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A professional in Japan with a solid reputation earns the right to add the suffix
ka to their title: a famous architect therefore becomes a kenchiku-ka. This
might be an early, non-pejorative version of the dreaded Western neologism,
starchitect. Long before the negative correlation between celebrity and credibility
is established, from the late 1950s to the 70s Japans media lionizes its architects
with full sincerity. The growth of TV (95 percent of households own one by 1970),
popular weekly magazines, and the architecture press itself transforms architects
from fusty technicians or mere assistants to builders into gurus capable of reorganizing the nation. Serious attention is paid in extravagantly illustrated articles and
on lengthy TV specials to the Metabolists schemes, and, soon, to their clothes,
cars, accessories, and leisure time.
In tandem with the architectural reimagining of Japan, a project is underway
to create a new postwar, postimperial model of Japanese masculinity, part
Samurai, part dandy. Yukio Mishima, the novelist and nationalist, is both;
Kurokawa calls him my only rival in fashion and perhaps fame...
Tange, in the late 1950s, is the first to set the stage and benefit from the media
spotlight, but Kurokawa quickly emerges as the perfect figure to exploit the increasing (and increasingly personal) attention. How did Kurokawa dislodge his
former teacher? The two giants represent opposite poles, and different generations: Tange, the middle-aged bow-tied dandy, the public servant and pedagogue
with the clout of Tokyo University behind him, wheeled out whenever the nation
needs to assert its economic and cultural power (Hiroshima Peace Memorial in
1955, Yoyogi National Gymnasia in 1964, Expo 70); Kurokawa the handsome
youth who makes up for what he lacks in authority with audacity, knows how to
speak on TV (compared with Tanges fragile voice), and presents seemingly
outlandish scenarios for the future with both deadpan seriousness and knowing
playfulness. Kurokawa, unlike Tange, also transcends his discipline of architecture
altogether in interviews with politicians (including the prime minister, Kakuei
Tanaka) and in a TV spot on the national channel NHK, in which he monologues
on his latest activities and theories; he systematically exploits this 15 minutes of
fame for the next 20 years, before taking the next step, from media to politics
The Sogetsu Kaikan is one of the architectural works that brought Tange
the Pan-Pacific Art Award [from the American Institute of Architects]. Sofu
Teshigahara asked Tange to design the building completely as he liked, and so
he did. When you make a building full of creative ideas, youll get 80 percent of
people around you complaining at the beginning. But in half a year, the proportion
will be reversed. After all, the appreciation of living space is a lot about getting
accustomed to it It makes me happier to be complimented on a building after
10 years of usage rather than immediately after completion, says Tange .
On the avant-garde: A new religious sect and the avant-garde members share
several things in common. Both contain gurus, meaning that they have passionate
supporters but no ears for criticism; they are left-wing, at least in speech; they
are often surprising, which is a tactic to get recognition; they are good at mystifying people by using buzzwords drawn from other disciplines, typically literature,
philosophy, and sociology; they exercise showmanship, constantly displaying
new or bizarre gestures; they are essentially journalists and entertainers; they
have a good sense of business. In short, they succeeded in reversing the
common sense that avant-garde doesnt sell.
On Tange: The leap from ancient plan to glazed modernism is brilliant, exercising
if you will the dialectic synthesis of tradition and destruction. Based on his theory
that the ground surface belongs to people and therefore must be liberated, his
buildings [raised on pilotis] give free passage underneath, like a treehouse in a
jungle. In Japan, this space sometimes serves as a home to hobos.
Tange
Tetsuji Takechi
theatre director
Ken domon
photographer
Taro okamoto
artist
At his studio, Kenzo Tange studies the model of a housing cluster on a manmade island Cars approach the cluster via high-speed motorways surrounding
it. Yachts are also seen in the model The cluster is supported with a gigantic
truss structure, which contains a large open space for communal activities and
facilities, including schools. On the outer surfaces are attached cells for living.
Reverant: eight weeks later, Shukan Asahi again gives its cover
to an architect, this time to a Metabolist. Kikutake though still
plays the role of serious, classic architect. On the left of the cover:
his administrative building for the Izumo Shrine, Shimane,
completed in 1963.
From ink to screen: after the attention of the popular press, the Metabolists
plans become a form of worthy TV entertainment for an exponentially bigger
national audience: their presentations are alternately theoretical (Asadas lecture
on economic and urban growth), fantastical (Kurokawas Helix City), and
actually under construction (Sakaide Artificial Ground)...
We need a city over a city. Multiple, diverse ... these are the philosophies
of this man. He has the ability to imagine the infinite, and the ability to integrate
the imagination or vision of the future firmly into reality. He is also gifted with the
ability to construct thoughts logically, the ability to make compelling arguments,
and also political power...
Enter Kurokawa: as the hype builds for Expo 70, the media finds a new,
younger architect suitable for a new mode of character study and
lifestyle coverage: the stylish, visionary 35-year-old Kisho Kurokawa.
His political power is already sensed by Mainichi Graph...
In sunglasses:
A philosophical mask.
He is extremely popular
among young females.
Meanwhile, Yukio Mishimaman of letters, actor, nationalist, and the first person
the Japanese media calls a superstaris never far from Kurokawas mind.
Mishima was the first to dance in a psychedelic club; had ranks in body building,
boxing, and kendo; honorably became Japans first male nude model;
experienced a supersonic flight on a jet fighter; sent out his party invites on
Tiffany paper; spent a fortune to make his own armywhile avidly writing novels
to become the first Japanese candidate for the Nobel prize for literature.*
Occupying different fields, Mishima and Kurokawas profiles nevertheless align
through a shared dandyism, polemical flare, ability to manipulate the media, and
a sensibility for engineering the identity of Japan ... to the extent that, in 1969,
Kurokawa calls Mishima my only rival. **
* Yamato Shiine, Yukio Mishima in Heibon Punch, (Tokyo: Shinchosha, 2007).
** A Revolutionary Who Calls upon Mobile Home, Shukan Yomiuri, July 25, 1969.
Western decadence, eastern purism: Mishima
poses in a sharp modern suit in a colonial parlour,
and in a tailored military uniform during a parade of his
small private army in 1969. (One year later, he makes
a farcical coup attempt, which ends with his suicide
by seppuku.) In his military mode, Mishima, angry at
the loss of traditional Japanese values during its rapid
postwar modernization (and at the emasculation of
the Joint Security Treaty with the US, which prohibits
the development of Japans army), campaigns for
the restoration of the Emperors powers and a resurrection of the samurai mentality. Inside the uniform
is a product of incessant toil...
Step into a bar in Shinjuku, and he is always there, sitting in a corner, quiet.
If I dont find him, the corner feels strange, missing something. Among the
regulars of the bar, he is a type who talks at length on one subject, and it could
be about a love affair, an eye for fashion, an episode from a journey ... But whatever subject he picks, his story is so fresh its as if it washes ones eyes. Is it just
me who sees in the depths of the eyes of this pioneer of architecture a certain
toughness, which comes from seeing to the farthest distance, and also the
pain of a top runner?
Laboring over the Capsule for Living, which he has one month to
finish before Expo 70 starts. Article 8 of his Capsule Declaration,
made in 1969, offers philosophical clues to Kurokawas ability to
exploit the media: The capsule mentality is opposed to uniformity
and systematic thinking. The age of systematic thinking has ended.
Thought disintegrates, is dissolved into separate, powerful words,
and is capsulized. A single word, or single name, can spread,
transform, permeate, stimulate an entire society and help to mould
the thinking of the age
11PM show
Frivolous: after the Expo 70 fever, the 11 p.m. Show, a nightly talk
show targeted at men, is the unlikely venue for Kurokawa to present his
Metamorphosis project (1965), which is used as a table. The host,
Ayuro Miki, a jazz critic, points to one of the shows models, who holds
a plan of Kurokawas Hishino New Town, now under construction.
Japan itself serves as the TV backdrop...
Through the swivel door, past the cloakroom, a guy in a three-piece black suit
dashes into an elevator. Stepping out on the eighth floor, he begins walking more
slowly... His black suits are made of British wool. The striking tie in archaic indigo
blue and white is plant-dyed. The shirt in a subtle hue of ivory...
Perfect everywhere.
Why do you live in a hotel? I am out of town for almost half a year. For one
third Im outside Japan, and for the rest moving back and forth between
Tokyo and outside. I need to stay in a hotel to meet writing deadlines.
Why do you wear black, navy blue and white only? Because I like them.
Do you wear suits also on construction sites? No, I do wear jeans.
Shall I put them on?
He changes for us, but it turns out to be a soft-cotton jeans blazer jacket,
bell-bottoms, and light blue shirts. He then changes again for us, into a white
turtleneck sweater and an Italian double-sided long leather jacket. Brown is a rare
color for him ... His large Gucci travel bag is ready to go. He is departing Japan
the next day. So I ask, where to this time? Tanzania for development. Then,
a lecture at Cambridge, followed by an international conference...
As the young homo moven enters middle age (he is now 43), he begins
to develop his political network, meeting: Yoshiko Yamaguchi (now
Otaka, no relation), a member of the Diet who made a similar transition
from the world of culture to media to politics. Before marrying Isamu
Noguchi in 1958, Yamaguchi was an actress and singer in Manchukuo,
in Japan, and in the US, and was famous during the war as Li Xianglan;
she later hosted a TV talk show; in 1982, Yamaguchi and Kurokawa visit
Libya together on a diplomatic and architectural mission
In his column Eyes of a Reporter, Taro Maki diagrams the brains behind Prime
Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone (in power from 198287). Kurokawas Institute for
Social Engineering, formed in 1969 and now producing regular reports for various
ministries, is identified as Nakasones academic and cultural brain. The ISE is
also closely connected to former Premier Masayoshi Ohiras policy research
group. Kurokawa himself plays up his growing relationship to political power
since the late 60s: A political policy research group was formed at the time
of Prime Minister Sato (196472), comprising of experts in various disciplines.
It discussed various topics from international politics and domestic politics to
foreign policy, and presents advice to the Chief Cabinet Secretary, who has even
attended the groups meetings. The group has continued for nearly 20 years
to date. Whats unique about this group is that no matter who comes into the
position of prime minister, or into his regime, it has remained neutral and
continued its activity. The members besides Kurokawa included political
scientists, economists, sociologist, a playwright, and a natural scientist.
( Kisho Kurokawa Notes, 1994)
former military
former navy
Kisho Kurokawa
institute for social engineering
liberal democratic
Party think tank
1987 july 20
1987 niHon Tv
Kurokawa, Tv column
The property bubble also resurrects the decentralization debate that started
in the mid 60s. Kurokawa seizes the moment to present his concept of two
national axes (kokudojiku). His hope is that Japans regional cities, if they are
better connected, can absorb some of the demand for, and reduce the prices
of, real estate as the bubble threatens to burst...
19992007 Politics
One and a half years after we interview him, Kurokawa announces that he will
run for governor of Tokyo, under the banner of his own Symbiosis New Party.
Dropping his longstanding refusal to enter politics, he says he is enraged by the
performance of his long-term friend Shintaro Ishihara, Tokyos governor. His
manifesto includes plans to decentralize government functions to other cities,
construct more parks and affordable housing, andthe culmination of a lifelong
quiet rivalrysell Tanges Tokyo Metropolitan Government buildings as commercial real estate. Kurokawa loses to Ishihara, coming in fourth with 2.9 percent
of the vote. Soon after the defeat, he runs for the House of Councillors and
loses again. Three months later, he passes away at the age of 73.
1999, September Confidante:
Kurokawa and Tokyo Governor
Shintaro Ishihara, an old friend,
are invited to the Diet to debate
the relocation of Congress and
other capital functions.
Until the bitter end: three months before his death, Kurokawa canvasses outside Tanges
Tokyo Metropolitan Government buildings. It is a double rebellion: against his friend-turned
political-rival Shintaro Ishihara, and against his mentor, now professional competitor.