Design and Disaster
Kon Wajiro’s Modernologio
Edited by Jilly Traganou & Kuroishi Izumi
Design and Disaster: Kon Wajiro’s Modernologio
Jilly Traganou and Kuroishi Izumi, editors and exhibition curators
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Disaster and Design:
Kon Wajiro’s Modernologio
Exhibition Location: Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, Sheila C.
Johnson Design Center, Parsons The New School for Design
Exhibition Dates: March 13-March 27, 2014
Mehdi Salehi, exhibition designer
Hayashi Natsuki, graphic designer
Dora Sapunar, editorial assistant
Rachel Smith, editorial assistant
Acknowledgments
The exhibition was made possible through the generous support
of The Japan Foundation, New York, the School of Art and Design
History and Theory at Parsons The New School for Design (New
York), and the School of Cultural and Creative Studies of Aoyama
Gakuin University (Tokyo). We are thankful to all the above, and
also to the Kon Wajiro Archive and the Kōgakuin University Library
(Tokyo) for providing digital iles of exhibited work.
Throughout the text and bibliography the names of Japanese
persons are in Japanese order, surname irst.
ISBN: 978-0-9915463-0-5
Design and Disaster:
Kon Wajiro’s Modernologio
Jilly Traganou, Kuroishi Izumi
“Design and Disaster: Kon Wajiro’s
Modernologio” explores Kon
Wajiro’s (1888-1973) visual observations of material practices in
Tokyo after the devastating 1923
Earthquake—particularly drawing from his work Modernologio
(kōgengaku) and from his surveys of
“barracks” (makeshift structures for
earthquake recovery). Kon Wajiro
studied design in Japan in the early
20th century, and worked closely
with ethnographers, designers and
artists. In the 1920s, after extensive
experience studying rural Japan
with ethnographer Yanagita Kunio
(1875-1962), Kon turned his focus to
the realm of urban life.
The exhibition emphasizes Kon
Wajiro’s urban ethnography, as well
as its signiicance as a designbased methodology of recording
material change in post-disaster
conditions through a wide lens, that
spans from the realm of urban and
domestic space to fashion. Chronologically, the exhibition material
derives from Kon’s immediate postearthquake response, his recording
of material culture changes in Ginza
and the slum areas of Tokyo in the
modernization period after the
earthquake, as well as a selection
of Kon’s own design work produced
in the 1930-40s. It is signiicant that
Kon Wajiro’s thinking emerged during an era wherein various design
ields (from architecture and interior
design to graphics and furniture
design) were studied in conjunction
with one another, rather than as
separate disciplines. Today numerous educational institutions of
2
design are trying to re-establish this
integrative approach.
5_1
The exhibition poses questions
about how to record and analyze
change in social and material
culture at times of crisis, and how
these records can be utilized by
designers as agents of recovery.
Kon Wajiro’s work was impelled by
the need to comprehend the rapid
social and material changes that
occurred after the 1923 disaster
in Tokyo. This period of transition
resonates with changes that Japan
is undergoing today, after the triple
disaster of March 2011 (earthquake,
tsunami and nuclear accident in
the Tohoku area). If in the early
20th century Japanese society’s
transition was towards modern,
westernized and consumer-oriented
lifestyles, today we notice a reverse
turn. Namely, a reconsideration of
the consumerist way of life and the
energy consumption practices that
Japan has adopted in the last 150
years. Today, these questions are
universally pertinent, given conditions of climate change, and global
iscal and social crisis.
Designers will see in Kon Wajiro a
forerunner in the use of ethnography as a design tool that had
no parallel in the western world.
Kon’s minute recording of material culture, produced after careful
observations and supplemented
by statistical measurements, is a
sophisticated tool for detecting
and comprehending the patterns of
human life (Kuroishi, 1998, 2000). A
parallel objective of the exhibition
is to look at Kon’s methodology
as an educational resource. This
entails a presentation of student
work produced in classes at Parsons
and Aoyama Gakuin University,
and the hosting of pedagogical
engagements during the length of
the exhibition.
A Brief Biography of Kon Wajiro
Kon Wajiro was born in Hirosaki,
Aomori Prefecture. He is known as
the founder of modernologio, a
school of thought that involved the
documentation of modern life in
Tokyo as it rapidly developed into
a metropolis in the early Showa period (1926-1989). Kon also contributed valuable research in the study
of traditional folk dwellings (minka),
which he produced as a member
of the research group Hakubōkai,
led by Yanagita Kunio, the father of
Japanese ethnography.
Kon studied graphic design (zuan)
at Tokyo Fine Arts University. During
his career he taught architecture
at Waseda University (1920-1959),
and produced diverse design
projects that ranged from graphics
to furniture and architecture. Kon’s
drawing style owes both to the visual languages of his contemporary
avant-garde, and to his training in
the Tokyo Fine Arts University, which
was strongly inluenced by the Arts
and Crafts movement. The zuan-ka
approach which he studied at Tokyo
Fine Arts University did not focus on
drawing for the purpose of faithful
reproduction of nature. It used
drawing as a means of grasping
the phenomena of the real world
through observation, in order to develop a greater expressive capacity
for abstraction in design (Kuroishi,
2011). Through extensive documentary ieldwork undertaken with
minute scrutiny, Kon drew important
lessons for his own design practice,
while leaving a large visual record
of the material practices of his
contemporary society: from fashion
and interior design to body postures and walking styles in the new
urban locales of Tokyo. For Kon,
these were the material expressions
of the large societal changes that
occurred in Japan after the Tokyo
earthquake, and were thus valuable
for comprehending these broader
changes.
After the earthquake, Kon and Yoshida Kenkichi (1897-1982), a fellow
student from the Tokyo School of
Fine Arts, started the Barrack
3
Decoration Company (Barakku
s shokusha), in collaboration with
a group of artists and designers known as Forefront Company (Sent sha) (including painters
Nakagawa Kigen and Kanbara Tai,
and decorators tsubo Shigechika,
Asuka Tetsuo and Yoshimura Jir ),
most of whom had studied in the
design department of the Tokyo
School of Fine Arts. The group’s
purpose was to decorate the interiors and exteriors of the commercial
temporary structures, erected in the
wake of the earthquake, known as
barracks (barakku). Barrack decoration provided the group with monumental canvases, and became a
means to both tie their work closely
to everyday life, and to shape
people’s experience of their urban
environment (Weisenfeld, 230).
At the end of the 1930’s, Kon built
experimental housing to assist
those living in areas with heavy
snowfalls, and designed cooperative workspaces for villages
in six prefectures of the northern
part of Honshu, Japan’s main
island. Following World War II, he
pioneered new ields of academic
study, including Lifestyle Studies (Seikatsu-gaku) and Clothing
Research (Fukusō-kenkyu). Kon’s
interest in diverse ields was rooted
in how he spent his life: traveling
between cities and villages, observing a wide range of lifestyles with
an open mind, seeking to work with
others to create new life systems,
that would be better adapted to
people’s needs.
Exhibition Overview
1. Kon Wajiro’s Urban Ethnography
The exhibition presents sketches
and photographs by Kon Wajiro
and his team members after the
Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.
The selected artifacts reveal the
multiplicity of the material aspects
of human activity that Kon recorded
in post-1923 Tokyo. They derive
from his observations of the city’s
exterior and interior spaces, and
span characteristic locales of urban
modernity, such as Ginza, as well as
slums on the city’s periphery.
4
Immediate Post-Earthquake
Response—Barrack Survey,
1923
In the months after the earthquake,
Kon, Yoshida, other members of the
Barrack Decoration Company as
well as Kon’s students, visited the
areas where earthquake-refugees
tended to congregate. These
included Ueno Park, the Onarimon
area of Shiba Park, Shiba Atagoshita, the Tameike area of Akasaka and
Hibiya Park.
1_4
There, Kon and Yoshida witnessed
the act of living and the creation of
shelter in their most fundamental
states. The day after the earthquake, people who had lost their
homes began salvaging timber
spared by the lames to use as
posts and beams for simple new
dwellings. Kon and Yoshida’s irst
activity was observing. With camera,
pencil and notebook in hand, they
wandered through the ruins, recording their observations of temporary
shelter construction. They photographed and sketched the barracks
of temporary living, as well as the
new places of business that began
to appear in ramshackle structures
in the central commercial districts
of Tokyo. As Kon wrote in 1924,
“These black, red and blue houses
with their roofs—sometimes light,
sometimes heavy but, often peculiar—are quite remarkable. Architects should take note of people’s
ingenuity” (Kon, 1927). During this
period, Kon also formed the Barrack
Decoration Company.
Post-Earthquake Urban
Changes—Modernologio, 1925
Soon after the earthquake, Kon
assembled some of the members of
the Barrack Decoration Company,
his students of Waseda and other
Universities, and members of publishing houses, such as Chuōkoron.
They began carrying out a survey of
the mores and customs of the Ginza
district of Tokyo, a major urban
locale in the city, known as an epicenter of modernity of early Showa
Japan. They named this study
modernologio, an engagement that
developed as an extension of their
observations of temporary shelters.
In addition to Ginza, Kon and
Yoshida conducted their surveys in
other changing areas of Tokyo, such
as the slum of Honjō-Fukagawa,
suburbs like Koenji and Asagaya,
Hibiya and Inokashira parks, the environs of Waseda and Keio Universities, and the commercial districts of
Ueno and Asakusa.
5_8
Kon explained modernologio as an
effort to record the transformation
of Tokyo’s landscape and lifestyle,
in response to the acceleration of
capitalism after the disaster. Results
of the modernologio studies were
exhibited to popular acclaim in an
exhibition titled Research (Modernologio) Exhibition [Shirabemono (kōgengaku) ten], held at the
Kinokuniya bookstore in Shinjuku
from October 15 to 21, 1927.
5
2. Kon Wajiro’s Design Work in Film
In 1935, Kon Wajiro received a
commission from the Japanese government to improve the operation
of local communities’ mutual-help
system in farming areas of Tohoku.
Kon proposed a modular storage
system design (goso), which could
be adapted easily according to
the needs of each community. The
design employed local carpentry
techniques and readily available
materials. It was realized in the period 1935-41. Theses humble storage houses are emblematic of Kon’s
approach. His designs derived from
his on-site observation of people’s
lifestyles, the environment and ev-
eryday building technologies. Kon’s
experience of in-depth observations of rural houses, barracks and
modern urban lifestyles led him to
advocate for a new approach to
architecture (different from that of
modernism), which uniied rational
production systems with options for
user-intervention.
Kazuhiko Kon’s ilm “Storage Houses and Memory of Kashiwagi Yama
Area” (Onshi-goso to Kashiwagi
yama no kioku) (2011), presents one
of these storage houses in Kashiwagi, including interviews with local
residents.
3. Pedagogy Inspired by Kon Wajiro
Memory Maps: Kesennuma
Before and After 3.11
Aoyama Gakuin University Student
Work: SDSD (Spatial Descriptions of
Social Diversity)
Students: Abe Koyuki, Hayashizaki
Ai, Nakajima Yukika, Kobayashi
Yusei
Faculty: Kuroishi Izumi
After the triple disaster of 2011, Professor Kuroishi Izumi’s laboratory at
Aoyama Gakuin University started
conducting extensive ieldwork
in Kesennuma, a coastal town of
Tohoku, that was heavily affected
by the earthquake and the tsunami
that hit the area. By interviewing local inhabitants in the disaster area,
and observing how they are sup6
porting and creating their everyday
lives after the disaster, students are
trying to understand the invisible
human relationships that construct
local society, as well as the community’s historical, social and cultural
identity. With this, students are
suggesting that, instead of thinking about the rehabilitation of the
disaster from top-down and technical approaches, we should rather
focus on understanding people’s
lifestyle and memories of the predisaster era, through a historical
and interview-based approach that
derives from direct engagements
with the community. Project 1 shows
the maps of the most severely damaged areas, before and after the
disaster, revealing how the everyday
living world vanished and a new
landscape emerged.
Resilience in People’s Lifestyle:
Finding Locus in the Culture of
Food and Home
Aoyama Gakuin University Student
Work: SDSD (Spatial Descriptions of
Social Diversity)
Students: Matsudo Keidai, Yokose
Megumi, Mitome Natsumi, Someya
Asami
Faculty: Kuroishi Izumi
This project extends the idea of Kon
Wajiro’s modernologio from a study
of observation to a practice of revitalization. By conducting interviews
and surveys, the project attempts to
reconstruct the setting of residents’
lost houses. It also proposes ways
to re-connect with the almost
vanished local context by focusing
on the area’s food culture. These
works bring to the surface the social
and historical infrastructure of urban
everyday life—Kon’s fundamental
intention with his survey of modern
socio-material phenomena.
identity, comparing Kesennuma and
Red Hook, an area affected by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. In June 2013,
they participated in the Red Hook
Festival with a mobile performative
installation, titled “CommuniTea.”
This was part of an effort to connect
communities around the globe that
are both recovering from and at risk
for future large-scale disasters. This
project was inspired by Kon Wajiro’s
response to disaster, and particularly his Barrack Decoration Company.
Combining the typology of the temporary shelter and the traditional
Japanese teahouses, the installation
was the setting for a performer, who
invited visitors one-by-one to listen
to stories from Tohoku, and share
their experiences from the period
of Hurricane Sandy. “CommuniTea”
engaged fundamental questions
related to belonging, identity and
displacement by natural disasters,
as well as the politics of emergency
assistance, crisis preparedness and
humanitarian aid.
CommuniTea
Parsons The New School for
Design, School of Art and Design
History and Theory
Authors
Students: Sarah Farah, Hayashi
Natsuki, Anze Zadel
Faculty: Jilly Traganou
In January 2013, three students of
Jilly Traganou’s class “Japanese
Design and Urban Culture from the
Edo to post 3.11 Japan” visited Kesennuma with Professor Kuroishi and
students of her laboratory. Upon
return to New York the students
began studying the notion of place-
Jilly Traganou is Associate Professor
in Spatial Design Studies at Parsons
The New School for Design, New
York.
Kuroishi Izumi is Professor at the
School of Cultural and Creative
Studies, Aoyama Gakuin University,
Tokyo.
7
Kon Wajiro’s Writings
With Introductory Notes by Kuroishi Izumi
1
In September, 1923, Tokyo was almost completely destroyed by a huge
earthquake. Kon organized the Barrack Decoration Company, a group
dedicated to the construction of temporary structures—“barracks”—built
in the aftermath of the earthquake. The group’s designs drew inspiration
from sources as diverse as avant-garde painting, rococo and organic natural
forms. Members of the company undertook the decoration of barracks, but
Kon’s work so directly confronted the stereotypical view of ornament in the
modern architectural discourse that a group of young modernists, Bunriha
Architectural Society (Bunriha Kenchikukai), immediately challenged him.
Through the succeeding debates, Kon tried to clarify the conlicts between
his beliefs surrounding decoration and ornament in architecture and the
modernist ideas of Bunriha.
Kon’s ideas about decoration and ornament were inspired by two sources:
First was the Arts and Crafts movement, with which he gained familiarity
when carrying out studies of rural houses. As Owen Jones described in his
“Grammar of Ornament,” the Arts and Crafts movement upheld, in addition
to a preference for naturalistic art, the belief that beauty in art resulted from
the artist’s ability to take pleasure in the dificulty of work, and that ornament should be the result of reinement according to peoples’ usage of the
objects. The second source came from the European avant-garde movement that exerted strong inluences in the arts of Japan at that time. Sharing
the early ideas of the European avant-garde, Kon and other members of
Barrack Decoration Company tried to reexamine the meanings and expressions of art in society. They endeavored to express direct sensation through
dynamic forms, as well as destroy categorical divisions and conventional
ideas about the creation of art. Kon also shared the European avant-garde’s
preoccupation with the social, stemming from his personal involvement in
the improvement of Japanese peoples’ living conditions since the 1910’s.
Having a strong humanistic standpoint, Kon was opposed to the overly institutionalized and engineering-oriented understanding of architecture, as well
as to modernist notions of architecture privileging “pure-form.” Kon’s uniied usage of the notions of ornament and decoration shows his characteristic understanding of the essence of art as “something our daily lives require
on the surface of things,” through which man perceives and experiences the
meaning and beauty of objects and the world.
(Kuroishi Izumi)
8
An Excerpt from Kon Wajiro’s “An Analysis of
Decorative Art” (Sōshoku geijutsu no kaimei),
published in Kenchiku shinchō 5:2 (1924)
Bunriha members seem to understand architecture as follows:
the material form directly affects
people’s minds, and is to be created as such. They ind added
ornament to be unnecessary. They
also seem to believe that music is a
series of sounds and that architecture is the placement of material
objects in a given space. I am not
aware of their opinion about barracks, which are artifacts created
with maximum inancial restraint.
Bunriha members, however, act as
if they are destined to accomplish
the above-mentioned idea. Many of
the post ofice buildings by Yamada
Mamoru exemplify solutions to such
aesthetic problems. In his works,
we can clearly see an approach to
architecture which is inspired by
poetry and music.
However, I want to examine under
what conditions they conceived
their ideas of poetry and music in
architecture. After all, their idea
of architectural beauty is abstract
and universal, superimposed on a
concrete physical presence. The
composition of lines, the volume of
masses, their distributions, the play
of light on them, the force and the
simplicity of the forms, and rhythmical, musical, poetic beauty are the
themes and objectives of their
designs. Indeed, this purist mindset
is a heavenly place—one accessible
to only the most talented artists.
4_8
In order to appreciate the beauty
of a naked body we have to reject
decoration. The architectural body
cannot have dresses on. However,
if we understood decoration from
a broader perspective we might be
able to add to the naked architectural body something commonly called decoration, in order
to highlight its basic meaning. The
irst viewpoint rejects decoration
in order to protect the purity of
architectural form. The second one
appreciates the capability of decoration to express dramatic emotions
on the surface of architectural form.
The irst viewpoint also recognizes
the pure beauty in the architectural
structure.
9
The second tries to extend the
notion of architectural beauty. Of
course, Bunriha members take
the irst standpoint and I take the
second.
…
We are now trying to liberate the
methods of decorative expression
as much as possible, and to make
their evocations as complex as
possible. For example, in interior
design, we try to express social
phenomena—the reality of people’s
lives, everyday activities, their emotions and their changes—on walls
and ceilings through luid, sensitive forms. I want to make people
accept them without any explanation, in order to perceive and enjoy
them spontaneously in their daily
environments. I believe the work of
decoration is to ill people’s living
spaces with dignity.
This expression of decoration may
contradict the idea of primal beauty
of architecture. However, can we
discard it from our lives? Many
of us ind that the experience of
human perception is stimulated by
the decorative patterns of rococo
style, and begin our examination
of decoration from there. In other
words, we feel delicate sounds
in the most complicated curving decoration, which is hated by
architects, and is the most dificult
to simplify into geometrical forms.
Our effort may raise the antipathy
of other architects, who never listen
to our explanations. Decoration is
at times harmonious and at times
independent from the rhythms of
architectural composition. In any
case, decoration is something we
demand to be on the surface of the
10
material in our living world.
I have been working on the idea of
the absolute pattern, which is not a
pattern added onto materials but
the direct expression of the human
mind through lines and colors, in
order to express people’s lifestyles
in their living space. When you see
a person sitting, you may want to
express his personality, his emotions
and moods in that space through
patterns on the wall behind him.
As a painter expresses his perception on the canvas, we should be
allowed to do something similar on
the wall of a room.
4_2 (right)
People usually call the production
of beautiful colors and harmonized
patterns decoration, but I think that
such formal approaches lead to
merely ephemeral expressions, and
are not the real work of decoration.
I think the work of decoration is to
express the real and practical ways
of people’s life.
(Translated by Kuroishi Izumi, irst
published in Round01: Jewels (2006)
2
Kon Wajiro’s understanding of architecture as the “active” intermediary between man and the world informed his signature interpretations of
architectural space and form. Along with his Barrack Decoration Company,
Kon applied these ideas to his modernologio survey, in order to discover
the phenomenological interrelationship between people, things and their
social environment. Kon’s project, assumedly inluenced by European and
American theories of phenomenology and pragmatic philosophy, appears
as one of the earliest examples of these theories’ application in practice.
In the following, Kon elucidates his ieldwork exploration of architectural
and urban spaces in relation to their material expression. Kon recorded furniture, objects, tools, souvenirs and other artifacts which illed the interiors
of peoples’ living spaces, and included precise physical descriptions and
histories of the objects. In focusing on objects and their arrangements in
domestic interiors, he came to deine architectural space as a stage for life’s
events, thus accumulating historical resonance and the ability to represent
peoples’ social and personal lives. Opposed to the notions of architecture, propagated by modernist architects during this period in Japan, Kon
expanded the idea of architectural space from a ixed to a luid entity for the
movement of daily life—namely the interaction between man and the world.
With his studies of post-earthquake constructions, in his Barrack Survey, and
the application of phenomenology in modernologio, Kon framed architecture as a humanistic discipline dependent on people’s individual and social
experience.
(Kuroishi Izumi)
11
An Excerpt from Kon Wajiro’s “Examination of the
Household of a Newly Married Couple” (Shinkatei no
shinamono chōsa) in Modernologio (1930)
4_3 (left)
If you were to examine all the
belongings of a person, you would
be able to see the characteristics
and tendencies of that person. His
belongings make up the background of his life. There is an issue
with working in such a way. People
prefer to hide their inner world and
they dislike having it examined by
others. They recognize privacy as
a human right, and make it their
fundamental law without examining whether it is a primal or a
progressive one. There are many
who require privacy in their houses,
without considering that there are
various types and natures of privacy
in our lives.
12
I think our contemporary material
culture, which is gradually becoming universalized with the slogan
of “culture of daily life” (bunka
seikatsu), is at a stage which is similar with pre-naturalism in literature.
Is there any exact measurement in
the discussions of “culture of daily
life”? After all, the ideas of “culture
of daily life” are based on what is
perceived as common sense. Their
criteria re decided only through
some rough estimation. The degree
of comfort, the required spatial volume and number of household objects are based on common sense.
It is believed that everyone has
the same desires and sensibilities
without a consideration for those
who have different ones. Of course,
such an approach had a certain
effect on the improvement of our
lifestyle, that was too-conventional.
However, in order to conduct the
social project of “life improvement”
(seikatsu kaizen) we must try to
establish a deeper and stronger
foundation for it.
In this work I am trying to further
develop an anthropological method
in order to record and examine
comparatively our contemporary
material culture. By examining the
records of material culture, we
should be able to see social customs and fashionable tendencies,
as well as the differences between
individuals in society. Then, individuals should be able to
distinguish society’s diverse
personae, and the trends of material culture, in order to prepare for
their own way of living, unhampered
by compulsions to imitate. For such
projects in the study of material
culture, I have been recording and
describing every object in people’s
living spaces in detail, trying to
discover the differences between
each individual.
(Translated by Kuroishi Izumi, irst
published in Round01: Jewels (2006)
Selected Bibliography
Fujimori, Terunobu. “Kaisetsu tadashii kōgengaku” (Commentary on
True Modernologio). In Kon Wajiro,
Fujimori Terunobu. Kōgengaku
nyūmon (Introduction to Modernologio). Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō,
Chikuma Bunko, 1987 (originally
published in 1930), pp. 409-17.
Kon, Wajiro. “Shinsai barakku no
omoide” (Memory of Barracks
After the Earthquake). Minzoku to
kenchiku, 1927. Reproduced in Kon
Wajiro zenshu, Vol. 4, pp. 299-336.
Gill, Tom. “Kon Wajiro, Modernologist.” Japan Quarterly, 43.2
(1996):198-207.
Kon, Wajiro, and Yoshida Kenkichi.
Modernologio: Kōgengaku (Modernologio), Tokyo: Shunyōdō, 1930.
Kawazoe, Noboru. Kon Wajiro: sono
kōgengaku (Kon Wajiro: His Modernologio), Tokyo: Riburo Pōto, 1987.
Kon, Wajiro. and Yoshida Kenkichi,
Kōgengaku saishū: Moderunorojio
(Modernologio Collection), Tokyo:
Zōshigayamachi (tōkyōfu), Kensetsusha, 1931.
Kon, Wajiro. “Soshoku geijutsu no
kaimei” (An Analysis of Decorative
Art), Kenchiku shincho 5:2 (1924).
Kon, Wajiro. “Yake totan no ie” (A
House With Burnt Iron Roof), in
series “Barakku chōsa” (Barrack
research), Chūo Kenchiku (1924): 24.
Kon, Wajiro. “Barakku ni tsuiteno
ichi-kousatsu” (An Essay on Barracks). Waseda kenchiku gakuho,
December 1925. Reproduced in
Kon Wajiro zenshu, Vol. 4, pp.
285-98.
Kon Wajiro, Kon Wajiro zenshu (Kon
Wajiro Collection), Vol. 1-9, Tokyo:
Domesu Shuppan, 1971-72.
Kuroishi, Izumi. “Kon Wajiro: A
Quest for the Architecture as a Container of Everyday Life.” Ph.D. diss,
University of Pennsylvania, 1998.
13
Kuroishi, Izumi. Kenchiku-gai no
shiso: Kon Wajiro ron (Ideas from
the Exterior of Architecture: Kon
Wajiro’s Ideas and Work). Tokyo:
Domesu-shuppan, 2000.
Kuroishi, Izumi. “Wajiro Kon: An
Architect Who Envisioned Architecture as a Container of Everyday
Life.” In Zenno, Yasushi and Jagan
Shah (eds.), Round 1, Jewels. Tokyo:
Acetate, 2006.
Kuroishi, Izumi. “Visual Examinations of Interior Space in Movements to Modernize Housing in Japan c. 1920–40.” Interiors: Design,
Architecture and Culture 2:1 (2011):
95-123.
Kuroishi, Izumi. Kon Wajiro saishū
kōgi (Collection of Lectures by Kon
Wajiro). Tokyo: Seigensha, 2011, pp.
45-52, 55-56.
Kuroishi, Izumi. “Kon Wajiro ni
totteno Tohoku” (Kon Wajiro in Tohoku). In Kon Wajiro to Kōgengaku
(Kon Wajiro and Modernologio),
Tokyo: Kawade-shobo, 2013, pp.
153-59.
14
National Museum of Ethnology.
“Modernologio Now: Kon Wajiro’s
Science of the Present.” Osaka,
2012. (exhibition held in April 26 June 19, 2012 ) http://www.minpaku.
ac.jp/english/museum/exhibition/
special/20120426kon/exhibition
Nute, Kevin. Place, Time, and Being
in Japanese Architecture. London:
Routledge, 2004.
Sand, Jordan. House and Home
in Modern Japan. Cambridge,
Massachusetts; London: Harvard
University Press, 2003.
Silverberg, Miriam. “Constructing
the Japanese Ethnography of Modernity.” Journal of Asian Studies
51:1 (1992): 30-54
Weisenfeld, Gennifer. “Designing
After Disaster: Barrack Decoration
and the Great Kanto Earthquake.”
Japanese Studies 18:3 (1998): 22946.
Exhibited Works
Immediate Post-Earthquake Response:
Barrack Survey
Section 1: Photographs of Barracks, 1923
1_1
Untitled
Kon Wajiro Collection
Earthquake refugee settlement on
the grounds of the Imperial Palace,
Tokyo, September 1, 1923
Photograph
1_2
Untitled
Kon Wajiro Collection
Ueno Park, September 20, 1923
Five Photographs
1_3
Untitled
Kon Wajiro Collection
Six Photographs
1_4
Untitled
Kon Wajiro Collection
Six Photographs
Section 2: Sketches of Barracks, 1923
2_1
Untitled
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper
2_6
2_2
Untitled
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper
2_5
Untitled
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper
2_3
Untitled
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper
2_6
Untitled
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper
2_4
Untitled
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper
2_7
Untitled
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper
15
Post-earthquake Urban Changes:
Modernologio
Section 3: Ginza Fashion Survey, Mode of the Age,
Modernologio, 1925
3_4 (top)
Women’s Kimono (Plate#30)
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper;
3.6 x 7 in. (9.2 x 18 cm)
3_5 (botoom)
Women’s Footwear (Plate#44)
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper;
1.7 x 3.5 in. ( 4.3 x 9 cm)
3_1
3_1
Index of the Report of Ginza
Fashion Survey, 1925
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on tracing paper;
8.7 x 7 in. (22 x 17.6 cm)
3_2 (top)
Men’s Kimono (Plate#20)
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper;
3.1 x 6.4 in. (8 x 16.3 cm)
3_3 (bottom)
Shoes (Plate#18)
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper;
5.4 x 7.8 in. (13.7 x 19.8 cm)
16
3_6 (top)
Women’s Hairstyles (Plate#52)
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper;
2.4 x 5 in. ( 6.3 x 13 cm)
3_7 (bottom)
Women’s Purses (Plate#60)
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper;
4 x 7.5 in. (10.2 x 19.2 cm)
3_8 (top)
Men’s Eyeglasses (Plate#25)
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper;
3.4 x 4.2 in. ( 8.8 x 11 cm)
3_9 (bottom)
Portables (Plate#28)
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper;
2.5 x 5.6 in. ( 6.4 x 14.5 cm)
3_10 (top)
Women’s Shoes (Plate#51)
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper;
3.2 x 5.3 in. ( 8.3 x 13.6 cm)
3_11 (bottom)
Portables (Plate#66)
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper;
1.5 x 3.8 in. (4 x 10 cm)
3_8 (top)
Section 4: Interior Survey, Modernologio, 1925
Households
4_1
Household of a newly-married
couple#1
House layout (left); entrance and
home ofice (right), 1925
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper and tracing paper;
11.5 x 14.7 in. ( 29.3 x 37.5 cm)
4_2
Household of a newly-married
couple#2
Living room (left); home decorations
(right), 1925
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper and tracing paper;
11.5 x 14.7 in. ( 29.3 x 37.5 cm)
4_3
Household of a newly-married
couple#3
Inside of the closet (left); dining
room and bedroom (right), 1925
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper and tracing paper;
11.5 x 14.7 in. ( 29.3 x 37.5 cm)
4_4
Household of a newly-married
couple#4
Cabinet (left); closet (right), 1925
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper and tracing paper;
11.5 x 14.7 in. ( 29.3 x 37.5 cm)
4_5
Household of a newly-married
couple#5
Kitchen, 1925
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper and tracing paper;
11.5 x 14.7 in. ( 29.3 x 37.5 cm)
Objects
4_6
Illustrations of what a woman in
Fukagawa needs
(with costs and department stores’
window signs), 1925
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on tracing paper;
9.5 x 7.1 in. ( 24.2 x 18.2 cm)
17
4_7
Illustrations of what a man in
Fukagawa wants (with costs), 1925
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on tracing paper;
9.4 x 7.1 in. ( 24 x 18.1 cm)
4_8
Patterns of diapers, 1925
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
and Kenkichi Yoshida (Japanese,
1897–1982)
Ink on paper and tracing paper;
14.8 x 11.5 in. ( 37.6 x 29.3 cm)
4_9
Cracks of bowls at a cafeteria, 1927
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
and Ozawa Shôzô (Japanese, ? - ? )
Graphite and ink on paper and
tracing paper;
11.5 x 14.6 in. ( 29.3 x 37.1 cm)
4_7
Section 5: Public Realm Survey, Modernologio,1925
Body Postures, Dress and
Movement
5_1
Social class composition of
pedestrians in Futagawa, 1925
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on tracing paper;
9.5 x 7.1 in. ( 24.3 x 18.2 cm)
5_2
Trail of a “modern girl” in
Marunouchi building, 1927
Koike Tomihisa (Japanese, ? - ? )
Graphite, ink, and watercolor on
paper and tracing paper;
15 x 11.5 in. ( 38.1 x 29.2 cm)
5_3
18
5_3
Uniform of waitresses at the cafe
in Ginza from the Report of Ginza
Fashion Survey, 1926
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
and Kenkichi Yoshida (Japanese,
1897-1982)
Print;
12.6 x 9.4 in. ( 32.2 x 24 cm)
5_4
Worn-out parts of junior high school
boys’ clothing, 1927
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
and Naozô Nagata (Japanese, ? –? )
In on paper;
14.8 x 11.5 in. ( 37.6 x 29.3 cm)
5_5
Variations of resting laborers, 19251926
Arai Mitsuo (Japanese, ?-?)
Graphite and ink on tracing paper;
10.9 x 7.6 in. ( 27.7 x 19.5 cm)
Traces, Objects and Animals
5_6
Study of dogs, Tokyo suburb
Arai Mitsuo (Japanese, ?-?)
5_7
Traces of ants, measurement per 50
centimeters, 1925
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on paper and tracing paper;
14.6 x 11.6 in. ( 37.2 x 29.5 cm)
5_8
Street merchants’ equipment, 1927
Arai Mitsuo (Japanese, ?-?)
Ink on paper;
8.6 x 6.6 in. ( 22 x 16.8 cm)
5_9
Suicide Spots in Inokashira Park,
1925-1927
Kon Wajiro (Japanese, 1888–1973)
Ink on tracing paper;
14.8 x 11.4 in. ( 37.7 x 29 cm)
5_6
Kon Wajiro’s Design Work in Film
Section 6: Storage House, 1935-41; Film, 2011
6_1
Storage Houses and Memory of
Kashiwagi Yama Area (Onshi-goso
to Kashiwagi yama no kioku), 2011
Kon Kazuhiko with Kuroishi Izumi
Video
19
Pedagogy Inspired by Kon Wajiro
Section 7: Student Work
7_1
Memory maps, Kesennuma before
and after 3.11
Students: Abe Koyuki, Nakajima
Yukika, Hayashizaki Ai, Kobayashi
Yusei
Student work conducted by
Kuroishi Izumi’s Laboratory at
Aoyama Gakuin University, based
on their volunteering activities
and workshop participation in
Kesennuma in 2012 and 2013.
Project presented at “Gen-Fukei”
(Original Landscape) Exhibition
in ACL hall in Tokyo in Nov. 2013.
Supported by the Research Institute
of Aoyama Gakuin University,
Obayashi Construction Research
Fund.
7_2
Resilience in People’s Lifestyle:
Finding Locus in the Culture of
Food and Home
Students: Matsudo Keidai, Yokose
Megumi, Mitome Natsumi, Someya
Asami
Cover Images
4_1, 4_3, 4_4, 4_5
20
Student work conducted by
Kuroishi Izumi’s Laboratory at
Aoyama Gakuin University, based
on their volunteering activities
and workshop participation in
Kesennuma in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Project presented at RiasArc
Museum Kesennuma in 2013.
Supported by the Tohoku Fund of
the Ministry of Agriculture, Research
Institute of Aoyama Gakuin
University, GBFund by Association
for Corporate Support of the Arts.
7_3
CommuniTea
Students: Stephanie Farah, Hayashi
Natsuki, Anze Zadel
Student work conducted in
“Japanese Design and Urban
Culture from the Edo to post
3.11 Japan” class taught by Jilly
Traganou, Parsons The New School
for Design, Spring 2013. Project
presented in the Red Hook Festival,
June 2013. Supported by Urban
Festival, The New School.