very special category of world city (Sassen, 2001). This perception of the world as a whole place, as a place-product of a system that is beyond the power of the habitant to control is especially understood in big cities or mega 2

cities. World cities are places that one can observe this melting pot of cultures, the circulation of capital, the inow of the others, the speed of advanced technology, the intense circulation of information, and the transnationalization of architecture; all these are aspects that generate homogenous places around the globe. These are all novel features if we compare with the traditional notion of the city, and on this ground we have to question the new emerging identity of places. Tokyo has been dened as a world city by Saskia Sassen and ranked third in the 2010 Global city Index that measures the inuence that a city has outside its own borders, like in global markets, culture, and innovation. Tokyo is exposed to global trends that alone could be a factor menacing its urban identity, but moreover it is a city where enormous transformations have altered the citys urban fabric repeatedly. These mutations were brought about by natural catastrophes, bombings of the world war; however the latest and biggest transformation has occurred in the post 60s period where Japan underwent through a big economic growth. In this thesis we propose to investigate the urban identity of Tokyo as a way to view contemporary concerns of fast changing societies that are altering notions of place, the emerging of non-places and the creation of a new urban memory. In the rst chapter, we will explore the concept of place across various disciplines, from geography to environmental psychology, as an attempt to afrm the importance of the study of place in its totality as a new way of exploring a city. Particularly we will look into the concept of non-places that are generated by new conditions of our technologically advanced world and transform the appearance of our cities. The city as a place encourages us to investigate attributes essential for a city that reach out beyond the citys physical environment, an appropriate research methodology considering the unstable physical structure of todays cities. In the second chapter, there will be a general introduction and description of the main attributes of Tokyo city, which will lead us to the debate of the problem of vanishing memories and changing in identities in the city. We will look into the various ways the city has been transformed across time with a particular attention on the latest transformation in the urban fabric of the city during the economic boom. The inquiry of the built environment of Tokyo is a tool to look into the tangible values of a place. 3

Moving onto the third chapter, there will be an investigation of those elements physical and conceptual that compile the contemporary urban identity of Tokyo. Since the spatial structures are as evanescent as time eets, we will extend our search beyond the limits that the physicality of Tokyo restrains. We will demonstrate the importance of people and nature in deciphering the identity of such a complex city. We will proceed through an examination and translation of nature, culture and heritage into the urban fabric as a way to understand the complex city. Through this method we are exploring the intangible values of a place.

Figure 1: A street in Tokyo

On the nal and fourth chapter there would be a detailed analysis of 27 interviews conducted with Tokyo residents relating to the perception their city, focusing on questions such as orientation and identity. This chapter strengthens the hypothesis that urban identity is not necessarily linked to physical structures. We will demonstrate how daily rituals of the Tokyoites are also a way to recognize Tokyos contemporary identity. This part of the work will be processed by an exploration 4

of peoples habitudes, peoples spatial perception and peoples understanding of modern living in Tokyo. Finally we want to remind the reader that this research is to be viewed from urban as well as cultural perspectives that address concerns of the developmental trajectories of cities across the world. The contemporary city is characterized by complexity and contradiction, increased mobility, all factors that change the notion of the city as a deeply rooted and xed place with clear boundaries and with a sedentary identity.

CHAPTER 1

IDENTITY OF PLACES AND NON-PLACES

I often use the word oating not only to describe a lightness I want to achieve in architecture, but also to express a belief that our lives are losing touch with reality. All of life is becoming a pseudo-experience. This trend is being encouraged by the consumer society, and architecture itself is rapidly becoming more image or consumption oriented. This is a matter of grave concern to the architect yet, at the same time, architecture today must be made to relate to this situation. This is the contradiction we are confronted with. Ito (1991, p.51)

1.1

Introduction

In this chapter, we are going to take a deep insight of the interchanging relationship between place and identity, and the mechanisms at stake for the advocacy of this relation. Understanding the different denitions and concepts of place is vital as a rst step to explain the importance of both social and physical settings when exploring the identity of cities. In this context, we will examine in this chapter place-related identity concerns that will lead us in the next chapter where the discussions will take a concrete form by an insight of the physical attributes of Tokyo. We are rst going to enquire on the different notions of place as perceived across different disciplines. Through an investigation of the notion of place we will demonstrate how the consideration of place adds a more experiential approach which can help us in the study of cities, that are acquiring new forms of [...] dispersed mass of enclave identities where heterogeneities interact to form urbanism of multiple and contested cultures. (Wadwekar and Kobayashi, 2009, p.1)

CHAPTER 1. IDENTITY OF PLACES AND NON-PLACES Additionally, we will prove the particular effect of place on personal and collective identity. Of the plethora of studies that were conducted about place and peoples relations with place two concepts have proven particularly popular: place identity and place attachment (Lewicka, 2008); ideas that would be discussed further on. In the rst section, we are going to explain what is place as opposed to space through an account of diverse readings ranging from various elds. In this way we will draw a clear picture of what are the elements, tangible and intangible, that compose the identity of place. In Section 1.2, we are going to look at the concept of place-identity, which is understood as the identities created through human interaction with place. We will in this section examine in detail the processes and mechanisms that should be explored when inquiring about place identity. Section 1.3, deals with the changing meanings of place and the emergence of non-places as our world is traversing a supermodern era characterized by global ows of culture, technology and symbols. Advanced use of technology and the industrialization process has shifted the meaning of place originally dened by its sedentary values into a non-historic, non-identiable place, a non-place distinct for its mobile features. Finally, Section 1.4 will contemplate on the role of memories as a basic layer for understanding the urban place.

1.2

What is place?

To start with, we are going to differentiate between the concepts of space and place as this will help us to understand why we choose to deal with the idea of a city under the notion of place. Space can be envisioned as the abstract form of a structural, geometrical body of a physical environment. Place on the other hand, comprises the lived experience of the space and the people interactions within. Space refers to physical, tangible elements of a place revealing the where that is the position and the physicality of a place. The sense of place, on the other hand is [. . . ] nebulous meanings associated with a place: the feelings and emotions that a place evokes (Cresswell, 2009, p.1). A factor differentiating space from place, is that place is experienced, that means places are practiced. Michel de Certeau, describes place as a system of signs, while space is composed by the tactical engagement with 8

1.2. WHAT IS PLACE? the system of signs; this is how he addresses as the practiced place (Certeau, 1984, p.117). The concept of place is as old as geography herself nonetheless it has been conceptualized and given meaning since the 1970s (Cresswell, 2009). Place as a total phenomenon that encompasses dimensions of human experience and human cognition was brought to light under the concept of phenomenology1 . The rst scientic theories on the eld of phenomenology and philosophy2 have pointed out the human dimensions that places carry and the subsequent bonds that were developed. Heidegger who has struggled through his career with the notion of being, he related being with the idea of being somewhere, or rather being in the world in which he eventually found meaning in the conception of dwelling (Cresswell, 2009, p.3). Following the texts of Heidegger, Norberg-Schulz (1980) was one of the prominent theorists to bring place in the cadre of phenomenological research. His concept of the genius loci meaning the the spirit of the place is explained as follows:
Man dwells when he can orientate himself within and identify himself with an environment, or, in short, when he experiences the environment as meaningful. Dwelling therefore [...] implies that the spaces where life occurs are places, in the true sense of the word. A place is a space that has character. Since ancient times the genius loci, or spirit of place has been recognized as the concrete reality man has to face and come to terms with in his daily life (1980, p.5).

Places can be then dened as qualitative totalities where events take place and where different mechanisms relate to each other in a meaningful manner. Place embraces the holistic experience as more important than the individual elements that constitute it. As Norberg-Schulz said: "A place is therefore a qualitative, total phenomenon, which we cannot reduce to any of its properties, such as spatial relationships, without losing its concrete nature out of sight" (1980, p.8). Looking at cities as places rather than spaces opens up the perspective in examining not only the one-sided study of the city as an urban model or a physical structure, but rather encourages to include along with the spatial structure, the city as an experiential space.
is derived from the Greek word fainomenon which means what appears to be. It deals primarily with the study of conscious experience in understanding the world. 2 Heidegger, 1971, Poetry, Language, Thought, and Bachelard, 1964, The Poetics of Space.
1 Phenomenology

CHAPTER 1. IDENTITY OF PLACES AND NON-PLACES

Figure 1.1: Tokyo with Mt Fuji view. Photo by : William Penvice

To explore the city as a holistic experience, peoples interaction and perception of their lived environment should be taken into account; elements that I will call the intangible values of a place throughout this thesis. Edward Relph (1976) in the domain of human geography3 was primarily concerned with the human experience in the place. He was unsatised with the denition of place in the early seventies and sought to explore the deeper meaning of place. To comprehend the notion of place, he suggests for a deep insight to how space is experienced and used by people. He identied different spatial experiences (pragmatic space, existential space) and contrasted it with concepts of space that are more abstract (cognitive space, planning a space, etc). Even though the different spatial modes lead to a different human experience, Relph, like NorbergSchulz argues that all is experienced as an integral whole. To explore place in its depth, Relph started talking about place in terms of identity; the identity of and with place. He describes the identity of place as persistent sameness and unity which allows that [place] to be differentiated from others (1976, p.45). However he emphasizes that to entirely understand the notion of place one has to speak of the identity with place, by observing the intensity of the meaning and intentions that one holds for a place. He expresses place as signicant centres of our immediate exhumanistic geographer is someone that explores place as important element in human experience. Human geography examined the place though the perspective of human activity and its interrelationships of the physical environment. Johnston, Ron (2000). "Human Geography". In Johnston, Ron; Gregory, Derek; Pratt, Geraldine et al. The Dictionary of Human Geography. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 353360.
3A

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1.2. WHAT IS PLACE? periences of the world (1976, p.141). His bigger contribution to the understanding of place was his concept of Insideness and Outsideness. He refers to Insideness as the exact meaning that a place has for a person, associated to the degree that the person feels inside a place and what are the particular meanings like attachment, and involvement of that place. Relph implied that the more is a person involved or inside a place, the eventual identity with the place will be more powerful. Relphs concept of Insideness and Outsideness requires a reinterpretation considering the places condition in our contemporary era. Looking at Tokyo, or other big cities in which people are not involved in the proceedings that construct the place (such as design process or decision making) making them inactive in the chronic changes in the city. Does this mean that nally we will have two different and/or contrasting identities (people and city) that evolve? Or does identity of the people in Tokyo remain unaltered as the people have a minimum involvement with the city they live in? These are concerns that are going to be examined in detailed in the nal chapter of this work. In the sociological domain, Thomas Gieryn portrays place as a discrete geographic location, that has a physical form (giving examples of buildings and topography), and enriched with meanings and values (Gieryn, 2000). He underlines that place is more than a backdrop for social phenomena; instead it is a mediator, it is a social construct because it aids in creating human interactions and is an important actor in social processes4 . Environmental psychologist Irwin Altman which has extensively worked with the relationship between environment and social psychology, dened place as a space that has been given meaning through personal, group, or cultural processes (Altman and Low,1992, p.5). Furthermore, they argue that space is transformed into place by the idea of place attachment, which is the affective bond that people carry for a physical location that provides for them a setting for experience. Other scholars argue that place attachment is not a process related to place qua place 5 (Low and Lawrence-Ziga, 2003, p.7), but often based on other attributes such as interpersonal, community and cultural relationships. Riley even added: It may not be attachment to a particular place that is central; rather, it may be affective attachments to ideas, people, psychological states, past
4 Gieryin, 5 Denition

A space for place in sociology, Annual Review of Sociology, 2000, p. 463-496. = place as being place.

11

CHAPTER 1. IDENTITY OF PLACES AND NON-PLACES experiences, and culture that is crucial (as cited in Low and Lawrence-Ziga, 2003, p.10). Furthermore Cuba and Hummon (1993) dene place attachment outside the boundaries of social constructs adding that people not only construct places but places also affect the behavior of people. In contrast with the more emotional understanding of place for the geographers, psychologists have researched place using quantitative methods. In the eld of environmental psychology, place has been described as behaviour settings" that are dened by Wicker (1979) as patterns of human and non human activities that develop social productions over time. While most of the connoisseurs of place look for meaning and experience in place, they do not talk about the mechanisms for place construction or the powers implicated in place meanings. David Harvey has observed: The rst step down the road is to insist that place in whatever guise, is like space and time, a social construct. The only interesting question that can be asked is, by what social process(es) is place constructed? Within the same frame of investigating processes of social constructs the work of Keith Michael and Steve (1993) who concentrate on the politics of place, wherein places are the neutralizers of conicts and contradictions. The politics of place refer to the power struggles that need to be identied in order to understand the different meanings of place that are questioned at a particular moment. Place represents according to them, a particular political mobilization at a given time at a given space.

1.3

Place-Identity

Questions addressing the concepts of space and place are also noticeable in the eld of cultural geography, and notably through the work Doreen Massey. Massey (1994) explains space as a timeless, absolute dimension, while place might be thought of as space integrally entwined with time. She states that place is a positioned practice assembled out of social relations. Place is thus alive because it is consisted of living beings activities that create the place, that in turns creates them. Particularly, we nd in Masseys conception that a place allows the creation of identities that are associated with it. Like other identity theories, social relations are important in their role of creating the subject, but place is included as a critical, additional element in shaping identities. Thus we have to be lucid that, in one 12

1.3. PLACE-IDENTITY hand we have talked about the identity of place as those distinct qualities physical or abstract that characterize a place, and on the other hand place-identity as the resulting social identity emerging from a place. Identity is generally regarded as a concept considered mainly by psychologists, though it is widely argued that for identity construction, the place with its physical settings have been largely ignored in the eld of psychology (Hauge, 2007). Psychologist theories tend to distinguish between identity, self and personality, while others perceive them as synonymous terms. As our focus in this thesis is the place, we will use the explanation of Casey (2001) that positions identity both inside the mind and body, where the body as a tool for interaction and communication with the world outside the mind. As he pronounced there is no place without self and no self without place (Casey, 2001, p.406). Consequently, a further dimension can be added to the understanding of place, as it is argued that within spatial boundaries and the reciprocal social interactions, identity is constructed. In the eld of urban affairs, human geographers Knox and Marston dene identity as the sense that people make of themselves through their subjective feelings based on their everyday experiences and wider social relations (2004, p.508). Brian Osborne also argues that identity is constructed by human behavior in reaction to the places and he adds that identity is not inherited but constructed gradually based on our live experiences across time (Osborne, 2001). Actually, the term place identity has been used initially by Proshansky who has put place and the individuals involvement in a place as part of oneself, explaining the term as a "potpourri of memories, conceptions, interpretations, ideas, and related feelings about specic physical settings, as well as types of settings" (Proshansky, Fabian and Kaminoff, 1987, p.60). He segregates the perceptions of place into two categories; one is related with the perceptions, memories, thoughts and values and the second is with the interaction in the different spatial settings. Hence the nature of place, or a city is dened by a set of values, physical, social or abstract like feelings and ideas, that we do not usually come across in the urban studies. Osborne (2001) explains the elements that are afliated with place identity construction, that is mechanisms adopted for the creation of identities. Osborne explains that people live in places that they can identify and where tradition, heritage and symbols are 13

CHAPTER 1. IDENTITY OF PLACES AND NON-PLACES essential elements in forming some sort of identity:
places [...] that are mnemonic devices for national narratives, shared values, and putative hopes for the future. The imaginative use of symbols and myths, and of monuments, commemorations, and performances, have become the stuff of history, tradition, and heritage, all directed towards nurturing some form of identity. (Osborne, 2001, p.3)

A more remarkable approach and central to this work is the concept of PlaceIdentity as elaborated further by anthropologist Cohen (2000) who agrees that place is a social construction, extensively pointing out that place is a constructor of identity and that identity is itself a result of the human interaction that takes place in a certain place. But what he initiates is a discussion that identity is not associated with tradition. The role of place or context as he argues is to provide meeting places for social interactions to happen. He points out that interactions are not limited to people but objects and rituals are as important in creating interactions, hence identities. For our case of study, as we will further point out, the non-human interactions in a city, the objects, the rituals form an important part of the peoples daily routines. These elements become ideological map references and are in fact important indicators for people of the place they belong. The following table illustrates the way that we will approach the different questions of identity in this work.

Figure 1.2: Approach of the question of identity

Place-Identity, thus, in this context is not a xed or permanent value, even if it is rooted on tradition. It is a variable characteristic composed of different intertwining layers of social, physical or mental values add up together in a time-based order. What is also important to remember is that places do not carry the same 14

1.4. SHIFTING IDENTITIES AND NEW MEANINGS OF PLACES meanings across time. They do not have a permanent meaning, but rather values that are renegotiated perpetually and therefore the contribution to identity varies accordingly (Twigger-Ross, Bonaiuto and Breakwell, 2003)

1.4

Shifting identities and new meanings of places

In this section, I will introduce various phenomena that are regarded as a threat to a places identity as they produce conditions of perpetual change and fading of existing realities. While we have talked extensively of the concept of place, we will in the rst section consider the opposite term of place, the non-places as Marc Auge called them or the concept of placelessness as Edward Relph rst pointed out in the seventies. In the second section we are going to discuss in detail different conditions of our supermodern era, like globalization, time-space compression in order to observe how the globalized and highly technological era attributed to the changing notions of place. And nally in the last part of this section we are going to discuss the role of memories in the city that is under constant development and change, given that it is the tool for recording events and constructing identities. 1.4.1 Placelessness and Non-places

Edward Relph, with his work in the 70s indicates how places are becoming placeless and associates the loss of place and place diversity to a larger loss of meaning. He argues that the authentic attitude which characterized pre-industrial and handicraft cultures creating a sense of place have been largely lost and replaced with an inauthentic attitude. He describes placelessness as the existence of relatively homogenous and standardized landscapes which diminish the local specicity and variety of places that characterized pre-industrial societies. Examples of inauthentic places and conditions that generate them include: mass production housing, Disneyland, the culture of McDonaldization, tourist landscapes, commercial strips, new towns, suburbs and the international style in architecture. Relph suggests that, in general, placelessness arises from rstly the kitsch, explained as the uncritical acceptance of mass values and secondly, the technique, that sets efciency as the primary concern. Kitsch and technique are manifested 15

CHAPTER 1. IDENTITY OF PLACES AND NON-PLACES through practices like mass communication, mass culture, and central authority, those being the undermining of place for both individuals and cultures, and the casual replacement of the diverse and signicant places of the world with anonymous spaces and exchangeable environments (Relph, 1976, p. 143). The more recent work by French anthropologist Marc Auge, has used the term non-place to refer to similar sites as Relph, but it is more specic in reference to our contemporary era. Auge refers mostly to places of transit like airports or motorway stations that are static themselves but carry transient meanings or refer to other places directly. Cresswell (2009, p.6) interprets that Auge does not see that "non-places are inauthentic but simply a condition of the way we lead our lives now. Nonplaces reect conditions of the era of supermodernity that are different from the conventional view of place as something static, bounded and linked to the traditional view of dwelling as preFigure 1.3: Tokyo, Narita Airport. Photo by the author.

sented historically. Auge suggests viewing these places under a new condition that of an anthropology of a non-place

that is mediated by the current cultural state of supermodernity. Supermodernity, argues Auge (1992), is a condition marked by three characteristics, all apparent in non-places. The rst one is the advanced communications and information ows that lead to an overow of images of spaces and times, different to those that the person is situated at a moment. Secondly he talks about the acceleration of history that led to the phenomenon of time-space compression. The physical distances between places are reduced with the means of planes or electronic media 16

1.4. SHIFTING IDENTITIES AND NEW MEANINGS OF PLACES in a way that you can t everything a room, or using electronic media one could be present mentally or verbally in a different place from the one he is found physically. The third characteristic of the supermodern era is increased individualism which in turn brings about a weakening of social relationships. The condition of supermodernity produces non-places that he describes as follows: Si un lieu peut se dnir comme identitaire, relationnel et historique, un espace qui ne peut se dnir ni comme identitaire, ni comme relationnel, ni comme historique dnira un non-lieu."6 , (Auge, 1992, p.100). Additionally, I would argue that our supermodern era and the appearance of non-places has shifted meanings of identity too, both the places and the individuals. On one hand the persons identity is constructed through an imitation of the environment that is now traversing into a new time, raising the need for reassessment of both the place and the individual involvement within. On the other hand, the fact that sense of place is attaining new meanings is intriguing to investigate, and many questions are to be raised. Massey (1994) who specialises on issues of globalisation and the re-conceptualisation of place suggests that there is a [. . . ] an increasing uncertainty about what we mean by places and how we relate to them. How in the face of all this movement and intermixing can we retain any sense of local place and its particularity? (Massey, 1994, p.146). Our query about Tokyo in the next chapter will precede in identifying elements that demonstrate identity through presenting features of locality and culture that are present despite their apparent absence, when looking into the places physical attributes. 1.4.2 Our contemporary world

The emergence of new places is notably considered as a product of the supermodern era we are living at the moment where the notion of place differs greatly from the notion of place in the modernity. Modernity was the moment where the old and the new intertwine together to form an identical space to be viewed as a coherent whole. Yet, the concrete euphoria put forward by postmodernism has somehow reprieved the utopian projects put forward by Modernists. Postmodernism
by the author : If a place carries meanings of identity and is dened as a relational and historical space then a non-place can be dened as an identicalness, un-relational and unhistorical place.
6 Translation

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CHAPTER 1. IDENTITY OF PLACES AND NON-PLACES presents a rupture in the rationalisation of the modernist norms and has put emphasis on individual expression. This often leads in generating a fragmented view of the world. Contrary to the general disintegration that postmodernism brought about, the era of supermodernity presents an acceleration of history that induces an excess and duality of all things. Successively this renders acceleration in the transformation of spaces and places7 . Concepts of placelessness and non-places have implied that place has been a static concept, as augmented mobility alters the sense of place (Cresswell 2009, p.7). Within this perspective, increased mobility within the places extents (in terms of people, ideas, and spatial structures) threatens the rootedness of a place, hence its identities. Increased mobility can be also applied to the constant mobility of people, either through choice or by compulsion is another factor that is consider a threat to place. Cresswell (2009, p.8) explains by giving examples of the homeless, refugees, gypsy, travelers, traveling salesmen, and others who are perceived as mobile are labeled as a threat to place and the moral values associated with it. Subsequently, the notion of globalization also illustrates ideas of increased mobility and in turn manipulates basic conceptions of a given place, by allowing the creation of homogenised places, worldwide symbols and ad hoc cultures. It can be argued that there is a loss in the connection between geographical place and cultural experience arising from the fact that the local, autonomous and distinct place is now produced extensively in other parts of the globe, a result of an increasingly mobile world. Likewise, Gieryn (2000) argues that there is no space for place in sociology as the postmodern theories dene space within a network (ows of goods, capital and information) that reduce the importance of place. He also argues that in our cosmopolitan and modern society, where retail and food giant become omnipresent everywhere, places are becoming more alike. He urges sociologists to have a more place sensitive approach, as they often leave the matter of place to geographers. While some assume that globalization has homogenous effects, reducing the particularity of places and increasing placelessness, others point to its uneven efof modernity, postmodernity and hypermodernity are based on teachings of sociologist Gilles Lipovetsky, so did the readings of Paul Virilio : From Modernism to Hypermodernism and Beyond.
7 Denition

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1.4. SHIFTING IDENTITIES AND NEW MEANINGS OF PLACES fects across the globe and the defensive reaction which seeks to maintain or recover place differences . Additionally many researchers have proved cultural identities are not destroyed, and there is rather a proliferation of cultural identity through the process of globalisation (Tomlinson, 2003). The idea that homogenisation is a product of globalisation is though greatly debated between scholars. Several authors have pointed out that globalisation advances parallel with localisation, as the effects of increased mobility and homogenised places create the need for differentiation. Swyngedouw (2004) has called this effect glocalisation and argues that the effect of globalization has created a proliferation of identities. Likewise, Robertson (1995) employs the term glocalisation to overcome the shortcomings of the notion of globalization because it has [. . . ] involved and increasingly involves the creation and incorporation of locality [. . . ], (Robertson, 1995, p.40). Another contemporary concern that adds to the uidity of a place, attributing its xed characteristics is time-space compression. Time space compression refers to the perception of space across all geographical dimensions at one single time frame. It describes the condition where spatial and geographical boundaries dissolve and where customs or cultures can ow freely in a no time. Time-space compression is a concept developed by geographer Harvey (1989) as a condition of Post modernity. He explains that this is an era that spatial and temporal distances are reduced due to the outcome of the technologies of communication, air travel and the economics of open markets. Under the light of the above phenomena, we can argue that cities become more equal the urban identity is weakened as contemporary cultures merge. Moreover, with the increase ow of information, the societal liberalization and globalized ows, Virilio (1995) argues that we are heading towards a "fundamental loss of orientation and of a duplication of sensible reality". We are now living in global time. History was once very rich because it was local; because spatial boundary times existed. Now history will happen in universal time, as an outcome of instantaneity. Global time, as Paul Virilio argues, is dominating the local time-frame of our cities making what is local into global and what is global into local. He goes on to argue that this deconstruction of the world comes along consequences for the relationships amongst citizens. How human interactions are possible in the emerging places of global times will be a concern 19

CHAPTER 1. IDENTITY OF PLACES AND NON-PLACES address in the last chapter of this thesis.

1.5

Urban memories

Memories are an important tool for identity construction as it is the means that all information is processed and passed on from one generation to the next. Registering memories is the subconscious tool engaged by people to accumulate their environment, the events related to their daily lives, the recalling of history, the remembrance of myths and legacies. By listing the various aspects of place as memories, people are constructing a mental image map of what a place means to them. Memories thus become a tool for social or collective identity construction. Spaces are strongly connected with history and memories; memories of places, memories of the community, memories of individuals, memories of events, and memories of changing landscape, memories of loved ones. The preservation of history via the sustainment of memories is also a political tool used to enhance the identity of place by preserving or creating structures such as national symbols that demonstrate the power and rigor of a place (Hayden, 1995). Memories symbolizing national power are usually transmitted in places through structures such as monuments, while memories that demonstrate the identity of a place or the cultural inheritance are seen through the preservation of historic buildings. Memories are not a device that aids in recalling solely the past but it is also used to record current tendencies that will successively be the memories of the future. We could argue that a threat for the identity of a place occurs when there is an urban memory loss considered as a menace for the collective memory. Collective memory is when all individual memories are put together forming a common memory for the urban fabric. Crinson (2005) explains that collective memories of urban landscapes lasts for generations and allow people to understand themselves and hence to create an identity. He says that the city as a physical landscape and collection of objects and practices that enable recollections of the past and that embody the past through traces of the citys sequential building and rebuilding. Memories in this work requires special attention as we are looking at cities that change at fast rhythms, and where mobility creates a rather disturb and uneven image of ones environment. Urban memory loss can occur at times that there is 20

1.5. URBAN MEMORIES a major transformation in the social or physical environment (Ikbal, Aysegl and Eren, 2006). The mutations of the physical environment are more common today in Asia and other developing countries where urbanism on the fast lane is underway and where urban memories are at stake of vanishing. This relatively fast pace that the city change possibly creates a new sense of place that although it reects the pace of contemporary life, it does not provide huge possibilities of immediate transactions, communication, or the time needed for the residents to register these places in the mind as memories or construct denite identities. The social changes affecting the urban memory could be related to economic investments, political changes like immigration policies, cultural activities and so on. Studies in other cities in Europe and America have often questioned place in relation to these urban regenerations and have proved how urban mutations can affect the lives of the habitants. Any urban transformation directly implies a break in memory, which can overwhelm or even disorientate the habitants. Graaf (2009a) has extensively studied emotions of habitants during urban regenerations and has questioned the feeling at home during these times. He noted that during these times, the residents have evoked strong feelings as they see their neighborhoods demolished and regenerated. While in many countries in Europe there is often a strong sense of preservation as an attempt to keep the memory of the city alive, this is critiqued by many as a preservationist approach and historical memorialisation (Gospodini, 2002). With historic leftovers and with the alibi of nostalgia, preservationists tend to create fake traditional environments that do not at all represent the contemporary era or the new memories we want to create to represent our time in a given place. Using Tokyo for our case study we will present an alternative approach of evaluating memories in the urban tissue. Tokyo is a city where the memory is linked with movement; it is rather a city of amnesia; instead of preservation; it is constantly accumulating new events creating a layering of memories one on top of the other, that eventually fade away. Barthes (1982, p.42) writes about Tokyo: This sound of the place is that of history; for the signifying name here is not a memory but an anamnesis. . . 21

CHAPTER 1. IDENTITY OF PLACES AND NON-PLACES

1.6

Conclusion

We have elucidated on the different concepts of places and non-places and the identity concerns that are involved within. Lastly, we have examined the role of memories as a tool that processes the identity construction before we set the ground for the exploration of Tokyo city. Questions of place are important when looking into a global city that challenges the fundamental xed ideas of a place brought by the world of ows that global cities suggest. Contemporary places are not only a concern because of the changes that global world markets and technology produce directly, but moreover places built environments are being transformed radically. Cities are no longer places xed in time, neither reect sedentary ideas, but as Sepe (2004) also argues the contemporary city becomes a site of complexity and simultaneity, which leads to situations of transience and change (2004, p.2). We have explained that place is viewed by some as essential for human existence while others focus on the social processes that construct a place. In this work, we will deal with the phenomenological understanding of place where we will look at it as a social construct and as a ground for human experience. The understanding of place identity by Cohen (2000) is particularly inuential since he has facilitated our exploration into the direction of objects, rituals, and the imaginative use of the myths and traditions in order to understand the contemporary identity of a perplex city. Given that Tokyo is a non-historic place (Sacchi 2005; Wadwekar and Kobayashi 2009; Cybriwsky 2005; Koolhaas 1998) where tradition is absent from spatial structures, is therefore rational to initiate an exploration of different methods when looking at its identity. Therefore, we propose to examine in this work, place as a holistic experience by incorporating tangible and intangible values as a way to evaluate the complex and transient contemporary city. Tokyo is appropriate for the study because its status as a world and global city embraces conditions of mobility and exchange, features of a non-place. Moreover, what is intriguing about the Tokyo case is that its built environment is also a mobile element; it is a place that is in perpetual transition because of its constant development. Addressing Tokyo in this quest of urban identity of the continuously changing place opens up perspectives of how to identify with similar concerns of other cities in the developing world. 22

1.6. CONCLUSION We will explain in this work how Tokyo in its entire entity and the image it projects to the world could be considered as a non-place. While non-places generally address to specic locations such as supermarkets, airports, McDonalds, highways, train stations, residence units, we will argue in this thesis that Tokyo city could be considered as a non-place in its totality fullling those denitions of Auge, Relph and Cresswell. Given that the non-places is not an anthropological place and not referring to existing places how does the humankind conform and confront these places that are more and more present in our contemporary era? As we have discussed above, identity construction is examined under the exploration of place and space, and associations created within like ideas, memories, social relations. Consequently, we will look into what kinds of identities are created and by which processes in accordance to non-places. What are the new identities arising in non-places? Does their omnipresence threaten the identity of place or that of its urban habitants? Where do we nd locality and identity in places that are becoming more and more homogenous? What kind of human interactions are present within these places? How do we understand and maintain the identity of a city that is constantly changing? To which extent does the habitant relates or assimilates with such a city? The theoretical framework of place has shown us that the integration the human perception and involvement is vital in understanding the place. This is particularly true in our contemporary era that with the emergence of non-places peoples relationships are changing. The study of place has also indicated that an interpretation of myths, symbols traditions and memories can also be adopted to reveal the identity of place. Using these phenomenological methods we are going to survey Tokyos identity as place that creates identities by enabling the association between lived experiences; stories of people, myths or heritage and translation of history into the urban fabric of Tokyo. Consequently, we will examine initially, in the next chapter, the tangible features of Tokyo, that is, the built environment in order to afrm its actual complex and temporal nature. The subsequent two chapters will deal with the intangible elements of Tokyo: in the third chapter we will look at conceptual and metaphorical connotations that Tokyo retain in its urban structure and the fourth chapter will directly inquire on peoples perception and interac23

CHAPTER 1. IDENTITY OF PLACES AND NON-PLACES tion with place, as well as lifestyle. The assessment of the tangible and intangible values of a place is aiming at exposing those essentials that are indispensable in acknowledging the identity of a contemporary city.

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CHAPTER 2

TOKYO

Tokyo lacks a visible plan, of the kind that we choose to nd reassuring in London, Paris or Vienna. Tokyo is the paradigm of the modern de-centred metropolis. Its not so much that it disorients you rather, you are not psychologically centered in the rst place. Tokyo is a placeby-place place how each location relates to the last remains obscure. Lacking vistas and grand plans, you have no sense of travel between points: rather, you leave an experience, and start another somewhere else. The intervening motion is out of place and time. Ashihara (1994, p.21)

Figure 2.1: Tokyo, Satellite view. Photo by Google Earth. Edited by the author

CHAPTER 2. TOKYO

2.1

Introduction

I have visited Tokyo on various occasions, a couple of times physically and numerous times mentally using the Google Earth tool on the Internet. Even though the tool is great in understanding the physical conguration of Tokyo and its urban complexity, it has revealed little regarding place identity. Looking solely into the geographical location and spatial structures does not reveal a places identity and in our case this is particularly pertinent as spatial structures are a rather temporary feature of this city. In this chapter we are going to consider the role of place in Tokyo, a uid and regenerating city, a city that no history is evoked in its physical structures and where past traces are not visible (Cybriwsky, 2005; Jinnai, 1994). To evoke the spirit of Tokyo, it is essential to have a look beyond buildings and physical structures. Places have meanings, individual and collective legacies, and personal or shared memories that structure both how people interact with the place itself and how they conduct social interactions in the place. The investigation of Tokyo under the title of place is the guiding force of this thesis for its exploration as a quantitative totality, and not solely in spatial terms. The attempt of this chapter will be to evoke the spirit of Tokyo through the discovery of meanings of tangible forms that are relative to the contemporary city of Tokyo. The understanding of Edward Relph identity of and with place is going to be designated as a research tactic; identity of place will be viewed within the exploration of spatial structures, special historical features of Tokyo and the representative image of Tokyo through texts, while, identity with place will be brought forward by an evaluation of peoples perception and ideas of place supported from interviews conducted in Tokyo. Identity with place will also include an assessment of maps drawn by the interviewees that indicate how they are involved in the understanding of their city. The tangible elements analyzed in this chapter will include a collection of information about the place, the signicance of its architecture, its urban structure, the natural environment of the place. The intangible features examined in the following two chapters involve the analysis of everyday places that people frequent, objects or other physical structures that people encounter and then we will move into an investigation of the perceptions and understanding of people, both locals and foreigners. 26

2.1. INTRODUCTION King (1995) writes extensively on world cities and particularly on the effects of globalization on built environment and on transnational and global identities, has identied three representational levels to view such a city. The rst level addresses the citys built environment, the feature that will be discussed in this chapter. The second level addresses the symbolic level which not only deals with how the city is read, spoken, and written (these is what King calls the discursive representations of the city), but also how the city is visually represented. This would be a theme that will be addressed throughout this work where the symbolic representation of the city through metaphors of Japanese culture brought forward by many writers that attempted to explain the city, focusing on its particular transient quality. King argues that only with the exploration of the rst two levels we can deal with the third level that involves the mental constructs of the world city. In this thesis we will approach the subject from all three levels with a particular concern of the relationship between the discursive representations of the city and the resulting mental constructs held in the minds of those who interact with these spaces on various levels1 . In this way we will be dealing also with tangible and intangible qualities of the place, an imperative measure as our previous readings on place has put forward. The topic of mental constructs will be covered in the fourth chapter of this thesis, the result of a series of interviews conducted in Tokyo. In this chapter,we will rstly present some facts and the general image of Tokyo. Section 2.2 will give an overall impression of its spatial structure and its particular urban system in order to aid the reader to an understanding of its spatial entity before we raise questions on its contemporary identity. Section 2.3 will initiate the topic of the vanishing memories in the citys urban fabric across time, while Section 2.4 will present the same issue focusing in the post second world war period. The conclusion of the chapter (Section 2.5) will discuss how this condition of the liquid city could be a concern in dening the contemporary identity of the city.

1 Everyday

people, writers, philosophers, architects.

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CHAPTER 2. TOKYO

2.2

Tokyo, an introduction

Tokyo2 is Japans largest city and also one of Japans 47 prefectures, but is called a metropolis rather than a prefecture. One in four Japanese people live in Tokyo3 which occupies a surface area of 3% of the countrys territory. When the term Tokyo is used, we should distinguish between Tokyo metropolis, Tokyo proper4 and Tokyo prefecture. When we talk about Tokyo metropolis, we are addressing to Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa, all together consisting of 23 city wards, 26 cities, 5 towns and 8 villages. It has an astonishing total of 33 million inhabitants, making it the most populous metropolis in the world5 , followed by New York City that has a population of 25 million habitants. The urban density of the metropolis accounts for 4049 habitants per km2 . Tokyo prefecture is composed of the 23 city wards (that is considered the center) plus the administrative district, has a total area of 2,188-km2 and a population of about 13 million people. Daytime populations mark signicant changes from the actual numbers, as there is an increase of 2.5 million people that commute daily to the prefecture. The center of Tokyo, Tokyo proper or Tokyo-to, is a 622-km2 area, assembled by the so-called 23 special-ward area, has a population of 8.8 million inhabitants, and a density of 14,152 habitants per km2 is reached 6 .

2.3

Image through urban conguration

Tokyo is also regarded as a world city, a city that is considered to be of great importance in the world economic system. Sociologist Saskia Sassen, in her book The global city: New York, London, Tokyo, classies Tokyo along with New York and London, and opposed the global city terminology to that of a mega city. World cities share parallel structures economically, spatially and socially that are dened by global processes, increased integration of world commodities, nished goods
two kanjis of To-Kyo stand for Eastern (To) and Capital (Kyo). to a 2009 statistic of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry the Japanse total population has reached about 127 million people. 4 City proper is a denition by UN, as the city boundaries without its suburbs. 5 Forstall (2004, p.33) Table 5 6 Source: Tokyo Metropolitan government ofcial website; www.metro.tokyo.jp/
3 According 2 The

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2.3. IMAGE THROUGH URBAN CONFIGURATION and nancial markets (Sassen, 1991, p. 4). Tokyo, despite other megacities and global cities does not seem to face several of the related problems of urbanization: noise, dirty, the urban poor, oating population, insufcient housing and education provision. Tokyo is as well, probably the safest metropolis and not as polluted (Cybriwsky, 1999, p.226). Tokyo is the descendant of Edo, a small shing village that was rst fortied in the 12th Century. Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu made Edo his base in 1603 and the city became the center of military power in Japan. By the 18th century Edo was one of the most populous cities of the world with about one million inhabitants. The Tokugawa Shogunate was nally overthrown in 1868 and reasserted the emperor to power Figure 2.2: Tokyos view from the Tokyo starting a new period in Japan, the Metropolitan Government Building. Photo by Meiji Restoration. The Meiji Emperor author. made Edo his permanent base, transforming the Edo castle (originally built in 1457) into his palace and established the city of Tokyo. Tokyo is quite different from the conventional city as we know it, that is organized, ordered, centralized with a traditional center, historical monuments and wherein people can be orientated effortlessly. Tokyo, a city of anarchy is rather an accumulation of towns merged together forming the grand ensemble that we know today as Tokyo. Jinnai describes:
Tokyo is often called an agglomeration of villages [. . . ] Numerous localities of distinct social and physical character have formed in Tokyo, each dened in part by the natural landscape. In each of these areas a symbiosis of the community and the local shrine may be seen that is based on the spatial model of the rural village (1987, p. 7)

Tokyo unlike Paris or New York that are based on axial grid system for their urban planning is a decentralized city without axes. A European or American city 29

CHAPTER 2. TOKYO evolves around its centre, usually a place fortied with meanings either divine or political, a place that demonstrates the social reality and is full in the sense that is exploited by the general public. Tokyo possesses no such center, the Japanese cities have never been conceived as a cosmic center afrming Franco Purinis declaration that Tokyo establishes the proof that God does not exist (Sacchi, 2004, p. 142). Sacchi explains: Cest une thse que lon peut admettre si on pense la conguration chaotique de la ville, labsence dune structure hirarchique, son consumrisme effrn, limpntrableabilit de sa dimension thique et spirituele . Tokyo possess no center in the conventional means, whereas its geographic center, the Royal Imperial Palace, is considered a void because it is inaccessible to the general public and is inhabited by an emperor that people rarely see. Barthes (1982, p. 47) writes:
Lune des deux villes puissantes de la modernit est donc construite autour dun anneau opaque des murailles, deaux, de toits et darbres, dont le centre lui-mme nest plus quune ide vapore. [. . . ] De cette manire, nous dit-on limaginaire se dploie circulairement, par dtours et retours le long dun sujet vide7

Actually we can argue that the absence of order in the urban structure is a feature that attributed Tokyo with the title of an energetic and experiential city. It gives architects a sense of freedom to create without constraints and that is how we nd some of the worlds most experimental buildings in Tokyos urban fabric. The apparent chaos produces a sense of creativity that turned Tokyo into an extraordinary perhaps the most extraordinary shop window of contemporary architecture (Sacchi 2004, p. 223) Another basic attribute in distinguishing Tokyo as opposed to a European city, is that the latest is read from the inside while a Japanese city from the outside. Jinnai (1994) explains that the urban space of a European city is produced by man and that is how and where the urban beauty is generated. A European city evolves and extends outwards from its center from which important meanings are conveyed. It is therefore, better understood when looking at it from within under examination of individual entities, where each one of them is important. But Tokyo (and other
by the author: One of the two most powerful cities of modernity is built around a ring of opaque walls, water, roofs and trees, the center itself being more than an evaporated idea. [...] In this way we are told, the imaginary unfolds circularly, by detours and returns along an empty subject.
7 Translation

30

2.3. IMAGE THROUGH URBAN CONFIGURATION Japanese cities), have been structured around natural elements we experience better the cities from the outside, from an aerial photo, to perceive it as a whole, in such a way that mountains, water, and hills become an important and symbolic part of the cityscape. Indeed, nature for the Japanese culture is not a separate element from the city, but the two interweave together to form coherent liaison (Sacchi, 2005). The citys image reminds of a forest, that is dense and disordered, and striving to reach towards the sky is a delightful aspiration, to serve rather the need of capital ows than arriving to the heavens. That is why many Japanese labelled Tokyo with the sobriquet concrete jungle 8 . Tokyo is divided in two distinct parts: The high city, called the Yamanote9 area and the low city called Shitamachi
10

that runs along the water-

front. These two distinct areas have been present as two distinct parts of the city since the establishment of Tokyo. Historically the high city was inhabited by the aristocrats and the samurais, the higher rank people, while the common people lived along the waterfront, the Figure 2.3: Yamanote and Shitamachi. Map Shitamachi, the entertainment district. source: Wikipedia Shitamachi, with its networks of canals and rivers, has been described as Asias Venice, where transportation of goods, commuting, and even dining have been activities that took place by the water. Yamanote and Shitamachi were radically transformed the last century or rather the last decades. Actually, one of the most permanent physical features in Tokyos urban fabric is the Yamanote line, the most important commuter train in Japan, ridden daily by 3.5 million passengers11 . This loop train was the rst train to be
(1996, p.37) means literally towards the mountain. 10 The direct translation of Shitamachi is low city. 11 Wikipedia: For comparison, the New York City Subway carries 5.08 million passengers per day on 26 lines serving 468 stations and the London Underground carries 2.7 million passengers
9 Yamanote 8 Jinnai

31

CHAPTER 2. TOKYO built in Japan after it has opened its doors to the west. Construction started in 1885 and the loop line with the existing 29 stations was only completed in 1925. The trucks were built to follow the existing Edo Castle moats of the Yamanote area and stations were built on the intersection of water and roads, erasing the element of active life near the water and creating instead centers of commercial activities (Sande, 2007, p.10). The Yamanote line, though, is one of the 121 passenger lines that operate in Tokyo. There are various types of trains such us regional trains, mono rails, subways, cable cars, trams that are run by 30 different operators. Tokyo has one of the most elaborated and extensive urban railway systems in the word12 interconnecting a total of 882 rail stops. At peak times the train becomes unbearable to use, where people are pushed in the trains by professional push-men in white uniforms called "oshiya" in Japanese. The train becomes an active element in the city because of its physical presence and indispensable for people as 20 million people use it for their daily transport. For lm directors, Japanese (Ozu Yasujiro) and western alike (Wim Wenders) train becomes an important element for the perception of Tokyo. Train is ridden daily, and many activities evolve around and within train stations. We will discuss further about trains in the fourth chapter as a new emerging and distinguishable characteristic in the city, because it becomes a component that people identify with, and through it understand their whole environment and themselves13 . Tokyo is a city full of surprises, as every city ward is distinctively different from the next, where the old intertwines with the new, and the traditional with the modern. Considering its vast scale, density, diversity and chaotic features, it is the extraordinary system of transportation that holds the city together, keeping it away from falling apart. The image of the city reminds of a big fun park lled with roller coasters created by the network of trains, colorful lights and advertising signs, and where a complex system of structures is omnipresent with the only rule
per day on 12 lines serving 275 stations. 12 Source :Urban Transport Factbook, Tokyo-Yokohama Suburban Rail Summary 13 The interviews of the last chapter demonstrate how the train is important for the daily perception of the city. The train is an identiable component for the most of the interviewees. A small percentage, even, answering to the question of what makes them feel Japanese in Tokyo, have answered that riding the train does.

32

2.3. IMAGE THROUGH URBAN CONFIGURATION

Figure 2.4: Tokyo train map. Photo of map taken and edited by the author.

that everything goes. The movement in the city is not only apparent in the constant animated physical features of Tokyo. Tokyo as a liquid city in constant movement nds also afrmation throughout its long history of regeneration and renewal without concerns of preservation, making the skyline of the city a eeting feature. An insight of the perpetual renewal of the urban fabric will follow in the next sections.

33

CHAPTER 2. TOKYO

2.4

Vanishing memories in the process of destruction and reconstruction

In the rst chapter, we have shown that places carry different meanings within them, how place is a setting for human interaction, and the power of place in forming social identity. We have also introduced the notion of a nonplace, the opposite of place and discussed as well other factors that are threatening the urFigure 2.5: Edo Map Photo taken from Sacchi (2005)

ban memory of a city. In this section, we are going to deal with one of the most important characteristics of Tokyo, and

the one central to our research theme; the question of mutation in the city that leads to an absence of urban memory. Jinnai (1994), in his book, Tokyo, a Spatial Anthropology, said that it is almost impossible to nd any past traces of the city14 . Today there are only a few structures that remain dating back to the Edo era, a number insignicant for the size of the city. What does remain from Tokyos ancestor is the urban planning even though heavily altered. As the city transforms there is a discontinuation in the urban memory, and this change affects respectively the identity of the place and thus those of its habitants. Graaf (2009b) who is investigating the emotional status of residents at times of urban renewals, he identies that at times of change there is a struggle over the identities of the place. He writes: policy makers and urban professionals have designed a new place identity for them to make the neighbourhood more attractive for different groups
has managed, though, to reveal under the contemporary veil of the city its past traces. He has accomplished that by using old maps and strolling incessantly around the city, uncovering some hidden secrets of the contemporary urban fabric of Tokyo and exposing the spirit of the place.
14 He

34

2.4. VANISHING MEMORIES which leave little place for their own identities15 (Graaf, 2009b, p.272). This theme is essential not only in understanding the singular identity of Tokyo, but it addresses the question of transformation and identity of other growing cities, a universal subject in the 21th century. Once a city carries in its structure only reminiscent of culture, tradition and heritage, couldnt this be perturbing for the identity of the city itself but also for the respective social identity of the people inhabiting the place? Today the urban structure of Tokyo is composed mostly of structures built after the Second World War, while 30% of its total buildings were constructed during the years 1980-2000. Whats more, the city is constantly renewing itself and preserving a building has no meaning for the Japanese people. Compared to Europe where preserving a citys historical is imperative in maintaining the citys identity in Tokyo such concerns do not exist. Kitayama (2010, p.4) explains:
In European cities, urban spaces are thought of as concrete entities that are meant to exist far longer than peoples lives, and change isnt something people are readily aware of. But in Tokyo, the structures that dene the landscape are likely to be completely different in just a couple of dozen years. Although the place might be the same, Tokyo is a city in which entities only exist as phantoms.

The rst encounter with place, reveals to us that place is not tied with symbols of history, neither we can nd tradition and meaning in the physical structures. The idea of place appears ambiguous at it looks to act as a portable backstage that is exible and ready to be adapted for different events to take place. As Toyo Ito suitably observed: "If we compare the architecture of Western civilization to a museum, [then] Japanese architecture [can be likened to] a theatre16 ". Closer research exposes us to the fact that the trend of restructuring, destructing and transforming the city is not new to the history of Japan and Tokyo in particular. This fact is widely acknowledged by architects and urban planners Miyake (1987) stated: In Japan the will to build a city and to construct a building has been constantly next to the reality of destruction and included an impulse to destroy the unied whole.
study was conducted in four cities: Emmen and Hoogvliet in the Netherlands, and Sale at Manchester (UK) and Newcastle-Gateshead in the United Kingdom. 16 Toyo Ito as quoted in Bognar (1997, p.3).
15 The

35

CHAPTER 2. TOKYO Overlooking for an instant all the disastrous catastrophes that occurred in Tokyo that swept away most of the urban structures, along with the concrete memories of the place, we are going to concentrate on the citys own determination for development and modernization. The urge for Japan to modernize came about in the beginning of the 20th century even though the rst contact with the occident was in 1853 when the American navy embarked by force at the port of Tokyo and forced Japan to open up to trade with the western world. Due to the opposition of the Tokugawa Empire to western ideas and inuences17 , it was only until some years later that Japan opened up to the west. In 1868 came the end of the Tokugawa era and consequently the end of the era of feudalism18 . A new imperial rule had begun to reign, known as the Meiji era, or Meiji restoration, where Meiji translates into enlightened rule. The governors of Meiji embraced the market economy and set goals of western advancements combined with traditional eastern values19 . At the time the capital of Japan had moved from Kyoto (that was the capital for about 1,000 years) to Edo20 that was renamed Tokyo, meaning eastern capital. Hence Tokyo as the new capital had to meet up with the expectations of the new government, namely the effort match the western world in all respects, resulting in the citys transformation into a ground of urban experimentation. It was a time of great changes to be occurred in Japan, which entailed to the formation of Tokyos present identity. The introduction of western modernism had opened the doors to a great range of new horizons in terms of culture, architecture, arts, lifestyle, food, fashion, literature, economy, and politics, where the adaptation involved rather the edition of western culture into the Japanese practice. At the same time the Japanese people were questioning the self as they were invaded by cultural values of the other. The threat of losing the Japanese identity was palpable for many decades even after the Meiji Restoration. A number of extreme acts were performed, even by deeply sophisticated individuals like Mishima Yukio21 , who performed sep17 The agreement known as Harris treaty was xed at the rate of 5% trade duty on all international

trade. 18 Commander Matthew Perry in 1853 with its navy attempted to force Japan to open to the West and end its seclusion policies. The ratied Kanagawa treaty was ofcially signed in 1855, a reason for major internal conicts, that led to the end of the Tokukawa shogunate. 19 This term is referred to Wakon Yosai in Japanese and will be explained further in this thesis. 20 Edo, in Japanese, means bay entrance. 21 Mishima Yukio was one of the most respected Japanese writers. He wrote a large number of

36

2.4. VANISHING MEMORIES puku22 after a failed coup dtat. The dubious identity was also particularly evident in the Japanese literature, with the works Junichiro Tanizaki where the search of cultural identity and juxtapositions of the west with the Japanese tradition were provocative themes in his novels. Tokyos urban identity begun to change dramatically in the Meiji era as big avenues were under construction, the rail system was introduced, western style architecture and methods of construction were developed, and people started to wear western style clothing replacing their traditional costumes. Even the word kenchiku which means architecture is a word created in Japan during that time to dene architecture the way it is understood in the western world23 . The term was created after the Second World War when the Japanese wanted to create an image of their country so it would be possible to compete and be recognized on the international scene. Districts and streets started to be renamed inspired by western names and whats kitschier whole areas were designed to resemble Europe; Nipponbashi that is the district situated by water was designed after Venice, Marunochi was called little London and Hibiya with its axial urban plan was built analogous to Paris, while Shinjuku today reminds of the Manhattan skyline. The attempt to modernize produced a number of places that brought into the urban scene reminiscent of something that Tokyo has never been, neither had any similar references in its urban history. These copy-paste structures and actually whole districts have become today, as we will demonstrate from our interviews the new urban reality of Tokyo and important reference points for the habitants. These non-places have become a component of the new urban identity of the city, setting the grounds for becoming the mnemonics of the city in the future to come. 2.4.1 Tokyo on the move

novels despite his death at a young age. He was also nominated three times for the Nobel Price in literature. 22 Seppuku is the ritualistic act that the samurai usually performed to kill themselves as an opposition to surrender to the enemy. This was usually done by slicing up their abdomen. 23 Sacchi (2005, p.112). The word was created to express the artistic nature of construction, but rather this word represents the specic act of constructing, a rather concrete activity, while in the occident architecture is rather an abstract and incorporates construction in all its totality.

37

CHAPTER 2. TOKYO Understanding better Tokyo and its ephemeral urban condition through an investigation of its past, we nd that one of the most impressive qualities of Tokyo is its determinant spirit for reconstruction at times of destruction as of which the revitalization of the city is remarkably successful. Japanese cities and Tokyo
Figure 2.6: View of Daiba Area,Tokyo. Photo from Tree above all, have been subjected Hugger: www.treehugger.com to endless destructions either

natural or brought by wars. Perhaps there is no other city that has been built, destroyed and rebuilt as many times as Tokyo has been24 . In its 400 year history, Tokyo has been devastated four times by re, while there have been two major earthquakes that completely leveled the city. In the last century solely, Tokyo underwent three signicant transformations that changed completely its physical form. The rst was the great earthquake in 1923, known as the Kanto earthquake that caused a major re outburst right after and completely leveled the city. Secondly, the latest enormous destruction of Tokyo occurred in World War 2 were the re bombings by the American air force entirely razed the city while killing about 100,000 people25 . Subsequently, the population of Tokyo dropped to 3.5 million people, which was half of Tokyos total population at the time. The third major transformation that occurred in the city was the frenetic development of the bubble era in Tokyo that started in the 60s but reached its peak in the 1980s. Between these years, Tokyo underwent a major economic boom inating stock and real estate prices, consequently changing as well its urban structure irreversibly. It is this last transformation that we are going to focus, what Cybriwsky (2005) called the third great destruction of the century as it is the transformation that changed
24 25 Source:

For the full history look at the appendix of Tokyo history from the Tokyo metropolitan ofce. David McNeill. The night hell fell from the sky. Japan Focus, March 10 2005

38

2.4. VANISHING MEMORIES the city radically and assert its present condition of a transient city (See also Jinnai ,1994; Sacchi, 2005). The transformations that occurred in the growing economy begun in the 70s, unlike previous bouleversement that came about by non natural forces, were initiated by the citys own intend to progress. We are going to examine in this section, the architectural and urban reform of the city that has occurred after the Second World War as it is one of the basic layers that entails the physical image of Tokyo as it is today. The liquid condition of Tokyo is not surprising as an epithet given by Sacchi (2005) considering the metamorphosis that the city has underwent. In fact, according to a 1993 statistic, more than 30% of all Tokyo structures have been built since 1985. As Cybriwsky (2005, p. 218) has argued: No other city in the world, much less one so large and important, has been so ephemeral in physical form, and no other older city, much less one so historically signicant, is so new in build environment and so completely lacking in neighbourhoods and old buildings. During the bubble era, a large number of buildings were torn down not due to their deteriorating condition but for accommodating for the new needs, of taller buildings and multipurpose structures. To understand the rate that the city has been growing before the end of the century, it has been recorded that 12,339 square meters of buildings were demolished daily, while new constructions of 62,861 square meters started daily, and 455 units of new housing constructions were underway every single day. Amongst the buildings destroyed were also many important monuments and architecture marvels. Examples include Frank Lloyds only building in Japan; the famous imperial Hotel who survived the devastating Kanto earthquake in 1923, but did not make it through the frenetic development that came about in the 1960s. The notable Japanese architect Kenzo Tange has designed the Tokyo city hall in 1952 that had a life of thirty-ve years. It was de39
Figure 2.7: Arata Isozaki, Clusters in the air, 1962, Unrealized project, Photo by author

CHAPTER 2. TOKYO molished and replaced by a newer structure built on a different site designed by Kenzo Tange over again. Other examples of renowned demolished buildings are Masaharu Takasakis famous guesthouse that was destroyed only after four years of life and several of Toyo Itos works like the famous U house and the celebrated Nomad bar that was brought down after three years. To a certain extent the reason of this continuous urban renewal in Tokyo is that land is extremely expensive. In 1989, in Tokyos Ginza district, land price has hit approximately one million dollars per meter square26 , while the Imperial palace worth more than all the real estate in California State27 . Inheritance taxes are as high as 50% and as a result the heirs choose to demolish the building and to sell the land in order to pay for their taxes. Empty lands are then capitalized as it is much more protable to build rather than to leave the land empty. The land can be further divided and be sold off to multiple investors as there is no limit to parcel fragmentation in the citys planning restrictions. Another factor that contributes to the incessant building is that the price of construction in Japan is cheap comparing to other places of the world. Nonetheless, the need for constant renewal is also due to the competition in the commercial world which forces the owners to refashion their business according to new trends. This is particularly pertinent as Tokyo has an important role in the world economy, importing and exporting goods and culture. Alterations of facades occur every four months to two years on average, while complete replacements take place every ve to ten years. As Bognar (1997) concluded in his essay, it is not surprisingly that both the economy and the extraordinarily advanced nature of the Japanese consumer society have affected the rapid lifecycle of architecture and the cityscape. The development during the bubble era has also led to great experimentation and proliferation of architectural styles in the capital. Tokyo has been called the worlds optimum urban laboratory; it is and has been a site where many models are tested. The rule was not to preserve but rather to progress and in this way a new urban identity has been moulded, inuenced by movements of architecture worldwide, rather than from the spirit of the place. Tokyo is indeed a eld where
Japanese asset price bubble Cowie (07 August 2004). "Oriental risks and rewards for optimistic occidentals". The Daily Telegraph. Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 11/01/2011.
27 Ian 26 Wikipedia:

40

2.4. VANISHING MEMORIES a lot of experimentation occurs on the site and that is above all true for the architecture phases that the city has witnessed. Western models were tested at the beginning of the 20th century; the international movement of modern architecture was afterwards adopted as a rule for taking a step in the modern world and then followed by the metabolism movement launched in the 60s.

Figure 2.8: Tadao Ando National Museum of Western art, realized in 1959 and Kenzo Tanges St. MArys Cathedral, realized in 1964. Photos by author.

The metabolism movement had a veritable Japanese character as it wanted to address current phenomena of the booming economy and not follow blindly the foreign models. The movement was initiated by a group of Japanese architects28 that wanted to respond to the culture of mass society that lied ahead and proposed projects at large scale that were exible and were expanding organically. This movement is one of the most important in Japan as it was created with the aim to represent the Japanese identity deriving from Buddhist and traditional urbanism traditions (Sacchi, 2005). The architects wanted to nd solutions to the consumerism nature of the Japanese society and to the ever-changing fashions of the city, but as ourishing the concept was, the idea failed to be embodied in its design as the schemes were heavy, monumental and not exible. Following, in the period of the late sixties, the height restrictions were abolished29 and the city started to rise vertically. The fact is that it was only in 1968
leader of the movement was Kenzo Tange, and the members-architects of the group were Takashi Asada, Kisho Kurokawa, Kiyonori Kikutake, and the writer Noboru Kawazoe. 29 Due to aesthetic and Engineering concerns, Japans Building Standard Law set an absolute height limit of 31 meters until 1963, when the limit was abolished in favour of a Floor Area Ratio limit. Following these changes in building regulations, the Kasumigaseki Building was constructed and completed in 1968. Source: www.globalarchitectsguide.com
28 The

41

CHAPTER 2. TOKYO that the rst tall building composed of 17 oors, the Kasumigaseki Building was constructed in Tokyo. As the height regulations started to loosen up and the buildings started to rise, the population of Tokyo was also growing rapidly reaching for the rst time after the war to a peak of almost ten million for the city and twelve million for the metropolis. Another big event that accelerated Tokyos growth was the hosting of the Olympic Games
Figure 2.9: Social usage of Canals and

of 1964, happening for the rst time in Asia and was the biggest transformation of the urban fabric. To accommodate for the needs of hosting the Olympics new

Rivers eradicated by the need to construct highways. Photo by author.

highways had to be constructed, as Tokyo endeavour to prole itself as a strong nation arisen from the ashes of war-torn Tokyo (Sande, 2007, p.10). Planning and organization was not possible because of shortage of time and space. Nine new ring roads were constructed above the canals and rivers, conserving the water structure in a sense but obstructing the social use of gathering, contemplating and enjoying the riverbank. Along this process many natural and built edices have vanished from the citys urban fabric permanently and countless non-places were emerging. Jinnai criticizes how memories and meanings that are associated with present day Tokyo have been today totally eroded by the eld of architecture and urban planning:
Modern city planning [...] with no concern for the individual conditions of particular sites and in willful ignorance of the underlings powers of place, land has been reclaimed and establishments erected that look the same wherever they occur. Venerable rivers and ponds have been lled in, and vegetation destroyed. In the same way the forced changing of place-names has gone on apace. (Jinnai, 1994, p. 19)

During the 70s and the 80s emerged the surge of impermanence in the architecture projects. The notion of the ephemeral and lightness that emerged in 42

2.4. VANISHING MEMORIES the bubble era of Tokyo is still the trend that characterizes Tokyo and Japans architecture identity today30 . Bognar (1997, p.5) below, describes best the current architecture trend:
Contemporary design in Japan is characterized by lightness, surface, fragmentation, and dissolution, often with a ruinous quality, a sense of temporality, imaginability, sensuousness, and, nally, a spectacular phenomenonalism all attributes of the ephemeral; combined with new interpretations of nature and the new software technologies, it favours ambiguity, transparency, and perceptual instability with an implicit indeterminacy of meaning

However, isnt this style in architecture launched as so, as to represent the liquid state of the citys urban condition; where the speed of mutation of the city is an indicator of what architecture should embody. The architecture of Tokyo, light and ethereal, besides representing the actual state of the city originates from the natural phenomena core to the Japanese cultural identity. Many scholars, though, believe that the vision of contemporary architecture is derived from the very principles of traditional Japanese architecture. Japanese architect Maki (1988, p.120) said: It was once a city of wood Figure 2.10: Kisho Kurokawa, Capsule and paper; it has now become a city of con- Tower, Realized in 1972, Photo by author. crete, steel, and glass. The feeling of lightness, however, remains. In Tokyos urban fabric, the dematerialization of architecture as a whole is striking despite the citys perceptible solidity embodied in the
is often the attempt by architects to make architecture herself to disappear; this is the research theme of many works of contemporary Japanese architects, like Junya Ishigami, Kazuyo Sejima and Toyo Ito. One of the most famous examples of transcend architecture is Toyo Itos wind of towers, a building that changes according to the directions and velocity of the wind, and according to the time of day, built in 1986. Ito has referred to this project as an agent to represent the changing winds in Tokyos architecture. Another example is Junya Ishigami award winning project for the Venice Biennale 2010 which is entitled: Architecture as air.
30 There

43

CHAPTER 2. TOKYO tall concrete or steel buildings. The hardness of the architecture disappears behind the signs and symbols that are omnipresent, ornamenting buildings and urban surfaces and yet are an ambiguous surface themselves totally and constantly renewing. The architects in Japan design with consciousness similar to the philosophy of Zen (Sacchi, 2005). The ephemerality in the urban context is manifested as architects create buildings knowing that they would not endure time, considering that there is constantly a possibility of demolition, making the process of creation directly linked with that of destruction. The occasion that brought the decision to demolish the U-House by Toyo Ito, exemplify this; while there has been a strong disagreement by the architecture community, Toyo Ito himself gave his consent saying that "the house has served its purpose"31 . Arata Isozaki in his essay, City Demolition Industry, Inc. has specied: Japanese architecture often makes no clear distinction between construction and demolition, the completed and the ruined. (p. 51). The citys present chaotic image was largely theorized by architecture critics, urbanists, sociologists, anthropologists and the like intellectuals. Ashihara (1989) famous line depicts Tokyo as the city amoeba32 because its a city that expands organically, with an incredible capacity to adapt, compared to the beautiful European cities that are of splendid beauty yet very static and monumental. Tokyo has been likewise illustrated as the liquid city by Sacchi (2005, p.75), a body of liquid state is, as is well known, characterised by uidity. This unlike the solid state implies the absence of actual shape. Hence space does not remain xed in time; architecture has more or less always done the opposite. Furthermore, I believe that Tokyo is a liquid city because it is a city of ows, not only due to the transition of its built form, but also because of the image it generates of the ow of trains, cars, and the virtuality of the buildings through the animated advertising. Above all the constant ows of people, an important
http://www.otto-otto.com/2009/07/be-our-guest-low-stress-ito-essenceobsolescence/ Accessed: 05/02/2011 32 Amoeba is a celled aquatic or parasitic protozoans of the genus Amoeba, having no denite form and consisting of a mass of protoplasm containing one or more nuclei surrounded by a exible outer membrane. Amoebas move by means of pseudopods (=pseudofeet). The word Amoeba derives its name from the ancient Greek word for change. Source :http://www.thefreedictionary.com/amoeba
31 Source:

44

2.4. VANISHING MEMORIES

Figure 2.11: Toyo Itos Tower of Winds, Realized in 1986 Photo taken by Carlos Zeballos: http://moleskinearquitectonico.blogspot.com

physical entity in the city, engender the image a eeting image of Tokyo. The idea that people circulate in the city incessantly can be explained through the fact that their private space has diminished considerably as the economic space of the city was expanding. This condition not only forced people to relocate far from the center creating a mandatory need to commute but also imposed on them to seek for urban activities outside their tiny apartments. There has been indeed a variety of emerging new spaces in the citys urban fabric resulting from the frenetic development, spaces that accommodate temporary activities which can be addressed as non-places. There are for example whole districts designed to accommodate what the Japanese call love hotels, which are rooms that one can stay over for as little as one hour. They are usually used for the purpose of having sexual intercourse that is made difcult either because of city distances or because of condentiality issues. Many love hotels are very alienating spaces; many do not have windows; you also can enter and exit by purchasing stay over tickets from a machine without the necessity of human contact33 . Capsule hotels are also an example of such an momentary place, conveying temporary meanings that came as a result of the economic boom. These are small plastic cubicles of about 2mX1m1m stacked one upon another that one can sleep
will talk further about human alienation in the city in the last chapter, after the deduction of the interview results.
33 We

45

CHAPTER 2. TOKYO over the night. They were designed as Japan economy was booming to lodge the workers that had to commute daily to Tokyo. The rst capsule hotel was designed in 1979, in Tokyo by Kisho Karakawa, and is extraordinary example, and one of the few realized projects of the metabolic architecture movement. The fact that the newly appearing places carry temporary connotations and the tendency to move away from the city center due to high prices has changed the lives of the habitants of Tokyo that appear to be some kind of urban nomads. The city that is under constant transformation creates a lot of temporary places, or non-places that engender in turn a condition of increased human movement. Recently, due to the latest economic crises, these capsule hotels as well as 24-hour internet cafes are becoming the permanent
Figure 2.12: Love hotel entrance hall, Chose

residence of people that have nowhere a room and pay by card. Photos from the book: to stay (Tabuchi, 2010) Love Hotels. Cybriwsky (2005) wrote that studying Tokyo cityscape is an appropriate topic for anthropologists to studying the modes of inhabitation of the contemporary society. Indeed, the grand transformation that occurred in Tokyo in the seventies and eighties has been a subject for study of many scholars as the afrmation of the unique Japanese identity (nihonjinron) and many works have been published with Tokyology as a central theme (Berque, 1994). We have initiated a discussion in this section of what might be the correlation of the citys condition with the modes of living of the habitants. The way that habitants assimilate with the city would be discussed further in the last chapter.

46

2.5. CONCLUSION

2.5

Conclusion

In this chapter, we have accounted the processes that occurred to afrm the transient identity of Tokyos urban reality. Central to the discussion has how memories that vanished from urban fabric, generally without any lamenting about losing the urban identity. We have presented the case of Tokyos transformation from the 80s onwards which is an interesting model to study the identity in cities that are growing at the moment under the shadow of globalization, fast changing technologies, and the connotation that the world becomes a homogenous place. As we have demonstrated in this chapter with concrete situations and historical references, Tokyo is a nonstatic city and meets the description of non-places as summarized by Cress- Figure 2.13: Symbols, Texts and Advertising well (2009, p.6):
screens omnipresent in Tokyo Photo by the author. Nonplaces are marked by a lack, of attachment, by constant circulation, communication and consumption that act against developing social bonds and bonds between people and the world. These nonplaces are marked by a plethora of texts, screens and signs which facilitate mediated relationships between people and places rather than direct ones.

Today there are a few residues of the past of Tokyo in regards to architecture, monuments, and even names of places. Different scholars have argued that the construction of urban identity should be a sustainable process without interruptions in the urban memory34 . Tokyo, has known nothing else that continuous rup34 See

Postalc, Aysegl and Eren (2006).

47

CHAPTER 2. TOKYO tures of its urban memory and our aim in the next chapter will be to identify the elements, physical or mental, that compile its present urban identity. Non-places have been argued to be meaningless, historicalness, and identity-less, yet, our goal here is to demonstrate processes by which we can use to nd meaning in such places. Obviously we have to look beyond physical structures, -since it is them that engender those temporal features in the rst place-, to discover the locality or a more veritable identity of Tokyo. The Japanese capital has a long and rich history one that is now only accounted in stories and myths and with the occasional matsuri 35 celebrations. In the next chapter, we are going to present the distinctive physical features that a non-place can possess (its tangible features) and go a step further to explain the complex features of Tokyo city through an interpretation of heritage and culture (intangible features).

35 Traditional

Japanese festivals.

48

CHAPTER 3

REINVENTING IDENTITY

Tokyo is [. . . ] a city in which the intangible quality of memory supersedes the physical presence of monuments. When res have been so frequently responsible for mass destruction and any building over thirty years old is treated as unusually even peculiarly old, it is little wonder that the city is celebrated for the immaterial qualities of memory transmitted through stories and urban myth rather than any grandiose statement that it might make through imposing monuments. Waley (2006, p. 372)

3.1

Introduction

The constant alteration of Tokyo enhanced by the fact that its urban structure is often considered as chaotic and meaningless turns it into an object of debate amongst planners and theorists. Waley (2006, p. 306) is discussing in his essay: Tokyo the unplanned metropolis, chaotic, cluttered, incoherent, without meaning, without a moral sense of order. Tokyo is the an ideal paradigm of a non-place, it is ugly, it is full of homogenous and meaningless structures, places that stand for national or global symbols produced in masses and where whole areas are constructed to replicate directly and shamelessly regions from around the world. It is at the same time, probably the city where advanced technology and high tech materials are omnipresent the most in the architecture, transportation system and the peoples usage. Livio Sacchi conrms:
La rgion mtropolitaine de Tokyo est aujourdhui un non-lieu, et tend ltre toujours un peu plus. Ce qui compte aujourdhui, cest lubiquit du labyrinthe des rseaux de tlcommunications, de machines et ddices intelligents, dinstallations

CHAPTER 3. REINVENTING IDENTITY

daccumulation et de diffusion dnergie [...], de systmes de transports diffrents mais connects entre eux.[...] La ville historique se transforme en ville numrique.1

Despite the technologically advanced culture it promotes, the ephemeral qualities in its urban system and its modern physical image, we can argue that Tokyo probably relates most to ancient traditions than any other global city. It carries in its urban structure traditions that are difcult to identify, at least, solely in spatial terms. The reading of Tokyo, a Spatial Anthropology, by Hidenobu Jinnai has proven important in this research as it suggested that Tokyos past is still present in many ways and conjures up the present image of the city. He said:
Often one can nd elements of the past in one form or another, even in new spaces created every day [. . . ] It can be said that these elements add a cultural identity to the townscape of Tokyo. The coexistence of past and the present is important for making Tokyos urban environment richer. Jinnai (1996, p.44)

Despite all the bouleversement that devastated the city we can nd today many elements of a veritable Japanese identity that are not necessarily linked to the physical entities, at any rate not explicitly. This chapter will evolve around the question of meaning and identity of the Japanese capital, searching for those elements that revoke the spirit of the place, attempting to translate metaphors of the Japanese culture in order to derive the actual state of the Tokyoite identity. Consequently, this chapter will explain Tokyos contemporary identity as it has been molded from the processes of fast expansion and constant redevelopment that we have discussed in Chapter 2. We are particularly interested to see, rstly, what kind of places have arisen under the new circumstances and secondly to nd meaning in the ephemeral quality of Tokyo. The latest will be carried out through the presentation of some selected symbolic representations that continue existing and are palpable in the urban fabric. Within this context we will search those referential characteristics with Tokyos heritage, past traditions and everyday culture. The search will exemplify elements of tangible (physical characteristics) and intangible
Translation by the author : Metropolitan Tokyo is today a non-place, and tends to be a little more than that. What matters now is the ubiquity of the maze of telecommunications networks, machines and intelligent buildings, storage facilities and distribution[...], diverse energy transport systems yet interconnected. [...] The historical town turns into a digital city.
1

50

3.1. INTRODUCTION natures (symbolic characteristics) that are a denotation in Tokyos present chaotic physical identity.

The chapter will evolve as follows. In Section 3.1, we will present different conditions and new spaces of the urban fabric that have resulted from the constant ux and development discussed in the previous chapter. The discussion will mainly concentrate on the disorganized structure and the ugliness of Tokyo that are its distinctive characteristics. We will then attempt to translate the present urban identity from the basic ideas of beauty for the Japanese culture, an inquiry gradually evolving to the other sections. In Section 3.2, we will explain the renovation process in Tokyo during the Meiji era onwards, using the ancient slogan, Wakon Yosai, as the method to adopt and implement foreign elements into a local place. It is a way to understand the Japanese thinking when transforming the urban Figure 3.1: Tokyos dual identity. Photo by auspaces. In Section 3.3, we will initiate a thor. discussion about the importance of nature and the symbolic representations attached to the city. This way we are not only examining the physical presence of nature and structures but we are also looking at philosophical connotations that these concepts carry for the Japanese culture as a way to revoke more veritable meaning in the city. 51

CHAPTER 3. REINVENTING IDENTITY

3.2

Ugliness vs. Beauty

The chaotic and unorganized urban planning of the city along with the architecture freedom of the booming economy has produced a bizarrely ugly city. Rem Koolhass said about Tokyo after his rst visit:
Japan, seven days later. First impression: the vastness and shamelessness of its ugliness. [. . . ] Japan lives (serenely?) with drastic segregation between the sublime, the ugly, and the utterly without qualities. Dominance of the last two categories makes mere presence of the rst stunning: when beauty happens, it is absolutely surprising. Koolhaas, Mau, Sigler, et al. (1998, p. 88)

Tokyo is regarded ugly by scholars, visitors of Tokyo, an attribute particularly used by the non-Japanese crowd2 . Donald Richie, a writer that has lived in Tokyo for over 60 years have described Tokyo as unusually ugly3 . Cesare Brandi portrays it a frightening city, the largest and ugliest in the world [. . . ] urban planning is chaotic, nonexistent"4 . Besides the chaotic planning, another reason that Tokyo and other Japanese cities are regarded as ugly is the ignorance in designing the exterior envelope of buildings. Additionally the absence of building regulations allows each building to exist in its own right with absolutely no reference to its context. In Tokyo and other Japanese cities, there is a general disinterest to ornamentation and the production of a clean urban aesthetic, that we commonly nd in the European architecture. Instead, we encounter in the cityscape tectonic effects that beautify the building in such a way that the urban facade has been symbolised as a sea of signs 5 . The materiality of the architecture disperses behind the ephemeral strong imagery attached to the facades. The signs multiply and are not limited to mere billboards for advertising: as Tokyo is a complex enough city to get around, explanations, directions, warnings are omnipresent at all different levels and surfaces. In Waleys words Tokyo is: [. . . ] a jumble of functions and goods for sale. [. . . ] city of transience and ux, as against Western cities, which are built of
interviews conducted in Tokyo also revealed that foreigners complained about the disorderliness and ugliness of the city. 3 Richie (1999). 4 In Sacchi (2005, p. 13). 5 Yatsuka, Hajime (1990) An architecture oating on the sea of signs, in Botond Bognar (ed.) The New Japanese Architecture, New York: Rizzoli.
2 The

52

3.2. UGLINESS VS. BEAUTY stone and enshrine their memories in monuments. Tokyo is a textual city where Western cities are architectonic and three dimensional.6 Tokyos global economic status generates the uctuating need of mass communication that is ad hoc to the technological and textual image it generates. The ornamentation of the city is actually composed of signs, billboards, images, symbols, scripts and letters and moving advertising. These features that are all jumbled up together are very characteristic of the Japanese urban space and probably their absence will render Tokyo resembling to any other developed and modernized big city. Bognar (1990, p.14) calls this condition of the city the theatrical insubstantiality, a city who becomes a theme park or a stage set, the facades covering the building are just a surface that could be at any time packed away. Or as Waley (2006, p.370) states, these facades are revealing only the deeply destabilising nuances of the term faade itself . Berque adds : Cela rend opportunment compte du dsordre visuel des villes japonaises contemporaines: dans une telle urbanit, grer lesthtique de la rue na en effet gure de sens7 (1994, p. 587). The negligence of designing the facades can be explained through an insight in Japanese traditional architecture. In Japanese traditional architecture the exterior envelope disperses as it is the pillars that support the roof, contrasted to Europe for example, that the designing of cities implies an extraordinary emphasis at the faades and the decoration of these (Berque, 1994). Furthermore, the disregard of beauty in urban matters has its roots in the Japanese thinking and perception of life. Magnicence is not given a signicant value by the Japanese and mainly public magnicence. Richie (1999, p.32) explains: The truly magnicence is in Tokyo, as in Edo, always found in public. Historically, the reason for the lack of public display was that it was not necessary to impress a populace already impressed. The emphasis on the facade of buildings in Japan is an attribute that was brought forwards by the 20th century international movement in architecture. Actually one of the most important spatial concepts used to describe the Japanese city was the concept of Oku used initially by Maki (1979). Oku refers to the spatial depth of something that
(2006, p. 367). by the author : This makes opportunely an account of the visual disorder of contemporary Japanese cities: in such urbanity, managing the aesthetics of the street does indeed make any sense
7 Translation 6 Waley

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CHAPTER 3. REINVENTING IDENTITY is closed and can be penetrated gradually in order to grasp the phenomenological centre. Maki (1979) exemplies clearly this concept by comparing it to an onion, saying that it is like penetrating its layers, profound and difcult to accessed. Resonance exists for the city, as well for the Japanese people in the deepest layers of things. In general the understanding of beauty holds different meanings for the Japanese than it does for the Western people. Beauty as a public concern had never held the same signicance for Japanese compared to a city like Paris per instant. Richie indicates: Being modern and being ostentatious were obviously architecture concerns from the Meiji period on, but not being beautiful. (1999, p .35). For the Japanese, the basic understanding of beauty for the Japanese culture is found in the ancient idea of wabi-sabi8 that describes beauty as imperfect, impermanent and incomplete (Koren, 1994, p.7), and where asymmetry is one of its main features. The concept itself is rooted back to ancient beliefs linked to the tradition of Buddhism, that we are
Figure 3.2: Mix use districts in Tokyo Photo by author.

going to discuss further on. Another characteristic of Tokyos contemporary urban identity is the

Like many Japanese notions, wabi-sabi cannot be easily translated in a foreign language. David and Michiko Young in Spontaneity in Japanese Art and Culture, 2006, (http://japaneseaesthetics.com), write : Wabi refers to that which is humble, simple, normal, and healthy, while sabi refers to elegant detachment and the rustic maturity that comes to something as it grows old. Both concepts wabi and Sabi were aesthetic terms to describe the art of tea ceremony dating back many centuries.

54

3.2. UGLINESS VS. BEAUTY way space is attributed in the city and the richness of diverse spaces that it generates. The fast development and the absence city planning regulations have rendered is a diversity of scales and usages that coexist in the citys fabric. Behind a huge and busy commercial avenue with tall buildings, one can nd winding alleys with densely packed small restaurants and shops of one or two oors. In Tokyo one can see high rise buildings with small oor areas, or equally large oor areas but low rise. Another distinctiveness of the city is that high-rise buildings are mixed with low rise and consequently people from different social status could be living in the same district. Subsequently, we come across a translation of everyday Japanese architecture into the urban tissue of Tokyo. In Japanese architecture, there is a meticulous effort to make every space functional and practical, and this is mainly evident in how a house is organized. Every object has its designated place for positioning and every space is calculated to be used to its maximum capacity. This is also true and evident in the city design, in the sense that every place is assigned to multiple functions and required to be fully utilized. A phenomenon called "Pet architecture"by Kuroda and Kaijima (2001), is the extreme demonstration of the Japanese fascination for smallness and void phobia, the stubborn unwillingness to leave space unused. Correspondingly, we encounter in Tokyo very small types of buildings that Kuroda and Kaijima (2001) referred to as the interior design of closets, treating the urban space as a large-scale interior space, or as the authors of the book declare, these small structures are like the pets of the city. These objects regarding their minuscule size become as important as the skyscraper since they are often more personalized and easier to identify for the passer by. We have observed that is not only those pet size buildings that add a distinguished variety in the urbanscape, it is also objects that extend beyond the bounds of structures, like vending machines or advertising panels. These create a multiplicity of the urban fabric manifesting a more authentic feature of Japanese culture than the authoritative skyscrapers do. These small objects have also proved their importance through the interviews as apparent objects for identication 9 .
results and the importance of small size objects in the city are elaborated further in the interview process in the next chapter.
9 These

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CHAPTER 3. REINVENTING IDENTITY Additionally, the need of making use of every little space has taken new dimensions during the economic boom in Japan. Exploiting every available land or square meter possible was a method to exploit projects on a bigger scale. One of the particular characteristics of Tokyos urbanity is the mixture of different structures and different uses that are to be seen in a single structure. Tokyo is a melting pot of different structures and within these structures exist a multiplicity of different uses and the whole ensemble reminds of an abstract architecture collage. This is a distinctive feature of Tokyos urban structure that resulted from the fast development. It has cre- Figure 3.3: Example of pet size building, ated an extraordinary blend of urban Tokyo. Photo by author. practices that amongst them are contrasting, unrelated, out-of-place to its surroundings, but they are ad hoc to social demands. Structures of such original intertwining include: shrines on top of ofce/shop buildings, tennis court in the middle of an expressway round-about, tunnels traversing graveyards, parks on top of sewerage plants. To economize space, is also common to nd highways passing over parks, rivers and even department stores. Also common is to use the roofs for inserting functions like car parks on a tall buildings, golf courts, driving schools, tennis courts and generally a lot of sport facilities10 . The result could be described as ugly, at rst, progressing to be funny, bizarre, intriguing, inspiring, and nally beautiful! Beauty has resulted from the inspiring way these mixed-used structures are being utilised. Beautiful or logical compoexamples are derived from onsite examination and readings from the book by Kuroda and Kaijima (2001), Made in Tokyo.
10 These

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3.3. WAKON YOSAI sitions proved to be not important measures when looking at Tokyos urbanity. Sacchi afrms that Tokyo rappelle lOccidental que le rationnel nest quun systme parmi des autres11 (2005, p. 108). The present urban identity of Tokyo, ugly and shameless with conditions of hybrid and junky architecture or as called by Judo and Kuroda (2006), Dame Architecture (translated into bad architecture) creates actually a new urban aesthetic. Through the messy urban structure, Tokyos true and more practical identity is revealed via those structures that correspond to the urban conditions of the fast changing city as opposed to other prefabricated homogenous structures. The existence of this new aesthetics is an antithesis to history or planning principles but it is a response to "here and now"12 of the fast changing urban conditions. Next we are going to discuss the introduction of new systems on existing patterns in order to observe how the spirit of Tokyo was preserved at the time of important transformation processes in the urban conditions were experienced in the Meiji era.

3.3

Wakon Yosai

Analysing the current condition of Tokyo, one central notion that we have to launch to infer the process of change in Japan is the slogan of wakon yosai, meaning Japanese spirit, Western technology, pronounced by the Meiji emperor Yoshikawa Tadayasu in 1868. It was generally regarded as a nationalist approach to protect against the alien. The practise of sustaining the spirit of the place and its indigenous culture while importing foreign cultures was practiced in Japan since many centuries ago. It dates back to the Heian period13 , when the term wakon kansai (Japanese spirit, Chinese scholarship) was adopted as Chinese thinking was introduced in the Japan. The desire to learn from Japan and the ideology of wakon yosai is often an example amongst Asian developing countries of how Japan became in
by the author: Tokyo has reminded the West that the rational system is only one among others 12 Judo and Kuroda (2006, p. 13) 13 The Heian period is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. Like it was customary to do, the period was named after the capital city of Heian-kyo, present day Kyoto. It was the period where Chinese inuences were making inroads in Japan.
11 Translation

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CHAPTER 3. REINVENTING IDENTITY a few decades an industrial country without abandoning their own cultural traditions14 . Wakon yosai has been employed and is manifested in various disciplines, ranging from architecture to urban strategies, food or fashion. Translating this notion in the urban measures in Tokyo while it was entering into the phase of modernization, we observe how western ideas were imposed on existing urban patterns. Instead of destroying old neighbourhoods and existing urban conguration, new structures have been laid on top of the old to meet new requirements. For example, in the case of new roads, existing road patterns were superimposed to give way for wider ones. Jinnai afrms: Rather than major surgery, Tokyo chose continuous and organic change to achieve growth and development. This mechanism continues in Tokyo even today15 . As for the architecture in the early years of the Meiji Restoration buildings had a western and Japanese feel to them. Buildings commenced to be built in brick as a measure to protect against re destruction. For example, in Ginza16 , the existing roads widened while the buildings along the road were designed by an English architect, Thomas James Water, after Londons Regent Street. While the shop facades and the avenues started resembling a scene from a European town, well organized and uniformed, on the backyard of the shops and in the alleys behind, one could nd the traditional wooden houses and the maze like streets revealing the oriental sense of Tokyo unaltered from foreign inuences. Another common approach at the time was to build the houses in western style and design the garden in Japanese style. As a general rule, western style was used for designing the public sector and Japanese design for the private sector. In this way, the Japanese spirit was preserved on the inside behind a western and modern exterior faade. For thirty years the city and the lifestyle were changing gradually, and even the dress code of the people reected the new urban identity of Tokyo, as people used to wear western costumes in the day and changing to their kimonos at night. King recites: They usually dress in Western clothing and work in western buildings at daytime, and change to robes and slippers and sleep in old fashioned homes. What a wonderful solution that resolves both outside and
Japanisation: Reections From The Learn From Japan Campaign In Singapore. Thang. 15 Jinnai (1996, p. 30) 16 Ginza is one of the most signicant commercial districts of Tokyo today.
14 Deconstructing

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3.4. TRANSIENCE AND RECONSTRUCTION inside means. (King, 2008, p. 20). Similarly, bowing was introduced to baseball, and sh toppings on pizza. Particularly with the introduction of Western cuisine, a sophisticated creativity is noted. Ice cream, for example, comes in a variety of novel avors like green tea, cherry blossom, chicken teriyaki, eel or squid. The transformation in Tokyo has proven that renew in architecture or urban planning comes along with a new condition in a cultural sense, usually where a partial or whole substitution is taking place, and where the people voluntary or not are also converted into a lifestyle that is adept to the surroundings. Murakami(1996) recounts: Japanese have been looking at themselves through the spectacles of other people since the time of rapid modernization of the Meiji era. They are thus unable to see their own logic due to these foreign spectacles . . . 17 . Even the trendy term glocalisation18 is a Japanese invention and brings to mind the term wakon yosai. It was invented in the 1980s by Japanese business practices to describe the adaptation of farming techniques into local conditions. It has later developed into a business marketing strategy in order to create "a global outlook adapted to local conditions" (Robertson, 1995, p.28). The process discussed in this section of inheriting foreign items into Japanese culture and urban space has been for a very long time strongly cultivated the spatio-cultural signicance [. . . ] and where the general issue of the relationship between the particular and the universal has historically received almost obsessive attention (Robertson, 1995, p.28).

3.4

Transience and reconstruction as inherited mnemonics

We are going to focus in this section in the process of destruction and reconstruction of the Japanese cities that has been a recurring phenomenon for many centuries, and probably would be an unfortunate incident for the times to come considering the seismic zone which Tokyo is situated19 . Tokyo, however revives completely after destruction sustaining the singularity of the city and its Japanese
quoted in Eshun (1997,p. 42). word has derived from the japanese dochaku which means living in ones own land. Source : Robertson (1995, p.28). 19 In Japan there are earthquakes of small magnitude occurring every single day. Now special attention is centered on predictions focusing on the next big earthquake that is expected to take place in Tokyo this decade, and is already delayed from the anticipated time.
18 The 17 As

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CHAPTER 3. REINVENTING IDENTITY identity. Given Tokyos long history of devastation and subsequent revival, we can argue that this eeting condition is actually a permanent identiable feature of the city. One attempt to elaborate on the compliant temperament of Tokyo in regards to destruction-reconstruction is to have an insight in Japanese culture that is deeply associated to this day, to nature, Buddhist and Shintoism religion. The understanding of nature for the Japanese is a force that drives things perpetually into a new course and with this endorsement their culture revolves around the notion of impermanence. 3.4.1 Buddhist and Shintoism teachings

During Japans long history entire capitals have been moved to a different locations. The Buddhist religion breeds around teachings like there is no permanence and that all things must pass that have in equally profound ways conditioned the Japanese mentality toward the phenomena of change and the transitory nature of existence. Impermanence is one of the basic the teachings of Buddhism, it is actually one of the three marks of existence that dene Buddhism20 . Waley (2006, p.366) Figure 3.4: : Buddhist tradition appearing in explains how contemporary Tokyo is a metaphor of this Buddhist tradition: Tokyo as city in which life is transient relates emphatically back to the notion of oating world, the Buddhist-inspired vision of a world in which life is eeting and therefore the moment should be grasped and enjoyed. Reconstruction has also its roots in the primary religion of the Japanese, the
three marks of existence are the three main characteristics of Buddhism, namely: impermanence, suffering and non-self. Source: Three Basic Facts of Existence: I. Impermanence (Anicca)", with a preface by Nyanaponika Thera. Access to Insight, 5 June 2010, http://www.accesstoinsight.org
20 The

a Tokyo shrine. Photo by author.

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3.4. TRANSIENCE AND RECONSTRUCTION Shintoism, that requires the short and long term maintenance of buildings, and often involves partial replacement of old parts of a construction with newer ones. Sacchi (2005, p.114) writes: La reconstruction tait un rite de purication rgulirement pratique selon des modalits prcises et dans des lieux diffrents, pendant tout la priode fodale, et considre comme une vritable rgle du culte shinto"21 . The phenomenon of renewal is largely evident in the wooden temples, and particularly manifested with the well-known example of the important religious sanctuary of Ise, a Shintoism temple that is destroyed and rebuilt every twenty years since the 8th century22 . Ashihara (1989, p. 121-2) explains that it is not the spatial structure that is signicant to preserve but rather the spirit and the meaning that the structure suggests:
[. . . ] que ce nous voyons aujourdhui nest donc pas une entit relle, celle qui existait la priode Nara, mais une dele reproduction de la beaut originale et intemporelle dune structure encore extrmement vivante de nos du sanctuaire jours. . . prs dIse, ce qui est conserv nest pas une entit physique mais lexpression et lesprit de larchitecture.23

The custom of reconstruction becomes also evident in the lifestyle of the people. We observe that in traditional residences a yearly replacement of the tatami is carried out, while after the winter period people usually replace the interior panels of their houses, the shoji and fusuma. The roof of the house is usually replaced every 50 years. Sacchi (2005) concludes that the contemporary renewal of the urban fabric is related with this long Shintoism tradition:
Cette attitude cest tout naturellement applique aux dices contemporaines [. . . ] on trouve par ailleurs couramment des lments traditionnels. Et le dsir de renouvlement est partout sensible: on sait que au Japon une loi prvoit la reconstruction des btiments public tous les trente ans environ.24
Translation by the author: Reconstruction was a rite of purication regularly practiced in a specic manner and in different places throughout the feudal period and is considered as a true rule of the Shinto religion. 22 There was only one interruption to the pattern in 1467, at the time of the feudal wars of Onin that the reconstruction was halted for 120 years. 23 Translation by the author: [. . . ] what we see today is not a real entity like what existed at the Nara period, but a faithful reproduction of the original timeless and temporal beauty of a structure that is still alive in our days [. . . ] the thing that is preserved is not a physical entity but the spirit and expression of the architecture. 24 Translation by the author: This attitude is naturally applied to contemporary buildings [. . . ] where we normally nd traditional elements. And the desire for renewal is palpable everywhere: we know that in Japan a law foresees the reconstruction of public buildings every thirty years approximately.
21

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CHAPTER 3. REINVENTING IDENTITY The temporary nature of buildings and the renewal of structures is also linked to the cyclical passage of time, as understood through the conception of nature, which we are going to discuss further on.

3.4.2

Nature and The City

A review of different studies on Tokyo led to the belief that one of the basic attribute in maintaining the spirit of place and Tokyos unique identity is the connection of the city with its natural surroundings. Nature in our research includes also events that are related to and celebrate nature, as well as the assimilation of nature in Buddhist and Shintoism teachings. Sacchi (2005, p. 119) stated that if there is one aspect that is still a part of the traditional heritage in the urban fabric is the rapport with nature. The relationship of the city to its natural surroundings is not surprising given the enormous respect that the Japanese people tend for nature. Without a doubt, understanding the meaning of nature for the Japanese culture would help us to value and understand their cities. The discussion about nature includes the geographical environment of the place, as well as peoples expression in nature via events that are occurring to appraise it. In Jinnais work, Tokyo: a Spatial Anthropology, (1994) we are presented with the importance of the geographical location and the sense of place that marked the urban setting of Tokyo. A detailed history concentrating on the city of Edo25 shows the evolution of urban space in relation to its natural settings, such us the existing topography. In particular, Mount Fuji and Mount Tsukuba seen in a distance were very important elements in deciding the spatial orientation of the city. Mountains were worshipped as gods in Japan so they became objects of glorious beauty and the citys planning division was perfectly aligned to be orientated towards the mountains. The particular topography of the region also played an important role in the urban spatial structure of Tokyo: There are eight hill tops in Tokyo, which have been known since the Edo period as shiomi-zaka
25 The

26

and often referred to as

city of Edo was the former name of present capital of Tokyo, the seat of power of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The Edo period in Japan lasted from 1603 to 1868, year which Edo was renamed into Tokyo and became the ofcial capital of Japan. 26 Tide viewing hills.

62

3.4. TRANSIENCE AND RECONSTRUCTION mountains

27 .

Furthermore Jinnai introduces us with the meaning of meisho for

the Japanese city. There is no direct translation of meisho but it can be dened as a place where water and trees come together harmoniously with buildings to form an organic environment. Meisho is rather an abstract concept as it does not relate to a specic structure or location but rather to the success of reinterpreting a place harmoniously between all elements. The importance that monuments have for the occident as devices for memory is translated instead into the concept of meisho for the Japanese city. I think that this is one of the fundamental mnemonics that tie together people with place and it is not a model related to tradition by monumentalization processes that evokes often outbursts of nationalism and power. It is rather a true and profound bond with the place. As Jinnai (1996) conrmed: The meishos from Edo and earlier are much more closely related to nature and their value remains stable because they are tied to the peoples hearts at a very profound level. They will certainly continue forever as part of the townscape.28 . Even if Tokyo perpetually changes, the features related to nature or the topography will remain constant, a valuable asset for a city in motion to preserve its identity, or in Jinnais words: Even if the buildings are rebuilt, the permanency of the place will remain 29 . Consequently if we observe the people of the Japanese city, as we did in the next chapter, peoples special memories are often related to nature. It seems people try to preserve their existence in their everyday places, sustaining their identity, striving to create an environment with the personality of place (Jinnai, 1994, p. 18). The appreciation of nature is a cultural phenomenon in Japan as people hold such an affective bond to nature that in a way that it is perceived as a component indivisible of the city. For example, the changing seasons are so evident in the climate that the people praise every season accordingly with parallel events taking place in the city. The phenomenon of change and transformation can be as well explained with the cyclical character that emerges in every aspect of life in Japan. The most distinctive example is the spring blossoms that bloom every spring in Japan. The
with the transformation of the city in the 80s these viewing hills of Tokyo lost their primary role. With the construction of high-rise ofce and condominium buildings have begun to emerge, blocking the view completely and making it impossible for us to see directly the rich undulations of the topography. 28 Jinnai (1996, p. 43). 29 Jinnai (1996, p. 43).
27 Certainly

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CHAPTER 3. REINVENTING IDENTITY Japanese people await and prepare accordingly30 for the blossoms like westerners do for the Christmas preparations. It is perhaps Japans most festive season, a national sport to go sightseeing across the country, picnic under the sakura
31

trees,

have a close look at them, watch the cinematic falling pinkish leaves on a windy day and take exactly the same smiling photos as the previous year. The annual praise for the sakura blossoms is also linked to Buddhist teachings that indicate the beauty of things with the passage of time, the cycle of nature emphasizing the ever changing and impermanence of things. What Japanese people enjoy in the sakura-viewing season is the sequential cycle that occurs during the one week; where leaves are gradually blooming and progressively falling down. In the next chapter we will test this hypothesis with the interviews and show other ways in which nature becomes important in peoples understanding with and identifying the city. Shintos dictation about nature is also a vital doctrine for Japanese thinking that presents nature as indivisible from human life. Shinto religion recognizes many Gods, which exist anywhere especially in natural places such as rivers, rocks, mountains and other natural edices. The underlying principle is not to compete with nature but rather the aspiration to reach the perfect harmony between nature and man.
Sakura blossom in Shibuya, The relationship with nature is often Tokyo. Photo: www.japanstyle.info reected in the Japanese architecture Figure 3.5:

as well. In the architecture we nd a translucent barrier between interior and exterior realized achieved through the absence of structural walls and the ambiguous engawa32 zone that ensues gently
spring the people await for the sakura blossom, every autumn the momiji blossom, the winter snow, and the monsoon rains of the summer. All these events become such an important festivity, that the whole nation is equally engaged in viewing. 31 Cherry trees. 32 Engawa refers to the typically wooden strip of ooring immediately before windows and
30 Every

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3.4. TRANSIENCE AND RECONSTRUCTION the transition from inside to outside. In the traditional Japanese architecture wood is the primary construction material for houses, shrines and public buildings, as it aids in obscuring the borderline of where articiality starts and where it ends. 3.4.3 Creative chaos

In trying to explain the contemporary Tokyos chaotic and discentered urban space, we have found several analogous from the old city of Edo, Japanese culture and Buddhism which we would present here a few examples. The attempt to decipher the city has often led several authors to use metaphors in order to elucidate the city while others make associations to its heritage city of Edo. Famous Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa explains that Tokyos special feature as a city composed of many villages each one having distinctive characteristics is an analogue of the city of Edo:
I have expressed the idea that Tokyo is a conglomeration of 300 cities, in fact Tokyo in the Edo period was forced by the ruler of Tokugawa to take up residence in the new capital Edo. Each lord was assigned an area in correspondence to his ample revenue. Temples and shrines and monks from that region gathered in the area and took up residence, forming a city within a city. Edo used to be a group of small cities and this tradition has been inherited by contemporary Tokyo in a symbiosis of parts as a whole. Kurokawa (1994)33

In the contemporary city each district has its own distinctive identity and becomes a centre in its own rights. For example, Akihabara is Electric Town, as it is the Mecca of seeing and buying gadgets of the latest technology, Roppongi is a district developed in the 1980s and it is the centre of nightlife, Ginza is the rich town, Shibuya the fashion district, and Shinjuku were the metropolitan headquarters are found is known as the administrative center. The present state of Tokyo as a uid and transient city and its rapport with impermanence is also rooted to rudiments of the city of Edo where there was an understanding of the human dwellings as temporary shelters, especially in the
storm shutters inside traditional Japanese rooms. Recently this term has also come to mean the veranda outside of the room as well. Source:Wikipedia 33 In Henra van Sande paper : Bindings. Investigation on the interest of inter-bindings in Tokyos contemporary city : Kisho Kurokawa, by Finch Paul, in: Learning from Tokyo, From: Architectural Design, Vol. 64, n 1-2, 1994, pp. 8-19.

65

CHAPTER 3. REINVENTING IDENTITY low-city of Shitamachi. This was called ukiyo which translates into the oating world. Sacchi writes that its non-solid status produces a spectacular and hallucinatory event dans lequel Tokyo se rvle un lieu de samara en sanscrit sommet du devenir ou de lukiyo-e, le fugitive, le monde ottant (Sacchi, 2005, p.224). The oating world of contemporary Tokyo is seen as a fundamental reference to the city of Edo and Waley adds that the references to the oating world carry connotations not only of transience and impermanence but also to the carpe diem culture (Waley, 2006, p. 371). The attempt to interpret Tokyos chaotic urbanism, its prominent feature, we are once more guided at the direction of Buddhism thinking. Bognar (1997, p.3) nds roots in Buddhism tradition to explain the disorganized city that discards concepts of clear logic:
Buddhism emphasizes the evanescence and insubstantiality of things. Universal and immutable laws do not appeal to the Japanese. Nor does the logic of clear or autonomous identity; traditionally, Japanese things have not been subjected to the process of individuation and objectication.

Disorganized structures, destruction and chaotic daily routine are part of the Japanese culture and we can infer a few examples to justify this complexity. Japanese language one of them: the complex system that denes the Japanese culture and has been around for centuries. In the Japanese language, exist three different alphabets34 all used in writing, while the English alphabet and foreign words have also been introduced and used. The language is also notable for its complex system of honorics, a system with verb forms and meticulous vocabulary to address the relative status of the speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned in conversation. This frenzied and perplex system is in reality, highly hierarchical system in which different status such us class position, age or gender indicate the way of talking. This system reecting the nature of Japanese society yet it is a system that could have been simplied. The Japanese are voluntary engaged to perform and practice their language wholly with excellence. There is also a frequent employment of signs and metaphors while conversing. For example, saying no in Japanese is not really accepted when communicating. Instead there are sixteen different
three alphabets or scripts are the Chinese characters called kanji and two syllabicscripts made up of modied Chinese characters, hiragana and katakana. Also the English alphabet is widely used and called Romanji.
34 The

66

3.5. CONCLUSION ways to refuse35 , but without saying no directly. When translating a conversation directly there is usually no clear verdict to it, as body language is also utterly important in conveying meanings. For this reason there are a plentiful of books written in trying to decipher the Japanese language and ways of communicating, often designed for the foreigners. If we compare this particular characteristic with Tokyo city we can smoothly make the link with Tokyos urban character. There is no clear way out. It is energetic, full of signs, and it takes a lot of effort to reveal the supercial veil and nd a deeper meaning. Gunter Nietzsche (1995) has called this condition the creative chaos that fashions a new paradigm in architecture representing the world in motion and in which we are experiencing an intensication of human consciousness.

3.5

Conclusion

This chapter elucidated on different features of the contemporary identity of Tokyo, namely its ugliness and chaotic characteristics, a result of the frenetic development of the city, but a feature of Tokyo that afrms its own particular identity and makes it an identiable place amongst other cities around the world. We have also investigated several symbolic connotations that nd resonance when looking at Tokyos chaotic and meaningless and transient urban fabric. The old slogan wakon yosai has been an ancient technique that the Japanese have used in order to maintain their identity when exposed to foreign inuences. We have linked this idea wih glocalisation, another Japanese invention and probably an appropriate method to maintain the locality of a place in an increasing global world. It is the ability to inherit foreign cultures, technologies, but in such a manner that in adapts to their own needs, a method that makes the transition smooth. Similar symbolizations and translations of Shinto and Buddhist religions and the cyclical perception of nature have been adopted to explain mainly the ephemeral identity of Tokyo. We can after all conclude that this impermanent quality of the city is actually a permanent feature in Tokyos urban image, brought forward by ancient beliefs and the practise of those to this day.
35 (Sacchi

2005, p.105).

67

CHAPTER 3. REINVENTING IDENTITY In the next chapter, I will also propose that Tokyos urbanity can be related to the universal laws of the Japanese culture and people. Additionally, I would try to draw associations between the city identity and the human identify focusing in the non clear and not autonomous identity can describe both cities and people. Kimura (1972) and Hamaguchi Eshu who have extensively study the Japanese self appraise the uniqueness of the Japanese psyche. Kimura presents the Japanese self as not an autonomous entity, but merely as that part of a relationship which happens to be temporarily held by a person. [. . . ] it expands and contracts to t shared relationships and situations.
36

Similarly, Berque (1994, p. 174) explains that the city amoeba as put

forward by Ashihara that adapts situations to t in the urban tissue can interpret an order to the chaotic image of Tokyo: "[. . . ] lurbanit japonaise adapte souplement ses formes lvolution des besoins. [. . . ] Il ya bien l un ordre, mais cest un ordre cach sous lapparence du chaos37 . The suggestion of the human in the city, as an important constituent in terms of maintaining memories and meanings on one hand and in practicing a daily spaceroutine, on the other hand, delineates the use and identication in the city. People and their way of living is a vital value for the city and what we will try to suggest in the next chapter is how their lifestyle and activities aid to enhance Tokyos identity by promoting locality that is hidden behind the global image of the city.

36 As

cited in Davis (1998, p. 174).

37 Translation by the author:Japanese urbanity adapts its forms in a exible manner to the chang-

ing needs. [...] There is denitely an order but it is a hidden order under the disguise of chaos.

68

CHAPTER 4

THE INTERVIEWS

[. . . ] les dimensions moyennes dun logement sont de 55m2 , [. . . ] 5% est rserv aux parcs contre 30% Londres, [. . . ] 75% des travailleurs passent plus dune heure par jour dans les transports ; plus de 70% dorment moins de 6 heures par nuit ; 41% des couples maris se parlent moins de 15 minutes par jour [. . . ] et 10% ne se parlent pas du tout. Le cot de la vie est 50% suprieur celui de New York [. . . ] la vie moyenne dun dice est de 26 ans [. . . ]. Sacchi (2005, p. 32)

4.1

Introduction

In the last chapter we have discussed how the identity of the place is conveyed through conceptual connotations and translations of culture in the urban fabric. We have shown how the interpretation of the contemporary city is possible using metaphors, translation of traditions and culture. This is a way to reinforce the belief that in order to evaluate the condition of a city that architectural and urban spaces hold temporary meanings, we have to look beyond the physical structures. Throughout our exploration of place in the rst chapter we have been pointed towards the investigation of other intangible values that express place identity. As the rst chapter of this work has examined, one important element in looking into the identity of the place is to observe people. In this chapter we are going to look further into the intangible values correlated with the appreciation of place via its people, the practice of everyday life, such as lifestyle, local food and daily space routine. Within the pages that will follow Tokyo is presented through the eyes of its citizens, in this way we are looking as well at the identity with Tokyo, that

CHAPTER 4. THE INTERVIEWS Edward Relph suggested as an appropriate research method. We will demonstrate in this part that one signicant apparatus that Tokyo holds in preserving its identity and the unique spirit of the place is through its people. People are not only important for their physical presence in the city but their practice of everyday life in the contemporary metropolis evokes traditional Japanese values and keeps the Japanese spirit alive. We are going to look at some of the customs and everyday rituals that are performed by the habitants of Tokyo, that will guide us to discover another side of Tokyo that we cannot simply decipher when looking at the physical attributes or scholars ideas about the place. The perception of the city by its habitants is another supplementary tool to understand a city that is difcult to dene in its spatial terms. The image as gured by the inhabitants, furthermore, play a social, psychological, and esthetic, as well as practical role in our lives (Lynch, 1960, p. 123). Section 4.1 is going to portray the impression of Tokyo by the interviewees, through maps designed by the people and direct questioning on the subject. In Section 4.2, we will inquire directly on the question of orientation and identication, an essential element in understanding ones environment since primitive times (Lynch, 1960, p. 123). Identifying and orientating oneself within a city demonstrates ones attachment of the city, ones place within the city. The
Figure 4.1: Tokyo: people as a physical element. Photo by author

notion of place attachment that we have discussed in the rst chapter is a feature that needs to be examined via conversa-

tions with people in order to reveal the place-identity. The exposition of this part of the research has resulted from a detailed inter70

4.2. IMPRESSION AND CENTERS view conducted while in Tokyo in the summer of 2009. The attempt is to enhance the hypothesis that in fast changing city we should concentrate on the intangible values of a city in order to comprehend its identity. Furthermore, the peoples exploitation of big cities and the question of place-identity is an interesting subject for studying cities under development. For the purpose of this project, I have interviewed 27 people that I have encountered while walking in Tokyo-to around the Shinjuku and Shibuya districts. The interviews were a process that lasted for 8 consecutive days. The 27 people were chosen to t a melting pot of different sexes, different age groups, and different occupations. The interview also aimed to incorporate a non-Japanese crowd, as to have a more wide perception of the city, given that each culture understands the city in an alternate fashion. The overall outcome was as follows: 14 females of which 4 were non-Japanese and below 35 and 4 were Japanese women over 40. There were a total of 13 males who 5 of them were non-Japanese and below 35, and 4 were in the age group of 40 and over. The overall process interview had a duration of about one hour, a considerable amount of time for the busy Tokyoite. Generally the non-Japanese crowd was more open to talk directly of their ideas about Tokyo while I had a general difculty in trying to reinterpret the question. The questionnaire was designed partially following the example of Lynchs (1960) questionnaire in his book: The image of the city (ibid., p. 141). Lynchs questionnaire proposes the examination of the imageabilty of the city, those " physical qualities which relate to the attributes of identity and structure in the mental image". (ibid., p. 9). Questions one, two and four, are somewhat compiled from Lynchs questionnaire. They have been though, extensively adapted to t our case of study Tokyo, and was further enhanced to make queries about center, identity, quality of living. The questionnaire helped to widen the questions rstly regarding the image of a city that lacks physical references and secondly to retrieve those qualities that are important for the residents of such a city.

4.2

Impression and Centers

We are going to present here the general results of question 1 that were depicted from asking people about their general impression of Tokyo. Question 1 was con71

CHAPTER 4. THE INTERVIEWS

Figure 4.2: Map 1: Concrete Jungle

sisted of questions like descriptions of the city, distinctive features, the question of center, and the sketch of a quick map. Tokyo Tower1 came rst as a monument or a landmark that the people incorporated in the descriptions of the physical image of Tokyo. The density and the tall buildings was another important reference that people commonly expressed. Yet, these tall buildings were anonymous in the descriptions; it was rather the overall image of Tokyo that was described. Other frequent responses were of the sort: funny, exciting, crowded, silly, tall buildings, chaotic, concrete jungle, a city for the young people. A few answers portrayed people as a kind of physical element in their depiction of the city like: people in nice clothes walking amongst tall buildings and Dark and
Tokyo Tower is a replica of the Eiffel Tower(320m), built in Tokyo in 1958, and it has been the worlds tallest (333m) self supporting steel tower. It is a communication and observation tower that attracts millions of tourist per year.
1 The

72

4.2. IMPRESSION AND CENTERS sad Japanese guys wearing sad black suits rushing to take their train to go to their sad Company and spoil their lives there. Tokyo Tower is the only reference of a historical structure, even though a very recent one, there has been no reference to other physical elements revealing Japanese identity, neither the natural environment appeared in the rst impression. Contrary a few non-places have been mentioned like the Tsutaya2 chain shops or the Shibuya Crossing 109 Shopping Centre3 . A general observation from the rst impression was the vagueness of the answers brought forward by the generalization of the descriptions. 4.2.1 Map Analysis

The maps were an appropriate method to create an initial impression of Tokyo prior to the interview that inquires directly on the mental image of the encountered places before proceeding with the rest of queries that exhort for precision. Above all, they serve as an indication to understand how the habitant relates with his environment. In designing the map of his city, the interviewee is positioning himself in place and reveals his perception and connection to the city. Below I will summarize the most signicant information drawn out from the maps. The request was to draw a map of Tokyo similar as if making a rapid description to someone about the city as specically asked in question 2a.
lms and other audio visual material. It is omnipresent everywhere in Japan, and it is usually a standardized building easy to recognize with bright blue and yellow colors standing out. 3 A huge department store of ten stories high, featuring the latest fashion.
2 Tsutaya is a rental chain shop of music,

Figure 4.3: Map 2

73

CHAPTER 4. THE INTERVIEWS I have received a variety of responses concerning the spatial boundaries of Tokyo. Fifteen people consider Tokyo to be the inside of Yamanote line, which is actually the Tokyo center not Tokyo as a whole. The geographical situation of Tokyo including the prefectures that composed it was described as Tokyo from six people. Five people positioned Tokyo with relation to the neighboring cities, while one has actually placed Tokyo in a world map. 24 people placed correctly the north in their drawings. The most important observation made from the maps is the strong physical presence of train stations that seem to help people to identify with the city. Names of areas have been identied and placed on the maps in accordance to the train path traversing through them. Yamanote line that encircles Tokyo-to, the center, was a key feature and shown in twenty maps. Two important physical landmarks have been identied: The Imperial Palace and the Tokyo Tower which were structures that six people included in their drawings. Other points of references were not physical structures but districts as a whole. Twenty one interviewees used districts as a whole as points of reference in their maps, districts that for the most of the times are found on the Yamanote line. (For example Shinjuku and Shibuya were almost continually present, and others like Ueno, Odaiba, Asakusa, and Akihabara were present randomly). An important remark reected from the interviews is that the physical presence of Tokyo has an impact on the people, but not the specicity of places but the image as a whole. This was depicted from the incorporation of tall buildings in the maps, where ve people either represented them in text but for the most cases by drawing 74
Figure 4.4: Map 3

4.2. IMPRESSION AND CENTERS in their maps. The demonstration in the previous readings about the natural environment of Tokyo was one feature that I had expected to be revealed from the interviews. However, there were four people indicating the position of Tsukuba and Fuji mountains and another one to point out the Tama River that traverses Tokyo. Tokyo bay and the sea were present in the drawings of one fth of the people but this is probably due to the proximity to the Tokyo center. Seven interviewees precisely illustrated the Daiba4 area in their maps, which is the district next to Tokyo bay, a perfect example of a non-place, as it is an articial island consisting of primarily shopping centers, entertainment venues and chain hotels. Daiba is a collection of places around the world where the district as a whole brings to mind a sea resort from Australia as it consists of a lot of open spaces unlikely the rest of Tokyo. The Rainbow Bridge that connects Tokyo center to this articial island and is described as Tokyos answer to Golden Gate Bridge (Cybriwsky, 2005, p. 223). There is a little Hong Kong district and the Telecom Building that is a version of Le grand Arc in La Dfence of Paris. A little further there is another Huge Shopping mall named Venus fort, with interior streets and buildings reinvented with origins of a 18th century southern European town that actually resembles a Las Vegas version of Italy (Cybriwsky, 2005, p. 224). On the same island, we can nd also many examples of impressive and massive buildings originating from Japanese architects, like the Fuji TV Headquarters, designed by Kenzo Tange or Tokyo Big sight convention center. There
is a waterfront area opposite Tokyo Centre, connected by Rainbow Bridge. It is built entirely on reclaimed land and it is a leisure and recreation area.
4 Daiba

Figure 4.5: Map 4

75

CHAPTER 4. THE INTERVIEWS are much more of these massive buildings in Daiba which demonstrates Japans fascination to impress through their pizzazz architecture. Home positioning was also important in the drawing of these maps where one third of the people located their home in their maps. Work was also more or less equally represented. Other places with meaning that evoke a sort of Japanese spirit were under represented; one interviewee has positioned the important and traditional Tsukiji5 sh market and another the famous Rainbow Bridge. Rather, non-places have appeared on peoples maps like the Haneda and Narita airport (one interviewee), and Disneyland (one interviewee). One interviewee has drawn an impression of Tokyo instead of a map in which we can interpret his own perception of Tokyo: chaotic, tall buildings, sameness of physical structures, the presence of people, and the search for the sky. Two more people have also illustrated people in their maps while others attempted to depict the spectacular image of Tokyo by placing stars, glitters and colors in their drawings. The maps were an appropriate tool to form a rst impression of Tokyo because it has been a quick and spontaneous practice that captures the insight of people before insisting on specic descriptions. For example, the impression portrayed regarding the question of center was different in drawing than in the general depiction about the center of the city. On one hand, it was evident from the maps the absence of a center in the city, while on the other hand, we had for half of the people, the prominent Yamanote line encircling the center of Tokyo, creating a new mega center. 4.2.2 Centers

Responding directly to the question of center (1b), there has been a contrived view of what is considered to be the center, a peculiar fact for habitants of the city. From the diversity of answers I have received, only six people understood the structure of the multiple centers that Tokyo is bounded within, from which four were foreigners. Otherwise, I have been receiving answers naming differsh market is the biggest sh wholesale market in the world and maybe the biggest wholesale market as well. (Wikipedia). Tokugawa Ieyasu, the rst Tokugawa shogun and builder of Edo, has established the market and invited shermen from all over Japan to work by supplying the city of Edo with sh.
5 Tsukiji

76

4.3. IDENTIFICATION AND ORIENTATION ent places as centers, Shinjuku and Shibuya more notably while Chiyoda and the central station of Tokyo where also popular answers. A small percentage (3 people) considered the inside of the Yamanote subway line to be the center of the city which is an area that is already too vast (an area of 70km2 ) to be appropriated as a center. Two interviewees considered the imperial palace as the center, while another two could not identify any part of the city as a center. The fact that the Imperial Palace is either considered as a prominent physical feature by some or the center of the city by others is a peculiar result given that it is an empty place, a void center since it is closed to the general public and therefore prohibits any social interaction. Tokyo, the city without a center was a subject of interest to many anthropologists, and was used to try to explain the distinctive and particular personalities of the Japanese people. Chie Natane, a Japanese anthropologist took this fascinating idea to explain the society as mollusk, and explained how it attributes perfectly to the decentered personalities of the Japanese people (Sacchi , 2005, p.78). Nakane explained that in the social group of the Japanese, the leader is an empty gure, ready, apparently, to receive and accept anything that might be offered. Ikegami (1991, p. 11). We can also link the absence of the center in the city with what Watsuji stated about denial of individual autonomy a Japanese human being is never an individual in the western sense of world; he or she is dened by a set of relationships with others. This new model of contextual structure of humanism can nd similar resemblance to the way the Japanese city is viewed and understood from the outside as a whole and not by the attentiveness to individual entities (Jinnai, 1994). Actually, the concept of the empty center in the Japanese culture is a phenomenon evident in myths dating back to the 8th century. These myths portray stories of Gods that appear in triples which in the middle one is never actually represented (Kawai, 1982)6 .

4.3

Identication and Orientation

One of the major concerns of a city that is always mutating, is that it does not facilitate the task of orientating and of nding ones way in the city. Architect
6 As

quoted in Ikegami (1991, p. 12).

77

CHAPTER 4. THE INTERVIEWS Lynch (1960), along with the ethnologist Norberg-Schulz (1980), pointed out how orientation and identication aid in establishing a relationship with meaning between man and his environment. The notion of the spirit of the place as NorbergSchulz (1980) illustrated, presents the power that a place seizes which guides man into inhabiting a place. To understand who we are and where we are coming from we need to be able to identify with the places that we live. Orientating ones self in a big city like Tokyo is not an easy task, contrasting to other cities that are based on an axial grid system and have important buildings as landmarks, or other xed identiable structures that people reference to nd their way around the city. In Tokyo, not only monumental structures or buildings are absent but moreover, given the rhythm of change in the city, even buildings and facades could be altered, or demolished at express speeds, creating a sort of confusion for the habitants. Overlooking these facts, one of the fundamental difculties in nding ones way in Tokyo is the fact that the streets have no names, or as Barthes (1982, p. 33) put it largest city in the world is practically unclassied. The city is divided scrupulously like a hierarchical pyramid. It is rst classify by ku, the prefecture, then into shi, a city, then the next smaller nest is the cho, the urban ward and nally on the inner stratum of this allotment is chokai, the neighborhood. The chokai is appointed with a name and further divided into parcels where numbers are placed randomly, in a rst come rst serve kind of logic7 . The chokai is actually a selfgoverning organization unit that dates back to the middle ages. When one lives in a particular chokai, he becomes a member of the neighborhood, the smallest group that exists in Japanese social structure besides ones household. The above mentioned city structure expresses the hierarchical order that exists in Japanese cities that as Nitschke (2003, p. 3) also conrms: has its roots in the social behaviour of its people, traditional and modern. Tokyo of course could have adopted another system of naming the streets since the city was completely leveled in World War 2 and was already a modernized city with occidental characteristics. But yet the naming and numbering of the streets remain illegible. As Nitschke (2003, p. 2)
actual logic of the numbering of the parcels with in a district is according to the date that parcel was used to accommodate a structure. It is kind of a rst come, rst serve, and the numbering runs consecutively. A common address in Japan might has the following format: Arao Building B2, 2-25-2, Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 160-0021
7 The

78

4.3. IDENTIFICATION AND ORIENTATION said: There must be a profound, perhaps unconscious, reason why the Japanese chose to live with a system of urban spatial orientation which is nearly not understandable to an outsider, and why they continue to do so. We will next analyze the responses of the questionnaire and discuss the implications of orientation and identication in such a transient city. How do its habitants maintain a sense of orientation and identication with their surroundings if they keep transforming? To what are the habitants referring to in their daily life? Through which objects or daily practices is their Japanese identity revealed? What spaces have emerged as identiable structures?

4.3.1

Orientation

The questions about orientation was aiming to point out which spatial structures or other reference points do the Tokyoites identify with and use as everyday reference points in the undertaking of their daily space-routine. It is a signicant component of the questionnaire as the answers enables us to discover the elements that people living in Tokyo encounter everyday, and use as references to locate and move themselves physically in the city, while creating and maintaining their sense of orientation in an ever-changing environment 8 . The nature of these features resulting from the interviews were of diverge natures, possessing further varied and hybrid qualities when compared to Lynchs responses, that were for most of the time related to the urban artifacts. From the assortment of answers received, I have decided to organize them in four distinguished categories: I have named the rst one physical references, a category which includes physical structures like buildings, bridges and monuments. The second one is named environmental references, which includes any natural edices (the sky, the sea, the mountains and so on), the third unimportant others because it embraces elements that are of insignicant nature. The fourth and more obscure category I named nowhere as it the interviewees could not give any description of their daily space-routine. From the depiction of the results, only 14 people gave descriptions that inresults for this section were derived form question 2b, 2c, and question 4 and can be found in the appendix.
8 The

79

CHAPTER 4. THE INTERVIEWS cluded physical structures. This group of physical references, included mostly unimportant and anonymous buildings, gray buildings, the building with the green neon signage. It was not the building as such that proved important but some kind of peculiar feature that the building had that made it identiable. Those anonymous structures were referential points for six interviewees while for three of them was the indication of the train stations. At the same time, monumental type buildings like Tokyo Tower, Tokyo University, the Imperial Palace and Tokyo Station were included in ve of the twenty seven descriptions. Other types of buildings that are of insignicant architectural nature but yet of an increased importance due to their omnipresence and homogeneity, are structures like McDonalds, Tsutaya shops, Konbini stores9 , Starbucks, pachinko10 and shopping centers. These places are easily identiable because the same physical image is produced everywhere which makes them easy to identify, easy to recognize comparing to the messy organization and the proliferated hybrid features of the street. Due to their regular occurrence in the city, or in the entire country and many of them even globally they have become the new type of monuments, the new landmarks of cities. Pachinko parlors for example can be easily identiable because of their frenzy colorful appearance, the sparkling ickering lights and particularly due to the bland technologically generated music that exits these buildings. Another example of an identiable structure in the urban fabric is the Konbini stores. These are places that all Japanese use daily at least once a day and have appeared frequently in the peoples descriptions. Inside these stores there is what is needed to practically live by. There is fresh food on a daily basis, cold and warm, beverages including alcoholic ones, newspapers, cigarettes, objects needed for household or ofce use, an ATM machine, a copy machine, the possibility to reserve tickets (ranging from buses, concerts, trains, a sport spectacle, etc.), print your photos, pay your bills. There are also toilets that the public can use upon request and that are always surprising clean! All these goods and services are available on a twenty-four hour basis, which makes them truly convenient and a

are 24 hour convenience stores like 7/11, Lawson, Sunkus that are exactly the same building produced nationwide. 10 Japanese center for gaming devices used for gambling.

9 Konbini

80

4.3. IDENTIFICATION AND ORIENTATION

Figure 4.6: Tokyo: Outside Shibuya train station; Identiable elements: the MacDonalds sign, Promisu Department store, green peas pachinko, a tree. Photo by author.

place absolutely necessary for the entire population. At the moment some 42,34511 konbini stores are calculated to exist in Japan. In the same category of physical references we nd that train stations are again central to peoples daily spatial interaction and recognition in there urban space. Most oral descriptions have been actually the way from home to the train station, the way nding within the train station in order to arrive at work. Train stations are an emerging place with highlighted meaning for the Japanese people as one uses them and interacts with them the same way one moves in the city; it has become their daily urban reality. The labyrinth of routes inside train stations, the wide range of shopping activities possible underground including post ofce, toilets, camera shops, pachinko, becomes a new kind of urban place where all kinds of activities can take place within these extents. Many train stations are connected underground with all major buildings, this way people transfer directly from the train to their work space without having to exit. Below one example of the daily space routine of one interviewee in which
Franchise Association, as of August 2009 (data pertaining to the month of July 2009); Source: Wikipedia
11 Japan

81

CHAPTER 4. THE INTERVIEWS we nd absolutely no indication of where this place might be. The only indication that we might be talking about a Japanese city could be the advertisement sign of Suntory Hall, a beer establishment:
First, I walk down the slope in front of my apartment until it hits a crossing. Then, turn to the right and walk straight until I reach the subway station. I take subway and get off at the second station. When I get out of the platform, I ignore the rst exit that is connected to an ofce building, and turn to the left. Passing by the advertisement of Suntory Hall, I walk underground until I reach the other exit. I use the escalator and get to the ground. Then, the ofce building in which my law rm is located is already in front of me. I pass by a restaurant and a tea shop on the ground level and enter the building.

The second category of environmental references has been signicant to only six people, contrary to what I expected, as these are the static references of Tokyo. Rivers, mountains, the sea, the slopes, the hills, and the greenery are more or less x elements and from the previous readings proved to be important in preserving Tokyos identity. For Rumiko, a young female engineer
Figure 4.7: Tokyo: Shinjuku underground train labyrinth. Photo by author.

we observe in her narrative a mixture of environmental elements (the cherry trees and the river), unim-

portant others (the red post box), and physical structures (the konbini and japanese restaurants) that reveal a pure Japanese character, yet the generality of the image is ubiquitous in her depiction:
I used to go out of the front door, make a right turn at a red post box, walk along with the river with cherry trees (beautiful in spring!), arrived at the station after passing a few Konbini, Ramen-ya12 , Izakaya13 , and coffee shops [. . . ]
for Noodle shop respectively. These are restaurants serving solely traditional Japanese noodles. 13 Izakaya derives from i and sakaya meaning to sit and sake shop respectively. It is a Japanese
12 Ramen-Ya stands

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4.3. IDENTIFICATION AND ORIENTATION The third category named unimportant others that arose, was remarkable as the non physical elements, rather abstract begin to take an important place in the memory of the people and were present in more than half of the responses. Examples of these elements that arose from the interviews where: the red post box, the coin showers, multi-storey car parks, the tobacco machine, plastic sushi on the window display, advertising signs in the street, restaurant front signs, city signs on the pavements, the vending machine of used womens underwear14 . Signs, advertising, maps in train stations, electronic surfaces, noises from the street, people activities. Signs in the street whether maps, advertising signs, trains station entrance signs, shop names and so on proved to be central to people in their everyday way nding. We can interpret these small objects or structures into what Judo and Kuroda called the pets of the city, that add a richness to Tokyos urban identity. The recognition of these objects for the daily space routine of the people is not surprisingly. Even though they are very temporal elements in the city, I think that their human scale makes the habitants association to them more straightforward than a skyscraper or a bridge. Following is an example of a description that incorporates the pet size objects, like the Figure 4.8: Unimportant coin shower, the vending machines, unidentied build- others: warnings on the ings and generally the anonymity of all physical struc- pavement, vending matures:
First thing I see when going to the train station is the two Coca Cola vending machines near my building. Then a rental parking lot on the left, then chine, direction signs, elevated car park. Photos by author.

style drinking and eating restaurant, that for most of the times the sitting is on the oor on the tatami mats like Traditional Japanese style sitting. Izakayas are usually affordable, and they are places that you can drink and eat until early morning hours. 14 Yes, it exists!

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a coin shower. Next is a Sunkus convenient store. After a sloping road, there is a two-oor grey building on the right: this is the place when I have to turn left. Then I cross a bridge, have a school on my left, and walk along the railway track until I reach the station.

We can see in the descriptions of Maxime, a foreigner living in Tokyo, that the unimportant others elements that are rather abstract or could be dened as nonplaces like the parking and the cola machines are the objects he uses to position himself and move though city space. These unimportant elements, anonymous structures, global symbols take now an important place in the human memory when creating the mental map of the city. Maxime always takes the same road, and like all Japanese persons are precisely aware of time, he as well knows that it takes him 12 minutes to reach his destination. Finally, from the interviews arose the nowhere category, that accounts for a big number of eight out of the twenty seven of the total answers. This category portrays people that could not give any accurate description of their daily space routine. All these people were Japanese residents. Blurred images of their environment, inability to form a mental image, these are the people that
Figure 4.9: Unimportant others: small shop in Tokyo selling beuatiful objects becomes a point of reference Photo by author.

seem to be fully absorbed in their daily routines, a ritual that they perform in a robotic manner. They are entering a train, closing the eyes, listening to their music while playing

with their high-tech gadgets, the only indication of reaching a destination being the name plaque at the train stations stop or rather the automated voice that pronounces the station at each stop. The image that these people have is busy train stations, trains cramped with people, pushing in the trains and relief upon arrival. One young woman told me that she cannot nd her way home without the use of 84

4.3. IDENTIFICATION AND ORIENTATION her GPS mobile phone. She went on to depict her story of losing her phone and was incapable to locate her house after work.

One way that we could try to explain this is the excess of materiality and the multitude of information that exist in the city. There is an excess in image, an excess of people, of buildings, of advertising signs and symbols, of noises. All this can be overwhelming for a habitant; the entire city is composed by the omnipresence of places, objects and signs that are not referential or historical elements. One hypothesis that we have drawn from this question is that people choose subconsciously not to absorb their environment as reluctance to assimilate with it.

Whilst, I have specically asked about the attention to the advertising surfaces, being one of the most basic characteristic in Tokyos urban image. As discussed before, these surfaces are actually what ornate the external envelope of a building. They are an inseparable part of the faade, immense and decorative, however not a static and permanent feature but an ever-changing one. 17 people answered that they use them daily for identication and orientation while four interviewees tend towards them when they are in search for a place. This demonstrates peoples daily dependence and attachment to these electronic screens. Additionally, ve of the twenty seven use these surfaces as an important part of their life because they portray the latest trends in fashion and gadgets. The remaining four interviewees pay no attention to these advertising billboards because they overwhelm them.

An interesting observation that also arose from the interviews is that the disorientating personality of Tokyo is the incentive for people to go out and experience the city. Four interviewees mentioned that one of their activities in Tokyo is to walk and explore the city. It looks like that for the Tokyoites, orientation comes only after the experience of the city, there is a need to discover the city by walking, by sight, by habit. The need to discover the city arises probably from the fact that the city changes and is never the same hence memories vanish causing a constant desire to accumulate the new environment and recreate memories to relate with the city. 85

CHAPTER 4. THE INTERVIEWS 4.3.2 Memories

Subsequently, I have asked specically of what are the emotions and thoughts of their changing environment or of buildings that have vanished from the city. Twenty people have generally accepted this reality reminding of the Zen principles and ideology that distinguishes Japanese people and culture. Soosaku an artist from Tokyo said to me: it changes so fast, I cannot really follow, but it is funny15 . While interviewee No.4 said: If this is what is ought to happen, it is ok. Tokyo has to keep up with the capitalist image. These people looked at changes as something that is ought to happen, because of the need of constant growth. Another interviewee, Yoshi explained: "Tokyo is symbol of Japanese modern aspect and should develop itself constantly in advanced manner. I feel happy by seeing new things. No nostalgic feeling.. Five people were feeling sad to see buildings go down but only if they had a historical or other personal meaning to them. Only two people were generally negative about the transient city and the boundless growth, and both of them were people over sixty years old. The majority of people, 22 of them, do not hold specic memories of buildings that have already being torn down, while the remaining ve of them could give accurate descriptions if the place had a special meaning to them.In general we could say that most of the young people considered this transient personality of the city as a challenge, as it provides them for the excitement to be there and to exist in this hallucinatory state. These younger crowds enjoy being lost in the city and for them it is a stimulation to walk around and discover this city, which in turn almost always endows with the unexpected. When talking about special memories that the city has engraved in peoples mind, a great deal of them were related with activities in which the environment setting has a principal role. Examples included, cruise in Sumida River, Sakura blossom viewings, picnic in parks, appreciating Tokyos view from a skyscraper. For seven people, monuments like imperial palace and Tokyo Tower held a special place in their memories, whilst of similar importance had the shopping centers. There were as well stories describing personal memories that could only become a
people often use the word funny when they want to express something that is interesting and fun.
15 Japanese

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4.3. IDENTIFICATION AND ORIENTATION reality in Tokyo like Jean-Francois story. Jean-Francois, a French engineer married to a Japanese and permanently residing in Tokyo narrates: When colleagues came to my place just before my marriage and make me dress like a Shibuya girl16 and walk around in Tokyo with a sign "free kiss. The best was it was easy to catch girls to try it ! Thats really Disneyland, in Paris I would have probably gotten into trouble ...

4.3.3

Identication

Question 5 aimed directly in enquiring of these features, tangible or intangible elements, physical structures or just activities in Tokyo that divulge Japanese spirit or peoples identity. People were asked to point out these elements in the city that make you feel closer to your Japanese identity ". The results were of diverse nature. Eating Japanese food and going out to traditional Izakaya was top of the list, as seven people considered food as an important feature of the Japanese identity. Japanese cuisine which is called washoku is indeed an indication that reveals the exclusivity of the Japanese identity, given its long history and the fact that it has remained unaltered from western inuences. It is as well, one signicant ele- Figure 4.10: Tokyo: Washoku, Japanese traditional ment of Japanese culture that is food. Photos by author. widely exported. The rich variety of dishes and the attention to seasonality are not the only reasons that food in Japan is considered to be authentic and truthful to its origins. The way food is prepared and served demonstrates once again how the notion of beauty that is absent from the city is found rather in smaller objects or deeds. Saito (2007, p. 116) explains:
girls is a fashion statement that some Japanese girls seem to follow. This is a style where the girls bleach their hair, spent hours per day in tanning salons and have indeed a very dark skin. To contrast their dark colour they wear pale lipsticks, punkish colourful clothes, and high platform shoes. Shibuya girls have become a tourist attraction of Tokyo, and they are walking around craving to be photographed.
16 Shibuya

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The highly sophisticated aesthetics involved in Japanese food, engaging all the senses [. . . ] an important focus of Japanese food is its handling of the ingredients. In general, the manipulation of each ingredient (cutting, choice of cooking method, seasoning arrangement) is done so as to bring out the best of its native qualities

Serving and presenting the food is also crucial, as the Japanese cuisine, requires various plates each destined to receive the appropriate content. Saito says that [. . . ]the arrangement is not only evident in restaurants but also in everyday meals at home. The idea of exposing ones identity in the city through other activities not related directly to spaces can nd a lot of other indications in the Japanese paradigm. A discussion I had with Yoshi, a young manager, of a famous car industry establishment, elucidated my enquiries: Tokyo is always creating modern Japanese culture and enjoying it makes us feel very Japanese. Identity is not always linked with tradition. We can use the example of the rite of packaging in Japan, to present such a cultural practice not relating with tradition, yet it transmits an indispensable Japanese quality and is not as straightforward as one will imagine. This is an action performed with a meticulous and rather spiritual effort. Every shape requires different methods of wrapping, while the context of the enclosure decides on the material for wrapping. In Japan, one can nd hundreds of books with instructions of how to package items. Fumihiko Maki (1979) declares: I know of no other culture that has produced such a rich accumulation of wrapping systems so beautiful and functional, for accommodating the wide variety of contents and shapes for the enclosures (p. 60). These are patterns in everyday life that show a great aesthetic sensitivity, where beauty is exposed in the unfolding sequential experience that these acts are performed. Practices of everyday life that are customary employed by a large percentage of people, also revealed the place-identity even though only a few pointed them out in the interview. These are actions exclusively Japanese and include taking shoes off in ones house and in restaurants, sitting on the oor, bowing, having a Japanese bath at home or at the local public bath, the sento. These activities have one feature in common, the need for cleanliness. Cleanliness for the Japanese is an expression of ethnic values as well as an afrmation of ethnic superiority. Shoes are removed and left at the entrance of the house (even if this is an apartment in Tokyo), as not to allow the external evil and dirty to penetrate their house. This habit is 88

4.3. IDENTIFICATION AND ORIENTATION performed still in many restaurants in Tokyo, regardless of their western appeal, where customers and staff alike wear slippers to enter. Naturally, shoes should be removed when entering all religious establishments or teahouses in Japan. Indeed Tokyo is an extremely clean capital, the streets are usually clean of garbage, public spaces are extremely clean while public toilets are spotless. This practice in not only initialized by government, but it is always striking to see that Tokyoites that carry their portable ashtrays or plastic bags so they will not throw any waste on the street. Other everyday objects that people carry for the stipulation for cleanliness include hot towel to wash hands before eating, special face tissues to remove sweat, normal tissues, gloves and hats (to protect against the sun as beauty is considered to be the white skin color). Additionally, two people pointed out the simple act of bowing as a practice that exposes their identity. This simple act is a gesture used to greet someone, a fundamental practice in the everyday life of the Japanese people. It is a form of politeness, and performed mutually by everyone who resides in Japan regardless of the places features. People bow in front of God statues in shrines, they bow in the McDonalds counter, in a petrol station and when talking to the phone even though nobody is looking at them. The custom is not presupposed by the physicality of place but rather by the intangible values of peoples mental qualities. Fashion is also an identiable feature that we can employ to dene Tokyos uniqueness, as well as an expression of cultural identity. We nd particularly in Tokyo streets, more than any other city in Japan or in the globe an extreme variety of fashion styles. Besides traditional costumes or western modern outts, the popular fashion involves an integration of various styles piled together in a sophisticated system of hierarchizing layers, textures and colors that result in an original and fresh look. On top of that, Tokyo street fashion is particularly outstanding as it is possible to count at least ten alternative styles that we do not encounter in other parts of the world. Examples are Cosplay style where people dress up as their favorite anime characters, Kogal, where girls dress up in high school look alike uniforms, or the emerging style of Dolly Kei, that is inspired from the Middle Ages with a twist of fairy tale theme, vintage clothes or religious symbols. Sacchi (2005, p. 210) accounts how even in the nancial crises of the 90s the shopping 89

CHAPTER 4. THE INTERVIEWS habits of the habitants did not change:

A Tokyo en somme, on vend et on achte tout, comme si rien-ou presquerien stait pass. Un peuple de fashion victims, pour le quel le shopping est un impratif catgorique, sur lautel duquel on sacrie sans hsitation nimporte quoi ; . . . le shopping prend ici les dimensions dun phnomne psychologique du masse, et les architectures consacres la vente des produits du luxe constituent une composante importante de limage urbaine17 .

Engaging in traditional activities like Noh theatre, Kabuki, traditional Japanese dance, martial arts, festivals that represent the Japanese culture was another important delineation that proved as important as food. Festivals, called matsuri in Japanese are often spectacular events, with traditional costumes and processions through cities. There are hundreds of them and all of them aim to revoke ancient Japanese heritage. One interviewee mention that he feels Japanese while attending the Tokyo Sumida Fireworks (Hanabi) Festival is celebrated on the last Sunday in July. It is a spectacular show with 20,000 reworks and a crowd of more than one million attending to watch the Tokyo sky light up. Fireworks, call Hanabi in Japanese are a common cultural ritual used for matsuri celebrations. It Figure 4.11: Tokyo: Fashion. Photos by is a tradition inherited from China and red author. up for the rst time in Edo in 1733 to mark the opening of the river for boats. In a way, the Japanese spirit is kept alive
by the author: In short, at Tokyo, one sells and buys everything, as if nothing-or almost-happened. A crowd of fashion victims, for which shopping is a dogmatic imperative, like an altar where things are sacriced without any hesitation; [...] shopping here takes the dimensions of a mass psychological phenomenon and the architecture is dedicated to the sale of luxury products is an important component of the urban image.
17 Translation

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4.3. IDENTIFICATION AND ORIENTATION through the continuation of these customs, and as these proceedings take place in the city, the city itself becomes the ground were tradition and history is reinvented. Through the many celebrations of deities and other ancestral and ethnic legacies that are omnipresent in Tokyo, people start experiencing them by becoming part of them hence the sense of belonging and identication with place is strengthen.

Activities or events related to nature also proved important for the peoples identity. Five people mentioned activities such as the sakura blossom viewing, having picnic in parks as to connect them to their true nature. Another interviewee mentioned that walking around Tokyo and exploring the city makes him feel Japanese, because the city offers innumerable surprises. Another one said that the lack of time while living in the capital made them
Figure 4.12: Tokyo: Matsuri. Photo by author.

feel as particularly Japanese, as if the absence of time this is what the Neo-

Tokyo represents. A few answers also related identity to the Japanese psyches nature to be organized, clean and polite as a common feature that all Japanese people possess. One interviewee said to be that using the train marks his Japanese identity, and this train culture made him feel utterly Japanese! One more said that the only thing that can help him get close to his roots in Tokyo was to watch Japanese television which is a genuinely Japanese practice broadcasting Japanese dramas about everyday Japanese life, silly shows, and Japanese anime that generally present the pop culture that is evident in contemporary Japan. Another interviewee recognizes Karaoke spaces as a way to feel Japanese. Karaoke venues are consisted of individualized room-boxes that exist in multi oor buildings that our interviewee regularly goes to practice his singing abilities. 91

CHAPTER 4. THE INTERVIEWS 4.3.4 Public Spaces

Finally other interesting statements about identication arose from peoples regard to public spaces. We have drawn essential remarks about the meaning of public spaces and what kind of places consider as public. Even though parks were a common understanding of a public space, (yet at Tokyo many of the parks have an entrance fee), there were a lot of responses that suggest a new meaning of public space. Shopping centers were considered as public space by six people. A young Japanese girl mentioned that purikura as what she performs frequently as a public activity. Purikura are sticker photos decorated with a choice of hundreds symbols, taken in individualized photo booths that exist everywhere, either free standing in streets, department stores, trains stations, or in purikura centers. New understanding of public spaces came about as people were considering train stations (three people), Streets (two people), Konbini (two people), Karaoke halls (two people), public baths (one person), internet cafes (one person), love hotels (one person). Those places of transitory character previously dened as nonplaces, several of them embedded by technology are nding new meanings as important and referential public places for the Tokyoites. The nature of these public spaces as resulted from the discussions, were described in their totality with characteristics like safety and cleanliness. These places can also be described as an intertwining of private and public spaces, an attempt to reinvent house activities so that they are performed outside due to lack of space in the domicile. Public baths, karaoke rooms, love hotels, internet spaces, are transitory in the sense that it is a product consumed for short periods of time at a very cheap price, yet they are shared and common for all people twenty-four hours a days. New public spaces also suggest the necessity to be technologically equipped.

4.4

Conclusion

The chaotic image of Tokyo produces situations of disorientation, ambiguity in distinguishing physical structures caused by its disordered urbanism, the emergence of homogenous structures and the excess of information that exists in the city. Taking a quick glimpse at Tokyo a hundred years ago, we can see the radical 92

4.4. CONCLUSION transformation that the city has gone through, evident both in the image of the city, but above all in the sentimental attachment that people had for this place. The celebrated writer Natsume Soseki18 nostalgically describes his neighborhood in the beginning of the 20th century:
[. . . ] several houses in the district were built in the impressive go down style. [. . . ] One of them was the impressive Omiya Denbei, visible as you went up the road. And when you went along the road that goes downslope, there was a sake shop called Kokuraya, which had wide frontage [. . . ], it was a place with a history19 [. . . ] There was also an oak woodworking shop and a smithy. A little towards Hachiman Hill road there was also a covered vegetable market with a spacious dirt oor.[. . . ] There was, of course, a bean-curd merchant, [. . . ]the front gate of the Seikanji Temple. Soseki (1915, p. 204-205).

In Sosekis description (1915), we can distinguish a clear image of the city; the description is rendered with specic buildings and names that he portrayed with accuracy. We can see that the traces of history have been indispensable in his perception and identication of his neighborhood. His familiarity with the place provokes feelings of attachment, emotions that were not evident through our interviews. We have observed that for the most of our interviewees, it is Tokyos image as a whole that has more impact on them, not the specic meanings of places, historical accounts neither the human relations. The two most identiable structures were the Imperial Palace and the Tokyo Tower, structures that offer no public usage but are there as symbols of power and tradition in one hand, and innovation and modernity on the other. It was peculiar for people to identify with structures that are void in their social usage. Even though the habitants relation with the city presents a certain detachment and indifference towards city structures, people use their current environment as a backdrop to conduct daily activities related to their core identity. What this chapter conrmed through the evidence of the sentimental detachment with the place, is that rstly, place-identity in such a transient city cannot be recognized (at least totally) from its physical entities. It is the people who are faithful followers of
Soseki is one of the most important Japanese writers of the Meiji era a transcendent gure in modern Japanese history and literature, as Laurence Rogers write in Tokyo, a literally stroll. It is not by coincidence then than his portrayed is gures in the Japanese 1000 Yen note bill. 19 The author here goes on to give exact details and information about the place.
18 Natsume

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CHAPTER 4. THE INTERVIEWS a strong culture, and reinvent tradition into their contemporary lifestyle. Identity, like beauty discussed in the previous chapter is found in the deepest layers of things. Particularly, Japanese identity is revealed in the zeal of cleanliness, in traditional celebrations, in beautiful small objects, in the appreciation of nature, in the meticulous food preparation and serving and in packaging of objects. Observing closer these everyday rituals reveal a different type of beauty and one central for the Japanese identity. Although the place possesses an unfamiliar urban structure, it turns into a mediator for the revelation of Japanese uniqueness. It becomes a setting for daily rituals to be carried out: the supercial department store becomes a stage set where the saleswoman will ritually wrap a package, nameless and ugly modern looking restaurants are spaces become a ground were dining on the oor takes place, and the seaside near the restructured Sumida River reinvents ancient traditions through rework celebrations. Even if their environment is in a constant state of change, Japanese people are still closely bounded to their traditions; people still bow everywhere to greed someone, take their shoes off inside their houses, eat commonly Japanese food, enjoy wearing their traditional clothes and following a matsuri celebration. We can conclude that Tokyo comprises notions of a progressive place, translating successfully into what Massey (1994, p.244) announced:
It is a sense of place, an understanding of its character, which can only be constructed by linking that place to places beyond. A progressive sense of place would recognize that, without being threatened by it. What we need, it seems to me, is a global sense of the local, a global sense of place.

A further conclusion observed form the interviews is that the non-human interactions in the spatial congurations have proven more important that the human interactions. Interviewees were identifying with small and unimportant objects in the undertaking of their daily space routine, and human relationships were almost absent. Yet, the peoples involvement in Tokyo have proven important in the sense that through their activities and practises, daily transactions and spatial interactions, reveal a strong tradition where identity is omnipresent in a mental level in this non-place. Kobayashi and Wadwekar (2009, p. 3) remind us that Japanese perceive their built environment through their activities, not through the physical presence. The integration of the human aspect in the city serves not only as a way to widen our understanding of the city in a more interpersonal approach but above 94

4.4. CONCLUSION all it has enabled to establish the link between place and human identity. The interviews have facilitated us to prove that a mutual correlation exists in the distinctiveness of the city and that of its inhabitants. The juxtaposition between the two can be measured through various associations: Firstly, the absence of center in the city presents an equivalent absence of center in the social group in Japan. Like the citys structure that is to be evaluated when looking at it as an integral whole so does a Japanese human is never considered as an individual but as part of the group he belongs (his neighborhood group, his work group, or his family). The salary man, a term widely used, is the average working man in the Japanese society. It is dened as those men20 that work on a salary base and are part of big corporations, identied by their white collar shirts and suits. The term usually refers to middle class lifestyle, low wages, and long working hours. The company requires this salary man to identify completely with the company, follow blindly the working methods and never question. It is a similar manner samurai obeyed their feudal lords. Huang (2004, p. 74) establishes the link between people and city through the embodiment of modern samurai and the ambiguous meaningless structures like the Tokyo Metropolitan ofce, by stating who can be a more qualied user of that space than the modern samurai, the middle class Tokyoites, like the salaryman. A second analogue we can describe is how the anonymity of the physical structures that causes conditions of indifference and detachment is a parallel with the human alienation. The built environment has evoked a general disinterest and impassiveness in the emotions of the habitants which presents a similar absence
A woman in an equal position is referred to as career woman demonstrating the undermining role of woman in the Japanese society.
20

Figure 4.13: Tokyo: People manifesting. Photo by author.

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CHAPTER 4. THE INTERVIEWS of emotions in interpersonal relations. This condition is enhanced by the use of modern technology in the city that has led to an emergence of new places, where citizenship can be practiced individually and not in relation with others. The alienation is a condition provoked by the city as for emotional ties to develop between people and places, social interactions need to take place, in the literal sense of the word21 . In Tokyo the social interactions or the use of public space are limited in big shopping centers, manga kissa cafes, the individualized karaoke rooms, love hotels or trains. With the appearance of these places, social interactions are not possible, given that these daily transactions are more efciently conducted companionless and without the need of human interaction. The habitant becomes so captivated by the use of technology that is omnipresent and much depends on it to perform its daily spatial routines, a common concern in cities that advanced technologies are omnipresent. Similarly place dependence is enhanced through peoples identication with electronic screens omnipresent in the city. The condition of the peoples attachment to technology and gadgets leave us not shocked by the fact that in the year 2008, ve out of ten of the best selling Japanese novels- frequently depicting stories of human solitude - were written on mobile phones22 , usually by people commuting long hours in trains, indicating both the absence of time and space in their lives that is counterbalance in these "other places" and technology. A further association observed is the dualism in identity in both personal and urban characteristics. Even though the physical environment is supermodern, somehow one feels the strong impact of tradition, and this was achieved by the way foreign imported models have been successfully translated into local standards. The element of surprise in the city is an exceptional characteristic of Tokyo today. Behind a faade, a surface, a street, or a person, one always discovers more than what is apparent on the outside. In the special urban setting, Japanese identity is concealed behind the huge avenues laden by tall buildings, and the modern look presupposed by a world leading commercial capital we still nd labyrinth-like alleys, temples, and characteristics that associate the city to its pre-modern conditions. The identity and lifestyle of the Tokyoite is somewhat similar; the Tokyoite
21 Graaf 22 The

(2009b, p. 267). Economist, Nomads at last, April 10, 2008

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4.4. CONCLUSION can be a fanatic otaku23 , equipped with the latest technological gadgets, living in modern apartments but yet is deeply rooted in tradition. This is evident from his everyday space routine and activities like going to Noh theatre, enjoying Japanese cuisine, or celebrating old traditions. On the outside, what is visible and conceivable is to set an image that promotes advanced ideas of an extra modern society, imposing on the habitants to follow this model. The suggestion of the duality in identity or the multiplicity of identities juxtaposed both in the citys structure and in social structure is also apparent in many contemporary Japanese movies. This intriguing relationship is evident in Tsukamoto lms, were the subject body is overwhelmed by the powers of the citys abstract space and starts to mimic these forces, acquiring a double identity. Huang (2004, p.60). In a similar way the hero of Tokyo Eyes24 possesses a double contrasting identity. A computer debugger, polite and sweet guy swipes delicately into a harmless murderer shooting wrongdoers in Tokyo city. Every time before shooting he puts on a pair of thick glasses as if to become the other person, the super hero that will save Tokyo from all kind of offenders, usually the impolite and rude, heartless or chauvinistic people. The theme of becoming a strong hero that is palpable in Japanese movies can be explained with the desire to match the urban space of Tokyo. The idea of double identity is also a distinguished element of the protagonists of Japanese animation lms, like the lms of Satoshi Kon in which we observe a lot of urban translations
Japanese term used to describe persons that are fascinated by animation lms, video games and manga 24 French-Japanese thriller-romance directed by French lm/documentary maker Jean-Pierre Limosin. It was presented in the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.
23 A

Figure 4.14: Tokyo tower. Photo by author.

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CHAPTER 4. THE INTERVIEWS especially an emphasis on the multi-culturism, chaotic imagery where everyone succeeds in coming together. His main characters are possessing a double identity shaped by their environment. For example, Mima in Perfect Blue is inuenced by media and technology and in Paprika the main hero has two alternate and extremely different personalities, a violent one and a more charming and friendly one on the other side. Similarly in Japanese literature, Keiichiri Hirano in his futurist roman Dawn, is proposing a new concept of dividualism as the structural foundation of a person. Hirano is suggesting here that even if we possess one body we have many personalities, and is the ensemble of all these personalities that gives us our identity (Kunieda, 2010). The dual identity characteristics are observations drawn from the interviews and personal observations. They were examined and validated as well through ongoing Japanese literature, anime movies and contemporary lms. However, a more extensive research should be carried to evaluate this correlation and elucidate the impact that such a place has on the people.

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CONCLUSION

The power of a landscape does not derive from the fact that it offers itself as a spectacle, but rather from the fact that, as mirror and mirage, it presents any susceptible viewer with an image at once true and false of a creative capacity which the subject (or Ego) is able, during a moment of marvelous self-deception, to claim as his own. Lefebvre (1991, p.189)

The aim of this work was to investigate new ways for analyzing the urban identity of a contemporary city that under the shadow of economic booms and globalization is undergoing constant construction and development. Consequently, these mutations can direct into a total transformation of the urban fabric, raising questions of urban memory loss and a new place-identity merging. The physical changes bring similarly cultural and social changes that could put at risk the meaning and values that place carries. We have throughout this work, as Massey (2001) suggested, not considered place as something static, because social interactions and the physical environment that constitute its being are not motionless, neither frozen in time. According to Massey (2001) the contemporary place should be consider as processes. Tokyo has been an appropriate case study as a place-process. We have explained that Tokyo can be addressed as a non-place due the multiple homogenous structures enhanced by the advanced technological nature along with the fact that it is in a constant state of transition; it possesses little physical reminders of its long history. Despite its ultra modern look, and its novel physical nature, there is something undoubtedly Japanese in its identity, a reasoning that drove us in the pursuit

and exploration of these features. Hence after, what is important to highlight is that Tokyo is a living example of a city that despite its contemporary physical image, the spirit of the place has its roots to Japanese traditional aesthetics. Massey (1991) questioned in one of her essays whether it is not possible for the place to be progressive in our times, to be appropriate for this time-space compression era (the current global-local times). Tokyo appears to be a place that corresponds to this anticipation. We have proved that even if Tokyo is above all a metropolis, thus a product of the global market world and of homogenized spaces, it has a distinctive character of its own that is revealed mostly through everyday practices rather than through the physical matter of the architecture. In its global context it possesses many local features. Throughout our research, we have unveiled hidden meanings that are bounded in the citys urban structure that help us to appreciate its complex identity. The tangible and intangible values of Tokyo were the approach that facilitated into a holistic view and understanding of the place. The consideration of the tangible values was evaluated through an investigation of the physical identity of Tokyo historically, with an emphasis on the drastic restructuring of the 1980s. This account has veried that the very matters that we have considered to be a threat for Tokyos identity, like the kitsch, the ugly, its transient state, the copy-paste and unhistorical places are the same elements that we can exploit to distinguish Tokyos present identity today from other cities in the world. The chaotic and unstable built environment or the messy urban cityscape are in reality features that enforce the imageabilty of the city; as new and strong images are created and recreated constantly leading to the conclusion that we can nd meanings and values in temporary notions or spaces that are generally considered to weaken the spirit of the place. This refection has been further validated in the last chapter where we have conrmed that people are attached and nd meanings in their ambiguous environment. Whats more, the study of Tokyos urbanity has demonstrated another way of examining the cities. Tokyo is an example of an alternative interpretation of a place, since it carries a strong sense of place not through a powerful presence of its long history, but rather in its ability to respond to changes and adapt to the 100

conditions of the given times, an approach adopted since ancient times. This was explained by the term wakon yosai, employed during the Meiji era, a method that encouraged the copying of western culture, architecture, technology and then applied in their local traditions and ways of living. Nonetheless, what this research expressed is that a city in a transient process discloses history and tradition through other means besides its built environment. The descriptions of people regarding their daily space-routine show almost no indications, or referential physical features of a Japanese place-identity. It is via intangible features that are less fragile that the Japanese unique identity was revealed like the appreciation of nature, daily lifestyle, or Zen like principles. We have been able to associate the transient character of Tokyo with Zen teachings that encourage temporality and ephemerality through the dictum all things must pass. We have established how the temporary identity of Tokyo is actually a permanent feature via an insight in Zen philosophy that determines how the Japanese perceive their environment. Our effort to ascertain Tokyos identity led us to the translation of metaphors and other conceptual connotations of Japanese culture, along with an investigation of its spatial conguration. We have investigated the abstract meanings and cultural values that are omnipresent in the contemporary identity of Tokyo, like the notion of beauty and aesthetics of traditional architecture. The understanding of everyday life through teachings of Zen and nature, or ancient beliefs on aesthetics has proven to be fundamental ideas that one can interpret and juxtapose with the citys urban condition, rendering a more lucid and comprehensible Tokyo. Nevertheless, what has proved of utter signicance in order to appreciate the uniqueness and identity of Tokyo is to observe human interaction and the practice of everyday life in Tokyo. We can also argue from our results that the peoples engagement in their daily activities, such as their cuisine, their language, their appreciation for small things, the common zeal for cleanliness are all components that are part of the city and can be pointed out to distinguish the particular Japanese character of Tokyo. Through the study of people, we have traced, rstly those qualities physical and abstract that people identify within their city and secondly we have indicated new emerging places in the city as well as new modes of habitation. 101

The new emerging places are generally characterised by their ephemeral features; examples include love hotels, trains, internet cafes or other places with a strong presence of advanced technology. We have addressed these emerging places as non-places, but in fact we observe an additional parameter: the exploitation of these places arises due to lack of personal space and the search to extend domestic activities in the city. These are spaces that can be described as third places25 and are worthy of further investigation as these places that are neither public nor private are an emerging phenomenon of growing cities and are bound to change entire cities. This research has directed us into making further verdicts a propos to the juxtaposition of the city structure and the social structure, observations that resulted from the interviews. People appear to be the essential apparatus that the city encompasses to preserve its identity because mainly of the Japanese savoir vivre that is closely bounded to Japanese traditions. Yet, the deeper the consideration, we witness a new kind of human emerging, the one that starts to merge with the city, and starts to receive the impacts of such a powerful city. Huang (2004) claims that the Tokyoite becomes a body upon which forces of violence are exerted from the city, making him acquire a double contrasting identity26 . Caillois similarly argues that a living organism tends to imitate its environment, a consequence of being in a powerful space (Huang 2004, p. 58). In Tokyo people are deprived of their body space and it looks like the Tokyoite becomes a mobile body in an ever fragmented space. The lack of space along with the eeting condition of the city itself urges the habitants into fusing with the city creating the decorpolization of the habitants. Toyo Ito who examines thoroughly the predicament of ux and fast changing society and named the residents of Tokyo living in this liquid state and compared them to urban nomads wandering in articial forests, for whom, a tent would sufce
employed by sociologist Ray Oldenburg, in his book The great, Good Place,1989. this be a way to look at what happened in 1995 in the unfortunate event of the Tokyo gas attacks? The attacks were led by the spiritual group Aum Shinrikyo killing 12 people and injuring 5,000. Castells (1997, p. 101) explains how this was viewed as an act against globalization and threat of losing ones own identity :the ultimate goal was [. . . ] to save Japan [. . . ] from the war of extermination that would result from the competing efforts of Japanese corporations and American imperialism to create a new world order and a united world government . This extreme act left puzzled the world as Japan is regarded as an ordered, fair society, and the most ethnically homogenous one amongst the world big cities.
26 Could 25 Term

102

as shelter27 . Another association we have detected is that the same way that the city-amoeba changes and adapt to current needs, so do Japanese people, said to have a sponge28 like personality, mimic the city and can adjust their lifestyle to incorporate new situations. The millions of habitants that live in Tokyo and are proud of their environment, orientate and identify in a city in which its built environment is a mobile practice, turning themselves into urban nomads to assimilate with this condition. They appoint new meanings to their environment and adapt to new ways of inhabitation to satisfy their desire to be a part of this city. Within this context the second and last chapter have revealed a selection of novel type of spaces that emerged. These spaces arose, rstly, to reect the changing economic and global space of the city, secondly recreate abstractly the vague citys form into a microcosm of ambiguous spaces and thirdly to accommodate the pervasive needs of private space that was taken away from Tokyo habitants. The diminishing personal space for the habitants, along with the long process of the daily commute encourages this traveling culture within the city, and the search for spaces that can be an extension of ones living room. We are therefore confronted with new spaces that are an architectural hybridization of public, domestic, and commercial realm marked by the existence of commercial venues distributed throughout the city that serve as an extension of the private residence (Jorge Almazn Caballero, 2006, p. 301) This correlation of city structure and people can be elaborated further into the following sequence: eeting city-mobile places-urban nomads. This trend of nomadic lives that originated in the 80s with the unrealized works of Archigram and Tokyo Ito have found concrete meanings today as commercial space is rapidly providing setting to accommodate the nomadic urban lifestyles (Almazn Caballero, 2006, p.308). The parallel that we have initiated between the association of city structure and the people has been induced by Huang (2004), who argues that Tokyoites start to absorb the city and desire to be identical with it. She brings evidence on the subject
Roch-Souli and Ito (1991). Toyo Ito in an interview with Sophie Roulet and Sophie Soulie, entitled "Towards a post-ephemeral architecture, in Sophie Roulet and Sophie Soulie, eds., Toyo Ito (Paris: Editions Moniteur, 1991), p. 96-97. 28 From a personal communication with Professor Kiyoshi Sey Takeyama, Kyoto University, he has expressed that people have a personality similar to a sponge, that is soft exible and can adapt to t in different states.
27 Roulet,

103

Figure 4.15: Tokyo: In department store 109. Photo by author.

by an insight in many Japanese lms. She has expressed the power that the city has over people as manifested through the urban plans of the construction boom where said . . . in abstract space, the conceived space overrides the concrete space of everyday life (Huang, 2004, p.59) 29 . We have observed from the overall questionnaire results that people are proud users of their city even if their concrete space is diminishing as the citys economic space is expanding. This reality has been widely accepted by the habitants as the new identication with the city. We can argue that the Zen approach towards development and reconstruction of the Japanese capital has turned the Tokyoites into a subconscious decorpolization with their city. Huang (2004) describes decorpolization as a condition arising from the desire to mimic ones space and wherein a body assimilates to his environment, blurring the boundaries of the body and the city limits, causing conditions of psychastenia. This theme of the people assimilating with the city remains open-ended and requires further research. In what ways do we have a parallel projection of identities and through which means does the city form the identity of the habitants or vice
29 This

thought was initiated by Lefebvre in his book The Production of Space, 1991.

104

versa. Certainly, supplementary investigation is needed in that area will enable to measure identities of the people-city relationship when talking about cities with non-xed values. Subsequent in depth investigation to understand the complex future metropolis should aim to nd other elements and various methodological approaches in regards to how and by which means such powerful cities have an impact on its users-inhabitants. Will the end of masterplan launch the creation of micro plans to be inserted in the cities facilitating mobile practices? How the mobility of contemporary cities lead in new forms of life? Should we start thinking, as urbanists, to provide elements for such exible and mobile places in the city?

105

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112

APPENDIX A

QUESTIONNAIRE

Interviewee details -Tokyo citizen/how long? -Resident of (ward)/Transportation Means - Age/Gender -profession -Japanese/Foreigner 1. Tokyo Impression a. What are the rst things that come to your mind that symbolize Tokyo? Descriptions that relate to the physical image of Tokyo. b. Is there any part of Tokyo you consider as the centre of the city? c. What are distinctive features of Tokyo/of the area that you live? Could you tell me elements that are particular for you, easy to identify and help you orientate in the city. These elements might be large or small, environmental, or physical, or abstract elements. d. How much do you pay attention to the billboards, the electronic announcements, notices and generally all signs that are omnipresent in Tokyo? 2. Tokyo Image a. Map by interviewee I would like you to make a quick map of Tokyo. This is just a conceptual image that you have about Tokyo and it is like you are making a rapid description to someone about the city. This is a rough sketch and not an accurate drawing. (If you have problems understanding I have drawn a sample map of how I will describe in a map the city of New York. I have lived in NY for 3 years and this is how I

will describe it by drawing a map) It is important to draw the map as you have it in your mind and NOT TO COPY OR REPRODUCE A MAP. This process is called cognitive mapping in environmental psychology and it is this image that I am interested to look. YOUR MAP DOES NOT NEED TO BE ACCURATE; I JUST WANT YOUR IMPRESSION OF TOKYO CITY; b. Map/Notes by interviewer. -Can you please give me accurate descriptions of your daily trip from home to work/school etc. . . (or a route that you have performed regularly when living in Tokyo). I am interested to know of the images you see, what are the points of reference you see on the way that guide you through your destination. - Any particular feelings while taking this trip? How long does it take? Do you always take the same road? Have you ever had the feeling of being lost? 3. Tokyo-sense of place-memory map a. Is there any special place with a particular meaning for you in Tokyo? b. Any particular feelings when a neighborhood takes a new form? Was there for you, once, a special place that now no longer exists? Emotions seeing new things come up, other things to go down. c. Any special memories that you carry with you from the Tokyo of 10/20/30 where appropriate-years ago? Did you orientate yourself the same way? Using the same routes? 4. Tokyo Recognition (From the answer of 3a ask the following questions) a. Would you describe the district you know well to me? If you were taken there blindfolded what kind of clues would you look for to know where you are? b. Would you show me on your map where is the district you know well? And where are its boundaries (if applicable) c. Would you show me on your map the direction of north? 5. Identity a. Living in such a contemporary and global city, in what sorts of activities/spaces/habits make you feel closer to your Japanese identity. 114

6. Tokyo Lifestyle a. What kind of services or activities does the city centre offer to you? b. What is your understanding of public space? Which parts in Tokyo would you describe as a successful public space? c. What kind of outdoor activities do you do in Tokyo? -Any special facility/activity that you would have liked to be available in the city? -Are you satised by the around of green/open spaces? d. Tokyo being the most international city in Japan, do you see yourself involved in more international activities? e. Do you believe that living in the city of Tokyo has engaged you in living in a particular lifestyle? Has it changed in any ways the way you live your life or has it relieved a certain side of your personality? Please explain in which ways. f. What is the importance of orientation and recognition of city elements to Tokyoites? g. Do you feel any pleasure from knowing where you are and where you are going? Or displeasure in the reverse? h. DO you nd Tokyo an easy city to get around and identify its parts? i. Which city has for you a good orientation? Why? j. What are your best memories of Tokyo city? If possible could you be specic in spatial terms identifying the place of importance. 7. Quality of living Would you rank the following, in order of importance, as your criteria when choosing a place of living in Tokyo City? 1. Access to green/open spaces 2. Access to shopping facilities 3. Ease Of transportation 4. Ron type district (backstreets, with small communal streets, more traditional streets.) 5. Modern district 6. Square meters/price 7.Parking place 115

8. Reduced noise level of district 9.Access to cultural/educational facilities(school for children) 10.Access to place of work or study

116

APPENDIX B

ON INDENTITIES

The choice of Tokyo, has not been accidental. I have lived for three years in Kyoto, Japan, where I have been induced by a heavy dose of the power of this place. The connection with the place still remains strong today; to the extent that I feel nostalgic when I recall the times I spend there. The structure of the city, the strong identity of the city, the reection of culture in the everyday life have been easily accessible giving the chance to be experienced by non-locals, like me. Because of my stay in Japan I am approaching this research as both an insider and an outsider. This dual status , gives rst the advantage that I have a good understanding of the culture, and the social issues and on the other hand, the distance from the subject allows a more open observation and interpretation of the results, that might be omitted by a genuine insider. My interest for human identity and how this is shaped by the environment was intrigued after my three year stay in Japan. At that time I was astounded at the way the Japanese society has achieved such a beautiful equilibrium in bringing together their Asiatic identities, traditional, different and complex with the menacing omnipresence of the contemporary western identities. I think that Japan is an adequate model to investigate identities at times of transformation, political, urban and social. In this work we talk about identify of the city, so I want to clarify that we are referring to the urban identity and at the same time of human identity. In this work i have perceive the two as inter connected, as our urban environment reects our human aspirations and principles. Human identities and the question of ego are much related to the real world we are living to our activities and our various relations within a place. These are theories that have been long suggested and evident in the work of Martin Heidegger. In Tokyo the question of identity is particularly pertinent as there are often

and radical transformations that shift xed meanings of identity. Japan has experienced such an enormous economic boom which was reected directly on the urban identity of Tokyo and to human identity of the people who live there. Besides serving as a palpable model for the study of cities under rapid transformation, Tokyo also opens the way in a new direction at looking at cities in the contemporary era.

118

APPENDIX C

TOKYO FACTS AND FIGURES

Facts about Tokyo for the metropolitan government website : Source: http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/PROFILE/overview01.htm Tokyo history appendix 1603 Tokugawa Ieyasu establishes Shogunate Government (Tokugawa Shogunate) in the town of Edo. Edo period begins. 1657 Major re in Edo claims over 100,000 lives. 1721 First population census conducted (Edos population about 1.3 million). 1854 Treaty of Peace and Amity between Japan and the U.S. concluded (Japan ends seclusion policy). 1867 Tokugawa Yoshinobu, last shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate, resigns and returns governing power to the Emperor. 1868 New Meiji government established. Meiji era begins. 1868 Edo renamed Tokyo and becomes a prefecture. 1872 First railway line opens between Shimbashi, Tokyo and Yokohama. 1877 First Industrial Exhibition held at Ueno Park. 1882 First zoo opened in Ueno. 1888 Municipal organization system introduced.

 1889 Constitution of the Empire of Japan promulgated. Tokyo City and 15 wards established. 1894 Tokyo-fu Government Building completed in Marunouchi. 1912 Taisho era begins. 1920 First census conducted. Population of Tokyo-fu rapidly increases and becomes 3,699,428. 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake claims the lives of around 140,000 people and destroys about 300,000 houses. 1926 Showa era begins. 1927 First subway line opens between Asakusa and Ueno. 1931 Tokyo Airport opens in Haneda. 1935 Tokyos resident population reaches 6.36 million (almost the same as New York City and London). 1941 Port of Tokyo opens. 1943 Metropolitan administration system established. 1945 March 10: Tokyo hit by heaviest air raid since beginning of war. 1947 Constitution of Japan promulgated. 1947 Tokyo launches 23 special-ward administration system. 1951 Treaty of Peace with Japan and Japan-U.S. Security Treaty concluded. 1962 Tokyo population reaches 10 million. 1964 Olympic Games held in Tokyo. 1989 Heisei era begins. 1993 Rainbow Bridge opened. 120

History of Tokyo The history of the city of Tokyo stretches back some 400 years. Originally named Edo, the city started to ourish after Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa Shogunate here in 1603. As the centre of politics and culture in Japan, Edo grew into a huge city with a population of over a million by the mid-eighteenth century. Throughout this time, the Emperor resided in Kyoto, which was the formal capital of the nation. The Edo Period lasted for nearly 260 years until the Meiji Restoration in 1868, when the Tokugawa Shogunate ended and imperial rule was restored. The Emperor moved to Edo, which was renamed Tokyo. Thus, Tokyo became the capital of Japan. During the Meiji era (18681912), Japan began its avid assimilation of Western civilization. Buildings made of stone and bricks were built on the sites of the mansions of feudal lords, and the major roads were paved with round stones. In 1869 Japans rst telecommunications line was opened between Tokyo and Yokohama, and the rst steam locomotive started running in 1872 from Shimbashi to Yokohama. Western hairstyles replaced the traditional topknot worn by men, and bowler hats, high collars, and bustled skirts were the height of fashion. In 1882 Japans rst zoological gardens were opened in Ueno. In 1885 the cabinet system of government was adopted and Ito Hirobumi became Japans rst prime minister. With the promulgation of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan in 1889 Japan established the political system of a modern state. During the Taisho era (19121926), the number of people working in cities increased, and a growing proportion of citizens began to lead consumer lifestyles. Educational standards improved, and the number of girls going on to study at higher schools increased. Performing arts such as theater and opera thrived. In September 1923 Tokyo was devastated by the Great Kanto Earthquake. The res caused by the earthquake burned the city center to the ground. Over 140,000 people were reported dead or missing, and 300,000 houses were destroyed. After the earthquake a city reconstruction plan was formulated, but because the projected costs exceeded the national budget only a small part of it was realized. Beginning shortly after the Great Kanto Earthquake, the Showa era (19261989) started in a mood of gloom. Even so, Japans rst subway line was opened between Asakusa and Ueno in 1927, and in 1928 the 16th general elections for the House of 121

Representatives of the Diet (or Parliament) were held for the rst time after the enactment of universal male suffrage. In 1931 Tokyo Airport was completed at Haneda, and in 1941 the Port of Tokyo was opened. By 1935 the resident population of Tokyo had grown to 6.36 million, comparable to the populations of New York and London. However, the Pacic war, which broke out in 1941, had a great impact on Tokyo. The dual administrative system of Tokyo-fu (prefecture) and Tokyo-shi (city) was abolished for war-time efciency, and the prefecture and city were merged to form the Metropolis of Tokyo in 1943. The metropolitan administrative system was thus established and a governor was appointed. In the nal phase of the war, Tokyo was bombed 102 times. The heaviest air raid was on March 10, 1945, in which there was great loss of life and material damage. The war came to an end on September 2, 1945, when the Japanese government and military representatives signed the Instrument of Surrender. Much of Tokyo had been laid waste by the bombings and by October 1945 the population had fallen to 3.49 million, half its level in 1940. In May 1947 the new Constitution of Japan and the Local Autonomy Law took effect, and Seiichiro Yasui was elected the rst Governor of Tokyo by popular vote under the new system. In August of that year, the present 23 special ward system began in Tokyo Metropolis. The 1950s were a time of gradual recovery for the nation. Television broadcasting began in 1953, and Japan joined the United Nations in 1956. Economic recovery was aided in particular by the special procurement boom arising from the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. This led to Japans entry into a period of rapid economic growth in the 1960s. Due to technological innovations and the introduction of new industries and technologies, this period saw the beginning of mass production of synthetic bers and household electric appliances such as televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines. As a result, the everyday lives of the residents of Tokyo underwent considerable transformation. In 1962 the population of Tokyo broke the 10 million mark. In 1964 the Olympic Games were held in Tokyo, the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) line began operations, and the Metropolitan Expressway was opened, forming the foundation for Tokyos current prosperity. Entering the 1970s, the strain of rapid economic growth became apparent as the 122

country was beset by environmental issues such as pollution of the air and rivers, as well as high levels of noise. The Oil Crisis of 1973 brought the many years of rapid economic growth to a halt. In the 1980s, Tokyo took large steps in economic growth as a result of its increasingly global economic activity and the emergence of the information society. Tokyo became one of the worlds most active major cities, boasting attractions such as cutting-edge technology, information, culture, and fashion, as well as a high level of public safety. From 1986 onwards, land and stock prices spiraled upwards, a phenomenon known as the bubble economy. Japan enjoyed tremendous growth under the bubble economy, but with the burst of the bubble at the beginning of the 1990s, sinking tax revenues caused by the protracted economic slump led to a critical state in metropolitan nances. After two successive scal reconstruction programs Tokyo was able to overcome its nancial crisis, and now continues to strive to achieve the goals of the 10-Year Plan, Tokyos blueprints for the city, to become a truly attractive and mature city rich in greenery.

Geography of Tokyo Tokyo Metropolis is located in the southern Kanto region, positioned in approximately the center of the Japanese archipelago. It is bordered to the east by the Edogawa River and Chiba Prefecture, to the west by mountains and Yamanashi Prefecture, to the south by the Tamagawa River and Kanagawa Prefecture, and to the north by Saitama Prefecture. The Tokyo Megalopolis Region, or Greater Tokyo Area, is made up of Tokyo and the three neighboring prefectures of Saitama, Kanagawa, and Chiba. This area is home to around 28% of Japans total population. The National Capital Region is made up of Tokyo and the seven surrounding prefectures of Saitama, Kanagawa, Chiba, Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, and Yamanashi. Tokyo Metropolis is a metropolitan prefecture comprising administrative entities of special wards and municipalities. The central area is divided into 23 special wards (ku in Japanese), and the Tama area is made up of 26 cities (shi), 3 towns (machi), and 1 village (mura). The 23 special-ward area and the Tama area together form a long, narrow stretch of land, running about 90 kilometers east 123

to west and 25 kilometers north and south. The Izu Islands and the Ogasawara Islands, two island groups in the Pacic Ocean, are also administratively part of Tokyo, despite being geographically separated from the metropolis. The islands have between them two towns and seven villages. In addition, islands comprising the most southern and most eastern lands of Japan also fall under the administrative district of Ogasawara-mura; these are, respectively, the Okinotorishima Islands, which have an exclusive economic zone of about 400,000 square kilometers, and Minamitorishima Island. The overall population of Tokyo is about 12.99 million (as of October 1, 2009), and the area is about 2,188 square kilometers. The climate is generally mild.

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ABSTRACT

In this thesis, we are going to enquire on the identity of the city, as a complex and perplex place of our contemporary era, contradicting and unstable engendering situations of transience and transformation (Graham, 1998). As the new places emerging in cities are marked by urban features that make them hard to identify, we have to look for new methods in reading and explaining the city with its novel features. In what ways can we measure the identities of contemporary places that are marked by non-xed values and physical attributes? In this work, we are going to demonstrate how and why the contemporary city is not only an articial construct, but identied by a set of habits, customs and life styles. Our concerns are epitomized through the case of Tokyo because enduring continuous constructions have constantly transformed its urban structure. Moreover, questions regarding the identity of the city nd justication in this city of rapid urbanization, fast changing societies, and the importation of western elements. Tokyo was chosen because its distinctive features of complexity, liquidity and impermanence makes it a suitable city to conduct such a study. This work can be used as an initial model to understand and evaluate cities that experience rapid urbanization. Keywords: city, identity, Tokyo.