What can we do now to create a city that creates new value?
At NTT Urban Development, we are sincerely addressing this question.
We have launched a new initiative.
It is an attempt to anticipate social changes and carve out a path to the future through design.
Three keywords derived from our "design vision"
About "Community," "History and Culture," and "Life and Work"
A dialogue between leading figures from various fields.
We will publish the details here.
The second installment of the "History and Culture" dialogue features Robert Campbell, director of the National Institute of Japanese Literature and a scholar of Japanese literature, and Shinichi Takemura, a cultural anthropologist who advocates for a new form of global civilization. From learning from history to guiding the future, to hints for passing on diverse cultures, the two discuss new ways of building towns where diverse people can inherit memories and coexist.
Robert Campbell
(Robert Campbell)
Shinichi Takemura
(Takemura Shinichi)
The second installment of the "History and Culture" dialogue features Robert Campbell, director of the National Institute of Japanese Literature and a scholar of Japanese literature, and Shinichi Takemura, a cultural anthropologist who advocates for a new form of global civilization. From learning from history to guiding the future, to hints for passing on diverse cultures, the two discuss new ways of building towns where diverse people can inherit memories and coexist.
Robert Campbell
Japanese literature scholar and Director of the National Institute of Japanese Literature. Born in New York, USA. Completed his doctoral studies in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Harvard University Graduate School. Specializes in early modern and modern Japanese literature, and is interested in art, media, and thought closely related to Chinese classics. He served as a professor at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 2007, retiring in 2017 and becoming Director of the National Institute of Japanese Literature in April of the same year. He is active in a variety of media, appearing on television as an MC and commentator, writing newspaper and magazine serials, book reviews, and planning and appearing on radio programs. Official website: http://robertcampbell.jp/
Shinichi Takemura
Representative of Earth Literacy Program and Professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design. Born in Osaka Prefecture in 1959. Completed his doctoral studies in cultural anthropology at the University of Tokyo Graduate School. Traveled to approximately 70 countries around the world in his twenties, proposing a new "human studies" for the global age, while also tackling global environmental issues from a unique perspective, such as the world's first digital globe, "Tangible Earth," and "One Million Candlelight Night." He is also an expert committee member for the Reconstruction Design Council for the Great East Japan Earthquake, a communications advisor for UNISDR (United Nations Office for International Strategy for Disaster Reduction), and has published numerous books. Earth Literacy Program official website: http://www.elp.or.jp/
A tourism-oriented nation and a "living culture" - Learning from history the secret to achieving both
A tourism-oriented nation and a "living culture" - Learning from history the secret to achieving both
──Mr. Takemura talked about Kyoto's history and culture and how he views the rapid increase in inbound tourism. What are your thoughts on this, Mr. Campbell?
──Mr. Takemura talked about Kyoto's history and culture and how he views the rapid increase in inbound tourism. What are your thoughts on this, Mr. Campbell?
Campbell
In this age of mass tourism, many foreigners are visiting Kyoto, but the influx of people is becoming too much for the city's infrastructure to handle, creating problems. For example, in Venice, residents are demonstrating against tourism, fearing that large amounts of money are pouring into their traditional living spaces, and that if things continue as they are, their history and culture will be destroyed. There are traditional crafts that can only be made in certain places, and people visit to learn these, thus passing on the culture. I think we need to reconsider how we can maintain our lifestyles alongside such "living culture."
Takemura
As Japan aims to attract 40 million foreign tourists a year, from the perspective of inclusion of diverse people, I believe that it will not only be Japanese people who will carry on Japanese culture in the future. Kyoto has historically played the role of a cultural center because, since before the Asuka period, immigrants have been moving here, bringing with them vast intellectual assets. Professor Robert Campbell is a prime example of someone who brings such cross-cultural perspectives to Japan while creatively carrying on Japanese culture.
Japan's philosophy of "harmony is the most precious thing" has existed since Prince Shotoku, and just as the Asuka capital at the time was a melting pot of foreigners and imported cultures, it can also be thought of as the "ability to inclusively compile multiple cultures." How we can utilize this "OS of harmony" (*1) is what is being questioned today in both urban development and regional revitalization. (*1) OS...Computer operating system. Here, it refers to the basic driving system and principles of a worldview and values. (*
1) OS...Computer operating system. Here, it refers to the basic driving system and principles of a worldview and values.
Reviving sensations and images, fostering new literacy
Reviving sensations and images, fostering new literacy
Campbell
Kyoto was built on the model of the Chinese capital of Xi'an, but I think Ginza is actually the opposite. The Meiji government commissioned Scottish architects to draw up blueprints, and a new town made of bricks unlike any other in the world was created. What's interesting is how they tried to communicate the appeal of this space.
Following on from the book about Onomichi, I'd like to introduce another book I've brought with me. It's "Tokyo Gingai Shoshi," published in Tokyo in 1882 (Meiji 15) to report on the town of Ginza. The book wasn't printed using movable type, but rather using Edo-period techniques to carve each page into a woodblock. Surprisingly, it's written in classical Chinese, not Japanese. This is because classical Chinese was the first global language for the Japanese people.
The other book is a magazine called "Ginza Tokyo," produced in 1946, when the first general election was held amid the ruins of postwar Tokyo. I think it shows how, under the circumstances of each era, people express their town and the culture that has developed there, and how they can develop the literacy to interpret this.
Takemura
That's interesting. Meanwhile, what I'm currently focusing on is voice. I call this the "Third Voice Culture." If we consider the pre-writing era, when voice was the only language, as the First Voice Culture, and the era when voice was reinstated within print culture through telephones and radio as the Second Voice Culture, then the 21st-century culture in which we communicate with everyday artifacts through voice recognition, such as the iPhone's voice assistant "Siri," could potentially be considered the "Third Voice Culture." As an extension of this, the emergence of a sociocultural environment in which digitalized physical spaces can be interacted with through voice, such as walking around town listening to explanations from local elders about a place you've visited, or hearing waka poems (utamakura) that describe that place in an augmented reality (AR) style, would have enormous significance as an innovation in urban functions and media. This is why I want to reconsider the value of Japanese language expressed through voice.
Campbell
In Japanese literature, too, oral tradition and oral tradition were originally emphasized, but with the spread of printing technology that accompanied modernization, this was cut away, and sensory elements such as intonation and introduction, development, climax, and conclusion were lost. For example, in the early Meiji period, many newspaper reporters were imprisoned due to censorship, and in order to avoid censorship while in prison, they would write their thoughts in easy-to-remember seven-character quatrains (Chinese poetry consisting of seven characters x four lines), and the first person to be released would publish them in the newspaper the next day.
Takemura
Amazingly, the Chinese text is in a zip file (※2)!
Campbell
That's right. The journalist who was released first "thawed" it, so to speak, and shared it with the world, and a new context spread from there. An oral language with such a highly advanced context could only exist because of a literate community. Similarly, when we today reinterpret culture and create something new from it, I think elements that appeal to the senses are very important.
(*2) Zip file...A computer data compression format. It is a system in which large amounts of data are compressed and the recipient decompresses it, making the original data available.
(*2) Zip file...A computer data compression format. It is a system in which large amounts of data are compressed and the recipient decompresses it, making the original data available.
Campbell
By the way, what does this look like?
Takemura
What is it, a small accessory case?
Campbell
This is actually an egg stand. It belonged to my grandmother, who immigrated to America from Ireland, and it has the word "foreign" stamped on the back. Until 1923, when immigrants brought goods into the country, they simply listed it as "foreign" rather than the name of the country. My mother received this egg stand from my grandmother when she was a child, and she used it every morning. For me, it's a memorable item that reminds me of my family and roots every time I look at it, and it also makes me think about what is "foreign" in some way.
In this way, words and objects appeal to our sensory organs, expanding the image they convey. For example, the National Institute of Japanese Literature (*3) held a special exhibition related to The Tales of Ise from autumn to winter 2017, and experimented with how the materials in front of us and hidden texts would appear by listening to audio, including modern translations and English translations, using AR.
(※3) National Institute of Japanese Literature official website http://www.nijl.ac.jp/
(※3) National Institute of Japanese Literature official website
http://www.nijl.ac.jp/
Takemura
"The Tales of Ise, of course, and these other materials, should no longer simply be preserved as texts, but should be reborn in new forms as "triggers" that vividly evoke in us the history, culture, and experiential resources of the people who lived in that time and place. And yet...it seems that we Japanese are being taught the importance of a perspective on history and culture that we tend to forget. As a Japanese person, I am truly grateful that someone like you has become director of the National Institute of Japanese Literature."
RELATED PROJECTS
Shin Puh Kan Redevelopment Plan
(Scheduled to open in 2019 / Design: NTT FACILITIES Inc. + Kengo Kuma and Associates)
Completed in 1926 as the Kyoto Central Telephone Exchange in Karasuma Oike, Kyoto, the building has been popularly known as Shin Puh Kan commercial facility since 2001. In 2019, the building will be reborn as a new hotel and commercial complex.
We will create a unique charm by utilizing this historic building, which is designated and registered as a cultural property by Kyoto City, and will connect the city's culture that has continued to be nurtured here to the future.
Shin Puh Kan Redevelopment Plan
(Scheduled to open in 2019 / Design: NTT FACILITIES Inc. + Kengo Kuma and Associates)
Completed in 1926 as the Kyoto Central Telephone Exchange in Karasuma Oike, Kyoto, the building has been popularly known as Shin Puh Kan commercial facility since 2001. In 2019, the building will be reborn as a new hotel and commercial complex.
We will create a unique charm by utilizing this historic building, which is designated and registered as a cultural property by Kyoto City, and will connect the city's culture that has continued to be nurtured here to the future.
Robert Campbell
(Robert Campbell)
Japanese literature scholar and Director of the National Institute of Japanese Literature. Born in New York, USA. Completed his doctoral studies in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Harvard University Graduate School. Specializes in early modern and modern Japanese literature, and is interested in art, media, and thought closely related to Chinese classics. He served as a professor at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 2007, retiring in 2017 and becoming Director of the National Institute of Japanese Literature in April of the same year. He is active in a variety of media, appearing on television as an MC and commentator, writing newspaper and magazine serials, book reviews, and planning and appearing on radio programs. Official website: http://robertcampbell.jp/
Shinichi Takemura
(Takemura Shinichi)
Representative of Earth Literacy Program and Professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design. Born in Osaka Prefecture in 1959. Completed his doctoral studies in cultural anthropology at the University of Tokyo Graduate School. Traveled to approximately 70 countries around the world in his twenties, proposing a new "human studies" for the global age, while also tackling global environmental issues from a unique perspective, such as the world's first digital globe, "Tangible Earth," and "One Million Candlelight Night." He is also an expert committee member for the Reconstruction Design Council for the Great East Japan Earthquake, a communications advisor for UNISDR (United Nations Office for International Strategy for Disaster Reduction), and has published numerous books. Earth Literacy Program official website: http://www.elp.or.jp/