Reassessing post-3/11 Japan from an aesthetic perspective
Viewing 3/11 as an intersection
HAMANO Yasuki
HAMANO Yasuki: A number of people have suggested that the Great East Japan Earthquake, or “3/11,” has provided an ideal opportunity to take a fresh look at Japan. You have summed up the issue very elegantly with the phrase “reassessing Japan from an aesthetic perspective.” What exactly did you mean by that?
HARA Kenya
HARA Kenya: I would just like to start by saying that 3/11 was a terrible disaster, so we need to make sure that we talk about it with the utmost respect. With that in mind however, I personally feel that 3/11 was a key intersection, or turning point. I’ll come back to this in more detail in a moment, but there have been other major events that have become turning points in the past. The one that particularly comes to mind is the Onin War, which broke out in the then capital Kyoto during the latter part of the 15th century. The Onin War was a civil war that began in 1467 and lasted ten years. The ravages of war created a sense of hiekareta, meaning cold and withered, a concept that is at the root of modern-day Japanese culture. That aesthetic essentially developed into a national culture throughout Japan. Rather than leaving the country depleted in some way, the civil war actually served as a starting point for the creation of something even better. The world in which we live these days isn’t as straightforward as it was at the time of the Onin War. With so many complex factors interlinking with one another, we are unlikely to see any immediate or obvious changes in Japan as a result of 3/11. Even so, I get the feeling that people will look back on 3/11 in the future and regard it as a key turning point every bit as important as the Onin War. Basically, I think we should regard 3/11 as a new intersection from which to reassess Japan from an aesthetic perspective.
Hamano: What aspects of pre-3/11 Japan should we be reassessing?
Hara: In many respects, Japan had already reached a turning point prior to 3/11. Postwar Japan established itself as a country built on industry, underpinned by manufacturing. As manufacturing is essentially based on science however, it can be recreated anywhere in the world. Japan was never going to be able to keep manufacturing for itself and continue exporting products indefinitely. Having clung to the notion that economic growth would continue unabated for over 60 years since the war, people had started to realize that might not be the case. Even an airplane levels out once it has reached an altitude of 10,000 meters. With the Japanese economy having similarly leveled out as it reached maturity, we were already reaching the point where we would have had to reassess how we view Japan.
The days when we could rely on cheap labor and sell industrial products in huge quantities are over. I believe that we need to adopt a new approach, tapping into the Japanese aesthetic as a key resource instead. Japan has adapted and preserved its culture for well over a millennium, in terms of both the traditional and the everyday, and has developed its own unique aesthetic. There aren’t many countries around the world that have done that. Take Singapore for example. From a geopolitical standpoint, it has a clear view of everything from the Middle East to the Pacific Rim, enabling it to calmly assess where to invest, bring in money and create a thriving economy. With a history dating back just half a century however, it has yet to develop its own culture. China on the other hand has a history dating back four millennia. With one regime continually overthrowing another however, the country’s culture has always been somewhat fragmented. Even if China wanted to recreate its culture from the Song Dynasty, or the Ming Dynasty, it’s easier said than done.
In contrast, Japanese culture and traditions have a real sense of consistency. I believe that reassessing Japan will enable us to open up industries with great potential for the future, from food and other aspects of everyday life through to fashion and tourism.
HARA Kenya
Born in 1958, he is a designer, professor at the Musashino Art University, representative of the Nippon Design Center Inc. and since 2002, the art director of Muji. Hara emphasizes the design of both objects and experiences. He has received numerous design awards, including the Japanese Cultural Design Award. His book Design of Design received the Suntory Arts and Science Award, and its new revised and expanded English edition, Designing Design (Lars Müller Publishers, Switzerland, 2007) has reached readers all over the world.
HAMANO Yasuki
Professor, Division of Environmental Studies at the Department of Human and Engineered Environmental Studies/Media Environment of the University of Tokyo. He graduated in 1980 from the Division of Education, Graduate School of International Christian University and became a Research Associate attached to his alma mater. In 1982, he became a Research Associate at Niigata University before going on to become an Associate Professor at the National Institute of Multimedia Education the following year. In 1999 he assumed the post of Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo where he also gained his Doctor of Engineering degree, in 2003. From 2004 onwards, he has held his current post of Professor at the University of Tokyo, where he specializes in media content study.
