This was posted first on my subdomain blog visudiscimus.immenor.com for one of the classes I am taking here in Japan.
As a graphic artist my first observations about Japan as a society relate to its visual representation of information. What immediately strikes my eye is the contrast between the clean visual representations of train lines and bus routes that permeate the transportation facilities, which themselves carry an appealing nature of old technology layered upon new, and the crowded messy typography on every TV screen & magazine cover.
At the same time their exists two tendencies: one to be very organized, systematic, and the other, a tendency to cram as much as possible into a given space, layering content time and time again till nothing else can fit. I think this is a good example of a visual phenomena that permeates Japan. This compact island nation, upon which people are crammed into the flat plains wedged between the fingers of mountains, is geographically predisposed to have both the cramped and highly functional, and the organized and highly attractive. In the geography, we have the plains, which are home to the cities, and the mountains, which are home to the temples. In the cities we see everything crammed together, and in the mountains we see the visual traditions of elegance for its own sake at work. The most intriguing point however is that within the busy city areas, there are little pockets of organization, which forms a proper system. Although the streets may a mess with people running to and forth, step into a home or business, and it becomes a well managed reality.
In the first picture I have posted within this text, you can see on one side an organized visual system side by side with the lights of easily 30 taxi’s crammed into a small waiting area at Hirakatashi Station. In the second photo to the left we see a cramped but well decorated corridor in shinsaibashi. In an extreamly wide and open street which is home to many weastern images, it is exciting to find a corridor that is at most 4 feet wide. Dispite it’s messyness バラバラ feel you can tell everything was put in order by someone. People push through this small corridor with amazing speed given it’s size. These types of things have been the first that I have noticed while in Japan.
Up to this point my exposure certainly has been drawn towards places with more tourist attraction: places that retain images of Japanese cultural heritage. Still, I feel like to some extent I can still glimpse its spirit in places as mundane as a train station as I have noted above. Just meandering around Hirakata, I feel both at home and in a new world. Around me are the buildings of industry and the narrow streets of rural Japan. I have the Komatsu factory on my left, and the small family restaurant on my right. While it is more obvious on the picture in the right, you can see both the new and the old. In this case, the new is off in the distance, and not the main subject of the picture. This however is the intent. I took this photos because I wanted to preserve the feeling of looking down upon these buildings. Never the less, the fact that the encroaching cityscape is not removed from the picture is equally important.
Throughout the past two weeks I have been brought to Kyoto twice. Both of these trips I was able to take many pictures. Given the fact that it is kyoto the subject matter is not surprisingly temples and traditional buildings. I think however that they are important to note. Gion for example is a very interesting place to witness the contrast of eras. Walk but a block from the main street that snakes the river and you will rise up slowly into the hills towards kyoumizudera, surrounded by increasingly smaller streets and older buildings. It is wonderful to see, given the fact that so much of Japanese older architecture has been burned.
The above photos we have are of a temple and a train station. The train station is in Hirakata, whereas the temple is in Kyoto. The two pictures create a nice contrast between the mechanical and busy and the tranquil and traditional. Never the less both photos show some characteristic that can be associated with Japan. In the case of the temple, I first see the gate in the background. It is large a symbolic, as is the immense staircase which I am looking down while taking the photo. In the background we see a parked car; the one element that reminds us completely that this is indeed the 21st century. The two people in the photo are most likely a couple.
Setting them against the epic background of the history makes them look like tourists, scaling them up against the brick walls. In the train station shot we see a vending machine which is unmistakably Japanese. All of the vendable bottles are crowded together and their packaging is bright and busy. In the background, although blurred, there is the criss cross of train tracks a wires. A near perfect system that is well thought out but looks like an entanglement of steel. I love this contrast. I think to some extent it is what has helped bring me to Japan. I feel that it manifests itself even in its writing system. Thick complex blocks of kanji, and the simplistic, flowing forms of hiragana, inter-mingled to create a writing system that looks like none other. The one other photo I have included to the left is a picture of people walking in Shinsai bashi. Like most photos I take, I did not think about it until after I took it so I am hard pressed to read into it too much, however it at least is a good example of the crowded, visually stimulating street for which Japan is known.
In the slider below, other photos which I have not posted in the text, along with ones that I have can be viewed. All photos can be clicked which will open up a larger viewing window.
I currently live in Kourigaoka of Hirakata city. This neighborhood is comprised of mostly apartment buildings and recent structures that all look slightly the same. In my mind, It feels like an odd cross between an american suburb and a set of stalinist apartment complexes. Beneath the buildings lays a much older base of stone which reminds you that this neighborhood has existed for a while, all be it in a very different form. On rainy days as I walk to the bus stop, water flows with astounding torrential speed through the cracks of a small rock wall around one of the local buildings. Walking down the streets, the buildings fit together messily. Despite their new, almost mundane form, you can tell that they were built in accordance to the already laid-out city blocks that have been here for some time.
This first picture was taken from my Bus stop while commuting to school on a rainy day. Recently the weather has always been like this when I return to my neighborhood. Even if the days are sunny with blue skies, by the time I make it back home, more oft than not, the sky has clouded over. This was far from ideal in terms of photos; I would much rather have been able to take a evening shot documenting my neighboring buildings lit up by an orange glow. In the second picture is a rusted sign. I feel like this picture epitomizes the atmosphere of my neighborhood. While is markedly modern, given that, save a elementary school, it is all apartment buildings, there is yet a tinge of entropy seeping into the otherwise neatly arranged environment. The sign also gives off a very Japanese feel. At Hirkatashi Eki, or any other place where more foreigners are likely to be, almost every sign contains some kind of english translation even if it is far from correct. These signs lack these things; I feel like I am living in common everyday Japan when I walk home at night past the drunk Salaryman and the ever-growing number of obaasans. Then again I realize that as a foreigner with an acute interest in the Japanese language, and in the case of these signs, I am elated to always see them without foreign influence. This is of course, not in line with the natural progression of language & humanity; I recognize that. Below are two more photos. One of the bikes at my apartment building, and another that displays the name of the neighborhood, kyū chōme.
