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

viii

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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4

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

x

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.

5

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

9

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

10

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, past4 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. Postmodernismby 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

17

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

18

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.

24

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.

27

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 goodstwo 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

28

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 otherby 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

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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 Shitamachi10

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 passengers9 Yamanote 8 Jinnai

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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 ruleper 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.

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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.

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CHAPTER 2. TOKYO

2.4

Vanishing memories in the process of destruction and reconstructionIn 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 groupshas 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

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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

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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

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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.

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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 TokyoFigure 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 changed24 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

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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; t