Selected Writings on Design and Modernology, 1924–47

Author(s): Wajiro Kon and Izumi Kuroishi

Source: West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture ,
Vol. 22, No. 2 (Fall–Winter 2015), pp. 190-216
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Bard Graduate Center

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26466662

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

The University of Chicago Press and Bard Graduate Center are collaborating with JSTOR to
digitize, preserve and extend access to West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design
History, and Material Culture

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Selected Writings
on Design and
Modernolog y,
1924– 47
Wajiro Kon
Introduction and translation by Izumi Kuroishi

190  West 86th V 22 N2

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Introduction

Wajiro Kon (1888–1973) was a Japanese designer and architect, but his reputa-
tion rests more on his methods and theories than on any specific designs (fig. 1).
Having become involved in anthropological fieldwork at an early stage in his
career, he used this to analyze the role of material culture in a rapidly chang-
ing society. At a time when Japan was fast becoming a modern industrial nation,
Kon’s writings presented an unusual “third way”: instead of reasserting the value
of traditional crafts, or the wholesale acceptance of modernism, he encouraged
designers to study the ways people actually lived and how they related to their
surroundings and domestic goods. Of all the styles that were available to his gen-
eration, he felt that the rococo—which was abhorred by both modernists and
traditionalists—was probably the most useful as a model for domestic design.

Born in Aomori in the Tohoku region, Kon took the design (zuan) course at
Tokyo College of Art, specializing in textiles and interior design.1 This course
was part of an education program devised by Tenshin Okakura and Ernest
Fenollosa in the late nineteenth century, fusing Western art education and
traditional Japanese apprenticeship training to provide a comprehensive educa-
tion in fine art, traditional crafts, and the application of design to industry.
Utilizing his ability as a versatile designer, during the 1910s Kon undertook
research on rural housing and in the following decade began to investigate
patterns of urban living and decoration, an activity he described as “Modernol-
ogy” (Kōgengaku). In this field he was responsible for various projects to improve
housing standards, and after World War II he founded the academic disciplines
of “Lifestyle Studies” (Seikatsu gaku) and “Fashion Research” (Fukusō-kenkyu) to
inform design practice.2

Japanese society experienced radical change during his lifetime, as the coun-
try and its industries were reorganized to foster a modern consumer economy.
Accordingly, a more urban culture permeated various parts of society. At
the same time, the militant imperialist ethos of the ruling classes placed
the country on a war footing that led eventually to the Japanese occupation
of neighboring countries.3 These changes had an impact on contemporary
cultural life, highlighting the tension that was emerging between the demands
of modernization and the protection of traditional Japanese cultural identity.
Likewise, there was concern for the preservation of regional characteristics and
for the issues arising from the impact of consumerism on the Japanese way of

Selected Writings on Design and Modernology   191

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Fig. 1 Portrait of Wajiro Kon during his 1930 trip to Germany. Kon Wajiro Collection, Kogakuin
University.

192  West 86th V 22 N2

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
life—apprehensions that continued into the post–World War II period. Within
this context, Kon’s ideas about design evolved from an early interest in the Brit-
ish Arts and Crafts movement, with its emphasis on the values of the traditional
crafts and the vernacular, toward a greater concern for changes in popular
culture and the potential role of different media in all areas of design.4 This
shift in his thinking was most marked in the wake of the great Kanto earth-
quake of 1923, when the ensuing housing crisis forced architects and planners
to confront the pressing demands of domestic housing and urbanization. Kon
was actively involved in this area and consequently became more attuned to the
social implications of design, a concept that would remain central to his think-
ing throughout his life.

The writings presented here, dating from the 1920s to the 1940s, illustrate how
Kon’s principal ideas about craft and design were affected by his experience of
different social situations. After the earthquake he published his first writings
on design: “An Examination of Decorative Art” (February 1924), “Study of an
Earth Floor” (February 1927), and “Praise for All Areas of Craft” (July 1927).
They reveal how he developed his ideas about decoration, space, architecture,
and craft, and of their relationship both to Japanese industrialization and to the
everyday experience of ordinary people, as well as designers, during that period.

Kon and the Social Dimension of Japanese Craft and Design in the 1910s

During the Meiji era (1868–1912) and afterwards, Japanese craft and design
concepts were increasingly derived from those of Europe and can be divided
roughly into three periods:5

1. ca. 1870 to 1890, which saw the nationalistic revival of traditional

Japanese arts and crafts;

2. post–Paris Exposition of 1900, when Japanese historicizing methods

were largely replaced by new, more systematic ideas about design and
production; and

3. ca. 1920 onward, when proposals for functional design were intro-
duced, corresponding to the modernization of most aspects of Japa-
nese life.

Selected Writings on Design and Modernology   193

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 The fast pace of modernization in Japan and the increasing acceptance
of international art movements, notably art nouveau in the early years
of the twentieth century, gave rise to hybrid ideas such as Wayōsecchū (the
amalgamation of Japanese and Western styles), which spread throughout the
upper classes. At the same time, a cosmopolitan style known as “Taishō Modern”
emerged in the 1910s as American and European styles and fashions became
more popular. This latter trend grew out of widespread interest in European
design theories such as those of William Morris and John Ruskin from
Britain, and those of the Deutsche Werkbund.6 Inspired by these ideologies,
Japanese artists and designers became increasingly preoccupied with the
social role of their work and its wider impact with regard to industrialization
or commercialization of craftwork, and to the corresponding loss of Japanese
historical craft culture. In short, Japanese designers and their public were
concerned with the relationship between art and modern life, and how they
were to negotiate this uncertain terrain in a period of dramatic change.7

Inspired by the study of pattern in Owen Jones’s Grammar of Ornament, Kon

became deeply interested in notions of decoration and ornament, and in 1919
joined Soshoku Bijutuka Kyokai (Association of Decorative Artists), whose aim
was to raise the status of craft to that of an art.8 Under the dictum “Based on
real life, we seek to create works that firmly grasp all aspects of life, hobbies,
and art,” this organization encouraged practicality in decoration and promoted
industrial design as a means of integrating good design and craft with the lives
of ordinary people.

During the same period, Kon was involved in Hakubōkai (White Thatched
Roof Group), whose parent organization was Kyōdokai (Home Country Com-
mittee), an association of researchers of folklore, agricultural policy, geography,
architecture, and rural economy who undertook surveys of rural housing and
landscapes.9 In their 1918 survey of Uchigō village, for example, which was
concerned mainly with investigating the loss of village farming culture, the
Kyōdokai scholars deployed a comprehensive range of methodologies to under-
stand the rural environment, living habits, social structure, and psychology of
this rural farming population.

Throughout his life Kon carried out a number of surveys of rural communities,
the first of which he published in 1922 as Nippon no minka (Rural houses in
Japan), in which he argued that the beauty of the dwellings and the objects

194  West 86th V 22 N2

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
within them were a product of the harsh conditions of rural life and the people’s
joy in their labor, thus demonstrating how rural communities live in harmony
with their environment.10 In this book Kon cites a passage from Ruskin’s Poetry
of Architecture (1838), which deals with the method of observing and drawing
the natural landscape and the changing form of clouds.11 Just as Ruskin
discussed the beauty of ancient huts in the Alps, Kon frequently sketched old
and primitive huts in rural Japan. He was also inspired by the folklore theories
of Keizō Shibusawa (1896–1963), who believed that farming tools embodied
Japanese cultural traditions and the socioeconomic meanings of people’s lives.12
As part of this investigative process, Kon drew many small craft items that
showed the relationship between agricultural tools and traditional craft through
connections with farming activities and ways of life.13 Drawing would become
an essential tool of his research process, a medium through which he both
investigated and recorded the material culture of individuals and communities.

Barakku Sōshoku Sha and Modernology in the 1920s

The Kanto earthquake of 1923 caused massive damage in the nearby capital
of Tokyo, but the response to this disaster was remarkable and the city was
reconstructed in a relatively short space of time. Beyond rebuilding the physical
fabric of the city, the Japanese government followed the lead of Seikatsu
Kaizen Dōmeikai (Lifestyle Improvement Alliance Society) and utilized the
reconstruction to promote the Westernization of people’s lifestyles throughout
the country, stimulating popular consumer activities through a series of lifestyle
exhibitions. In response to the earthquake Kon became involved in Barakku
Sōshoku Sha (Temporary Shelters Decoration Company), which undertook
the decoration of temporary housing (fig. 2). In addition, he conducted
a phenomenological survey of dwellings under the heading of his new
comprehensive approach of Modernology, focusing on three themes—fashion/
architecture, property, and behavior—in order to assess Tokyo’s recovery and
the extent to which new urban spaces and customs had emerged.14 He was
joined in this project by the stage-set designer Kenkichi Yoshida and other artist
friends who produced drawings recording the finer details of everyday life:
people’s gestures and fashions, images of everyday objects displaying their use
and spatial arrangement, and maps showing the distribution of amenities. The
statistical data that accompanied this survey vividly evoked the ways in which
the relationship between human psychology and the embodiment of objects,
urban space, and homes was changing in the new society and how new values
were being generated.

Selected Writings on Design and Modernology   195

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Fig. 2 Temporary huts after 1923 Kanto earthquake (Shinsai Barakku Chosa Shashin). Kon Wajiro
Collection, Kogakuin University.

As part of the rebuilding campaign, urban areas experienced the construction

of many architectural projects influenced by designs from Europe, thereby
disseminating the core ideas of European modernism throughout the country.
A tendency toward abstract form and functionalism as universal principles of
design began to appear, and alongside this there was widespread renunciation
among the younger generation of the idea of decoration. Takizawa Mayumi,
for example, a member of the elite young modernist group known as Bunriha
(Secessionists), directed his most vociferous criticism toward the Temporary
Shelters Decoration Company. In essence, this conflict in the later 1920s was
between two factions in contemporary architecture and design—Arts and
Crafts and modernism—over the subject of decoration.15 However, the situation
was more complex than a simple dispute between modernists and traditionalists.
Kon had been concerned with the social dimension of Japanese visual art since
the 1910s, and as a supporter of the Dada movement, he, unlike most other
architects—who were mainly concerned with architectural style—was more
conscious of the diverse meanings and impact of architecture. Kon was thus
able to shift the debate to the social sphere, rebutting Takizawa’s argument on
the grounds that a major part of modernist ideology and aesthetics was based

196  West 86th V 22 N2

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
on the elite’s system of values and could even be regarded as opposing the
values of the common people, for whom decoration and traditional forms were
an integral part of their everyday lives.16 He then argued that these traditional
values should not be considered simply as conservative and primitive but rather
should be recognized as being directly inspired by people’s bodily sensations
and psychology and as presenting a viewpoint for understanding architectural
space empirically.

In considering Kon’s three texts from the period after the earthquake trans-
lated here (1924–27), we can see how he utilized the temporary nature of
the shelter buildings in his project to stimulate people’s sense of joy, even in
the post-disaster environment, and the ways in which he considered architec-
ture and the streetscape to be key features in restoring a sense of emotional
well-being.

He was also sensitive to the advantages of publicity and display strategies in pro-
moting urban and architectural projects. Many people from different spheres
participated in the Modernology surveys; editors of women’s popular magazines,
for example, published the results, and students displayed the magazines in the
Kinokuniya bookshop and art gallery, helping to raise awareness of the proj-
ect. Everyday objects, which were depicted and visualized as part of the survey
research, were elevated into popular works of art expressing the reality of Tokyo
and its people. Kon’s works in the wake of the earthquake demonstrated that
the tools of the consumer economy—the vivid visual expressions of advertising,
decoration in urban space, and popular fashion—were the new design arena
of popular culture, which was totally different from the modernists’ a priori
concepts of art and beauty.17 In “Street Aesthetics in Summer” (July 1935), for
example, he argued that designers and architects had to recognize the practical
and objective understanding of aesthetic values held by everyday people if they
were to grasp the full meaning of the consumer epidemic.

Kon on Design in the Interwar Era, and Other Related

Social Design Movements

In the 1930s, expensive artistic products influenced by European art nouveau

and art deco styles came into fashion in Japan, and a variety of manifestations
of Western modern art were introduced, though generally without an awareness
of their history and philosophy. At the same time, several important Japanese
artist-designers, such as Michiko and Iwao Yamawaki and Renshichiro Kawakita,

Selected Writings on Design and Modernology   197

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 who had studied in Germany and the Soviet Union, respectively, brought the
concepts of Bauhaus and Russian constructivism to the attention of the public
through exhibitions and poster designs.18 Also, campaigns to improve the stand-
ing of commercial and popular art began to emerge in Japanese cities from the
mid-1930s until the beginning of World War II. Critical awareness of changing
patterns of urban consumer culture and of the loss of cultural originality gradu-
ally began to filter into the consciousness of artists and designers.

In “Street Aesthetics in Summer,” which lacks the optimistic tone of his views
on “Modernology,” Kon returned to the discontents of modernism, arguing that,
in a rapidly changing economic environment, the ideal form for design should
be based on people’s daily lives instead of on elevating an abstract philosophy
imported from the West. His argument for the need to consider people’s
lifestyles in designing products found parallels in the contemporary Mingei (folk
art) movement as well as in the work of Kōgei Shidōsho (Industrial Art Institute)
in Sendai City.

Founded in the late 1920s by a group of theorists and craftsmen, including

Muneyoshi Yanagi, Kanjirō Kawai, and Shōji Hamada, Mingei was initially
intended to preserve the culture of rural artisanal crafts. Over time, however,
the movement began to cooperate with the Industrial Art Institute to support
improvements in the serial production of rural handicrafts. The Institute’s
policy stated that its aim was to “instruct and foster the application of the latest
technology in rural industry” and to promote the modernization of everyday
designed goods by the mechanization of their methods of production.19 The
movement attracted the attention of well-established modernist designers; both
Bruno Taut, who visited Japan between 1933 and 1936, and Charlotte Perriand,
who visited between 1940 and 1942, promoted interior designs that used
examples of rural crafts from the Industrial Art Institute.20 Many, including Isamu
Kenmochi and the members of the design group Keiji Kōbō, led by Chikatada
Kurata (who was a student of Kon), were significantly influenced by Taut and
adapted modernist design principles for contemporary Japanese interiors.21

Kon and Social Design after World War II

After World War II Japanese architects and designers experienced a heightened

awareness of the social role of design, especially with regard to the recon-
struction of damaged areas and the elimination of the growing housing crisis.

198  West 86th V 22 N2

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Ryuichi Hamaguchi’s Hyumanizumu no Kenchiku (Humanist architecture, 1947),
for example, which espoused architectural functionalism as the way forward
to democracy and greater efficiency, was warmly received.22 At the same time,
Taut’s views on Japanese architecture were published in translation and sold
in large numbers, confirming that many Japanese architects perceived the
modernist sense of beauty and logic as central to their professional culture.23

Kon continued his cooperation with the Life Improvement Project after the war,
publishing lifestyle and design studies including the final text reproduced here,
“Socialism of the Beauty in Craft” (June 1947), which raised anew questions
regarding the sociological nature of architectural design. Here Kon restated the
view that, in the postwar environment, designers should be more aware of their
social role and the importance of studying the lives of ordinary people directly,
instead of blindly following Taut’s internationalist philosophy. Using his posi-
tion as chairman of the New Architects’ Union, which was founded in 1947, Kon
promoted a form of construction based on the “socialist idea of creation,” which
he outlines in the article.24

Because Modernology was the study of the explosion of consumerism in Japan—

advertising, fashion, and marketing—Kon was drawn to examine and document
the everyday things people acquired. In the 1920s, for example, he had set out
to investigate the relative proportion of modern to traditional clothing in an
individual’s wardrobe from among the pedestrians he surveyed in Ginza, the
shopping district in Tokyo. It was from this that many of his early diagrammatic
drawings of individuals and their possessions emerged. Indeed, fashion was a
recurring interest for Kon; he initially pursued it as part of his stage designs
but this developed into a much broader understanding of clothes as indicators
of the taste and social conditions of the people. Kon extended these interests
in the postwar period, establishing the discipline of “Lifeology” (Seikatsu gaku),
by which he envisaged a comprehensive study of everyday life. In Lifeology, he
argued that people’s daily lives should be managed in a holistic and healthy
way, including such aspects as food, clothing, and shelter. Fashion, or clothing,
remained a central concern, and Kon supported the establishment of institu-
tions like the Japan Uniform Society (Nihon Unifōmu Kyōkai).25 He enthusi-
astically investigated the history of clothing and ornaments, analyzing their
forms and methods of production, and comparing them with people’s manners,
behavior, and ways of life in historical periods and cultures; he thus became one
of the founders of a new area of fashion study in Japan.26

Selected Writings on Design and Modernology   199

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Kon’s interest in the social role of decoration, craft, architecture, urban life,
and fashion design continued to the end of his life and was underscored by
his sense of social responsibility and his ideal of resolving social issues. He was
further stimulated by his aesthetic sensibility and his insight into the details of
how ordinary people expressed themselves through their dwellings, clothing,
and everyday possessions. Instead of seeking an academic logic through theory,
he based his views on close observation of the relationship between common
people’s way of life, the broader society, and the ways of making objects and
inhabiting space. Here again he was upholding his humanist ideals and aiming
to make his empirical observations the basis for improving the living conditions
of all citizens. In that sense, he aimed to draw the proto-socialist design
concepts of Morris and Ruskin closer to the reality and practicality of people’s
lives in twentieth-century Japan. Through his encounter with the various issues
affecting the modernization of Japanese society, he kept developing design as
a means for adapting people’s lives to new experiences while protecting their
cultural identity. The questions that he raised in his writings from the 1920s
to the postwar period, his social approach to craft and architectural design,
and his positive attitude toward the natural creativity in people’s lives remain
relevant to our understanding of contemporary design.

—Izumi Kuroishi

Izumi Kuroishi is professor at the School of Cultural and Creative Studies, Aoyama Gakuin
University, Tokyo. She has published widely on the work of Wajiro Kon, most recently
Tohoku Shinsai Fukko to Kon Wajiro [Recovery from the great Tohoku earthquake and the
works of Wajiro Kon] (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2015).

Notes

Names mentioned in this text are in Western order, surname last, except in original titles.

1 Izumi Kuroishi, “Towards an Architecture as a Container of Everyday Life: The Ideas and Works of Kon
Wajiro” (PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1998); Izumi Kuroishi, Kenchiku gai no shiko: Kon Wajiro
Ron [External ideas of architecture: Ideas and works of Wajiro Kon] (Tokyo: Domesu, 2000), 41–67.

2 “Seikatsu gaku” means literally the study of ways of living, but the academy that Kon and his friends
founded in 1971 under that title is generally known as “Lifeology” in English. See Kuroishi, “Towards
an Architecture as a Container of Everyday Life,” in Noboru Kawazoe, Seikatu gaku no teisho [Proposal
for the study of Lifeology] (Tokyo: Domesu, 1982); Tetsuro Murata and Chizuko Yoshida, Tokyo Geijutu
Daigaku 100 nenshi [Hundred years’ history of Tokyo Art University] (Tokyo: Tokyo Geijutu Daigaku
Shuppan, 1987).

3 Kon was also involved in the research projects of the colonial government in Korea and had to
confront the contradictions in the separate nationalist historiographies, particularly with regard to
the origins of architecture between the 1920s and 1940s. See Izumi Kuroishi, ed., Constructing the
Colonized Land: Entwined Perspectives of East Asia around WWII (Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2014).

200  West 86th V 22 N 2

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
4 Kon’s interest in, and sympathy with, the ideas of the Arts and Crafts movement was influenced by
his teachers Koichi Sato and Shinichiro Okada. Sato, in particular, studied in England and introduced
the ideas of W. R. Lethaby in his article “Kenchiku no shinka” [Evolution of architecture], in Sato Koichi
Zenshu [Complete works of Koichi Sato], vol. 3 (Tokyo: Maruzen, 1941).

5 Kenichi Nagata, Toyo Hida, and Hitoshi Mori, Kindai Nihon Design shi [History of Japanese modern
design] (Tokyo: Bigaku Shuppan, 2006), 23–76.

6 Selections of Ruskin’s writings had been published in translation in Japan as early as 1888 in the
magazine Kokumin no Tomo (Friends of the nation). See Yuko Kikuchi, “The Myth of Yanagi’s Originality:
The Formation of Mingei Theory in Its Social and Historical Context, Journal of Design History 7, no. 4
(1994): 254.

7 Kuroishi, Kenchiku gai no shiko, 77–256.

8 The Soshoku Bijutuka Kyokai was founded by five leading craftsmen: Toyochika Takamura, Matsugorō
Hirokawa, Kōzō Saitō, Saburousuke Okada, and Kōtarō Nagahara. Misa Takamura, “Soshoku bijutsuka
kyokai no hitobito” [Members of the Association of Decorative Artists], in Ginza modan to toshi
isho [Ginza modern and urban design] (Tokyo: Shiseido Bunka Jigyobu, 1993), 104–11. Kon reported
that, while he was at the university, he borrowed Owen Jones’s Grammar of Ornament from Shinichi
Okada to study the ornament of historical dresses for theater design (Kuroishi, Kenchiku gai no shiko,
143–47). Noboru Kawazoe also discusses the consistent development of Kon’s ideas on design in the
commentary in the collection of Kon’s writings: Noboru Kawazoe, “Kaisetsu,” in Kon Wajiro Zenshu
[Complete works of Wajiro Kon], vol. 9 (Tokyo: Domesu, 1972), 469–501.

9 The leading figures included, among others, Kunio Yanagida and Michitoshi Odauchi.
10 Wajiro Kon, Nippon no Minka [Rural houses in Japan] (Tokyo: Suzuki Shoten, 1922).
11 Kuroishi, Kenchiku gai no shiko, 71–117.
12 On the work of this folklorist and collector, see Shibusawa Keizo Chosakushu [Collected writings of
Keizo Shibusawa] (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1992).

13 Wajiro Kon, “Inaka no Kosaku butsu,” in Kon Wajiro Zenshu [Complete works of Wajiro Kon], vol. 9
(Tokyo: Domesu, 1972), 261–79.

14 Wajiro Kon, “Shinsai Barrack no Omoide” [Memory of the temporary shelter after the earthquake], in
Kon Wajiro Zenshu [Complete works of Wajiro Kon], vol. 4 (Tokyo: Domesu, 1972), 285–336; Izumi Kuroishi,
“Wajiro Kon and Kenkichi Yoshida,” in Kogengaku Saishu [Collection of Modernology] (Tokyo: Gakuyo
Shobo, 1986); Izumi Kuroishi, Modernologio (Tokyo: Gakuyo Shobo, 1986); Kuroishi, Kenchiku gai no
shiko, 118–39 and 147–98; Izumi Kuroishi, “Kogengaku: Creating an Architectural History from the Face
of Tokyo” (Surabaya: Modern Asia Architecture Network Symposium, 2003), 237–47; Terunobu Fujimori,
“Ginza no toshiisho to kenchikukatachi” [Urban design of Ginza and architects], in Ginza modan to toshi
isho [Ginza modern and urban design] (Tokyo: Shiseido Bunka Jigyobu, 1993), 6–39; Noboru Kawazoe,
Kon Wajiro: Sono Kogengaku [Wajiro Kon and his Modernology] (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo, 2004); Fujimoro
Terunobu, ed., Wajiro Kon Retrospective, exh. cat. (Kyoto: Seigensha, 2011). See essays by Kuroishi and
Ogiwara; Wajiro Kon et al., Kon Wajiro to Kogengaku-Kurashino Ima wo toraeta me to te [Wajiro Kon and
Modernology: Catching the current lifestyle with his eyes and hands] (Tokyo: Kawade Shobo, 2013).

15 Mayumi Takizawa, “Penkiya e Daiku yori koben” [Resistance to painting contractors from carpen-
ters], Jiji Shinpo [News of timely issues], Tokyo, 1923; Mayumi Takizawa, “Kenchikubi no tameni-Kon
wajiro shi ni tou” [For architectural beauty—an inquiry to Mr. Wajiro Kon], Kenchiku Sekai 18 (1924).

16 Wajiro Kon, “Bunriha hihan” [Critique of the secessionist] and “Kenchikugaku hihan” [Critique for
the study of architecture], in Kon Wajiro Zenshu [Complete works of Wajiro Kon], vol. 9 (Tokyo: Domesu,
1972), 61–89.

17 Izumi Kuroishi, “Kogengaku no toshi, Toshi no Kogengaku” [Urban space of Modernology and
Modernology for urbanism], Bijutsu Forum (2008): 101–6.

Selected Writings on Design and Modernology   201

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 18 See H. Capková, “Transnational Networkers: Iwao and Michiko Yamawaki and the Formation of
Japanese Modernist Design,” Journal of Design History 27, no. 4 (2014): 370–85.

19 Kitaro Kunii, “Kogei shidoujo no shimei” [The purpose of the industrial art institute], Teikoku Kogei
[Imperial industrial art], vol. 1 (1930).

20 Yasushi Zenno, “Fortuitous Encounters: Charlotte Perriand in Japan, 1940–41,” in Charlotte

Perriand: An Art of Living, ed. M. McLeod (New York: Abrams, 2003), 90–113; Izumi Kuroishi, Tohoku
no shinsai fukko to Kon Wajiro [Recovery from the great Tohoku earthquake and Wajiro Kon] (Tokyo:
Heibonsha, 2015), 163–75.

21 Gruppe 5, Keiji kôbô kara [From Keiji kôbô] (Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppan, 1987); Anne Gossot and Hiroko
Shikida, “Keiji kôbô no hôhôron” [Invention of industrial design: The methodology of the Keiji kôbô
group], Report for Nichi futsu Research Institute, UMIFRE 19 (CNRS-MAEE), 2009, http://www.mfj.gr.jp
/web/wp/WP-P-01-IRMFJ-Standardisation09-07.pdf.

22 Ryuichi Hamaguchi, Hyumanizumu no Kenchiku [Humanist architecture] (Tokyo: Yukeisha, 1947).

23 Taut published several texts on Japanese architecture, the most substantial of which are Nippon mit
europäischen Augen gesehen (Tokyo: Meiji Shobo, 1933), and Fundamentals of Japanese Architecture
(Tokyo: Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai, 1936). See M. Speidel, ed., Ich liebe die japanische Kultur: Kleine
Schriften über Japan, Bruno Taut (Berlin: Mann Verlag, 2005).

24 Izumi Kuroishi, “Conceptualizations of the Social Roles of Architecture in the Ideas and Work of
the Japanese Post-War Architectural Group New Architectural Union,” Review of Japanese Culture and
Society, forthcoming.

25 The Japan Uniform Society [Nihon Unifōmu Kyōkai] was set up in 1962 by an association of designers,
companies, and scholars to facilitate the promotion of new designs of office clothing to be used in
business environments and public institutions such as banks, trains, department stores, etc.

26 Wajiro Kon, “Ryuko (Epidemic),” in Kon Wajiro Zenshu [Complete works of Wajiro Kon], vol. 9 (Tokyo:
Domesu, 1972), 402–65. Kon’s texts on fashion run to two volumes: see Kon Wajiro Zenshu [Complete
works of Wajiro Kon], vols. 6 and 7 (Tokyo: Domesu, 1972). Izumi Kuroishi, Kenchiku gai no shiko: Kon
Wajiro Ron [External ideas of architecture: Ideas and works of Wajiro Kon] (Tokyo: Domesu, 2000),
212–47.

202  West 86th V 22 N2

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
An Examination of Decorative Art
(February 1924)
Recently I have been working on decorative projects, and I want to explain my
understanding of the idea of decoration. My reason for doing so is because I
have been organizing a group named the Barrack Decoration Company, and it
has received much criticism concerning our interior decoration for Café Kirin
in Ginza. Consequently, I feel I must respond and clarify many of these issues.

Mr. Takizawa Mayumi, a member of Bunriha Secessionist Architectural Group,*

wrote a critique of our work in the journal Jiji-shinpo. Bunriha consists of archi-
tects who have important, clear, and serious ideas about architecture, and I
respect their work.

The Bunriha members’ views on architecture are based on the belief that it is
forms that should directly engage people’s minds, and that these forms need no
additional decoration. This group seems to believe that music is a series of unac-
companied sounds, and that architecture is an arrangement of unaccompanied
objects in space. I do not know what kind of opinions they have about a “barrack
house,” which is a work constructed in extremely difficult economic conditions.
[. . .] Recent works by [Bunriha member] Yamada Mamoru of the Ministry of
Communications and Transportation provide examples of the group’s aesthetic
solutions in that area.

Their concept of architecture as being like poetry and music is clearly presented
in their works, and I would like to examine carefully the conditions within which
these ideas of music and poetry are formulated. The Bunrihas’ concept of archi-
tecture is abstract. They conceive of it as the creation of a universally beautiful
object on this earth, an object composed of lines, volumes, and dancing lights
on surfaces. Also, because buildings are composed in space, their dynamic
forms, their elemental and illusory beauty, and their simplicity have all become
central concerns. However, the Bunriha group state that rhythmical, musical,
and poetic beauty is the creative objective of their works, yet because they must
avoid decoration in their structures their idea of beauty is transparent and
naked: they cannot put any clothing on their works. Truly, they must be part of
an exclusive and utter fairyland, into which only talented artists are permitted.

Selected Writings on Design and Modernology   203

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 However, if we understand the idea of decoration from a broader perspective,
we may be able to put something called decoration onto a naked body to add fla-
vor to it. The first camp rejects decoration to protect the purity of architecture,
while the second camp expresses soaring emotions through the architectural
surface. The first camp searches for architectural beauty in pure structural
form; the second camp tries to expand or enlarge the idea of architectural
beauty. Needless to say, Bunriha is in the first camp and I am in the second.

Readers of the theories of Edward Gordon Craig, who radically renewed the
idea of theatrical art with inspired spontaneity and clarity, would not hesitate to
praise the perfection of his epistemology of theatrical art, and would admit that
it is connected to the idea of architectural beauty. But his theater designs reveal
a certain shallowness in that they become a pursuit of style alone. He attempted
to express abstract concepts with the most simple elements of volume, surface,
line, movement, and light; but his achievements are further restricted by the
theories of the Secessionists, who were excited by the myth of materials, creat-
ing elemental forms that directly address our perceptions and pursuing a new
style that is very different from traditional styles.

If we analyze the microcosmic beauty of Craig’s designs, we find that this system
allows people to observe one plane and one line in order to create an illusion rep-
resenting various movements. I intend to explore, as far as is possible, the idea of
decoration as a form of liberated expression with complex content or meaning. For
example, I want to design interior decoration on walls and ceilings that expresses
the social atmosphere of everyday life, reflecting perceptions as fluidly as pos-
sible as an accompaniment to people’s lives, like delicate music from a stringed
instrument. Interior design should require no explanation; it should satisfy
people with its all-embracing appeal, surrounding them with inviolable dignity.

Even if such an idea of decoration conflicts with the attainment of architectural

beauty, can we discard it from our world? Many of us feel that rococo
decoration with its exterior finish—which architects mostly dislike—embodies
a lively method of free expression, and we look within it for many insights. In
other words, we feel a great and sensitive music expressed through material
composition in the overly curlicued decorations, which are impossible to
re-create in geometric forms. In many instances we first begin to study
decoration from the rococo style. Such an approach—in opposition to
architects’ notions of decoration—may have created a certain antipathy to our
works in the minds of some people, but they have not heard our explanation.

204  West 86th V 22 N2

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
The decoration that we in the Temporary Shelters Decoration Company wish
to undertake—which sometimes works in coordination with the compositional
rhythms of the architectural space and sometimes functions separately from
them—is a means of expressing people’s lives on the surfaces of things.

An examination of absolute pattern, which I have been working on, requires an

understanding of the idea of decoration not as something attached to objects
but as a playful technique of lines and colors directly expressing people’s per-
sonalities. It is important to express people’s lives in space in this way. We may
observe a person sitting in a chair, and we may want to express his/her person-
ality and the character and atmosphere of the setting through patterns on the
wall behind that person. Like a painter communicating his identity on a canvas,
a designer can try to express his/her identity on the wall of a room.

We usually describe beautiful color and harmoniously designed forms as decora-

tion, but we should not take such a materialistic and surface-oriented approach.
We have to deal with decoration more practically; it is necessary to give more
emphasis to its spatial dimension. For example, even though a painting func-
tions effectively as a form of decoration, it likewise works independently. Of
course, music can be expressed on a single instrument, but an orchestral accom-
paniment enables an individual instrument to express its spatial dimension and
beauty more openly and comprehensively.

Originally published in Kenchiku Shinchō (Tokyo: Kōyōsha, February 1924).

*Bunriha Kenchiku Kai, the earliest self-named architectural group in Japan, was founded in 1920 by six
students of the Imperial University of Tokyo. Sutemi Horiguchi, the main theorist, upheld the view that
architecture was an art, opposing the academic trend of the period that placed emphasis on structure
and decoration. “Secessionist” reflects the group’s admiration for the Vienna Secession.

Selected Writings on Design and Modernology   205

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Study of an Earth Floor (February 1927)

Some time ago, when we staged Night Hotel by Maxim Gorky at the Jiyu theater,
Osanai and Kajita worked very hard to design a realistic set of a basement room
in Russia by imitating an example from the Russian theater. They paid close
attention not only to the details of the structure of the walls and the placement
of tools, but also to the scattered trash and the messy, dusty conditions. It is
somewhat amusing to learn that people who have experience in theater design
are now interested in my study of an earth floor.

My drawing depicts all the objects scattered on the floor of a peasant house.
I have also recorded the footsteps of people who walked across the earth
floor. This arrangement of scattered objects enables us to carefully study the
movement of the people in that space. In other words, the drawing offers a way
of tracking the movement of people in a theater design. I want you to study
those aspects in this drawing. I have done several similar case studies of people
living in urban houses. I have also recorded the footsteps of people walking
in the streets (figs. 3, 4). I further wanted to study how people of various types,
each with a different character and sentiment, walked and behaved in the street.

In architectural studies, if you examine plans only in terms of room arrange-

ment and placement of furniture, you deal just with people in the abstract and
forget that all people have different habits. So, when you seriously pay attention
to aspects beyond the architecture itself—the various traces that people uncon-
sciously construct, the real ways in which people scatter various objects in the
place that they inhabit—you will consider the psychological conditions underly-
ing people’s movements, and this is something theater designers deal with. In
other words, people’s movement has to be studied from a theatrical perspective.
People all possess different personalities and consequently organize their per-
sonal space differently, so it is possible to see how the organization of a room pre-
cisely reflects a person’s personality. My drawing should be viewed in such a way.

Recently I have been writing about rural houses, but I want to extend my
work to other areas as well. In my study of the history of decoration, I identify
the French rococo style as the first time that people took note of the idea
of decoration in itself, separating it from the substance of the building and
developing it as a pure creation. I believe that modern expressionist decoration
has developed from the spirit and method of the rococo. Thus, I started my

206  West 86th V 22 N2

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Fig. 3 Kon Wajiro, Statistic Index Drawing (Tokei Sakuin zu), 1925. Tokyo Ginza Fashion Research,
Kon Wajiro Collection, Kogakuin University.

study of decoration from the rococo period. And in fact, I may be the only one
really interested in conducting studies of beautiful objects alongside the study
of rustic rural houses, as was done by nineteenth-century romantic novelists.
Such an approach gives depth to both fields of study. In other words, the study

Selected Writings on Design and Modernology   207

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Fig. 4 Kon Wajiro, Variety of Merchants on Streets (Rojo no Shonin Iroiro), 1925. Suburb and Slum
Landscape Research, Kon Wajiro Collection, Kogakuin University.

of a rural house deals mainly with the artifacts created by the people living
there, without showing any interest in the surrounding decoration; it presents
a naked, unadorned “craft” [kogei] aesthetic. The drawings in my studies will
tell you about the fundamentals of the simple daily behavior of rural people.

208  West 86th V 22 N2

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Using the above approach, we can gain a better understanding about color and
atmosphere in abstract decoration, and this will allow us to develop a serious
study of decoration. In fact, I think that the style of the Japanese tea house is
derived from the internal unification of these two ideas of decoration.

Originally published in Minzoku to Kenchiku: Heimin Kōgeiron [Anthropology and

architecture: The theory of craft of the common people], vol. 3, Nihon Minzoku
Sōsho (Tokyo: Isobe Kōyōdō, February 1927).

Praise for All Areas of Craft [kogei] (July 1927)

We should appreciate, praise, and recognize the importance of all objects that
people have made. However ridiculous the objects may seem, they were in fact
created for a purpose. Now, people may be surprised by this view and criticize
it as fanciful and lacking in lofty ideals. But even a person who lacks skill is
striving for his own lofty ideals when he creates something. We should all strive
for this.

The artist who works alone in his studio is endeavoring to create good works
of art. Our social concept of craftsmanship is based on these artistic ideals,
and such objects should reflect them, though with some limits. In other words,
craftsmen want to develop their works in much the same way as painters and
sculptors do. But because their works are craft, they also have many secondary
goals. Many people believe in William Morris’s ambiguous ideal of practicality
and are satisfied with this as the goal of their work; some try to create spatial
beauty through futuristic ideals following the Bauhaus; and some barricade
themselves behind classic ideals and derive satisfaction by viewing themselves
as artists.

An advertising leaflet that a salesman hands out on the street is not a piece
of art. But we cannot ignore it simply because it is not an artwork. Consider a
worker who is installing a pole on a rural street for electrical wires. Children
gather around him and praise his work, yet the pole set in the ground is not an
artwork. Nevertheless his work is well organized and scientific, and he works up
a sweat, eats a hearty lunch, and moves from one place to another in the process
of creating his works so that he can live. And in the natural world, such people’s
works harmonize with the beauty of weeds.

Selected Writings on Design and Modernology   209

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 When we look at a corner of a kitchen, we can find many miscellaneous
creations, some likely made by rural people themselves and others
manufactured in cities.

Urban street corners provide a setting for people to sell their basic products,
items ranging from posters to fancy bottles with interesting lettering, to deco-
rated boxes. Shopkeepers go a step further as they take these items and orga-
nize them into attractive window displays. Even transportation vehicles, such as
bicycles, motorcars, and trains—any product that someone designs—are made
beautiful to compete for sales. These are the commercial arts.

The peasant—the professional agricultural laborer—is a person of simple

character and means who has a lot of free time. Out of this group the concept of
peasant art has arisen, enabling these people to make simple works of art for a
living. The fact that poor and middle-class people, including housewives, have
some leisure time means that they too could learn to do craft and undertake
craftwork in the home. They could then make works of art, too. In fact, all areas
of craft [kogei] are conducted with a clear sense of purpose. However, there is
no consistent theory behind these works, and each craftsperson is too busy to
consider the work of others. But everyone, including poets and scholars, should
treat manufactured products with respect and give them due consideration.

Originally published in Kōgei Jidai (Tokyo: Atoriesha, July 1927).

210  West 86th V 22 N2

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Street Aesthetics in Summer (July 1935)

The number of objects that people throw away has increased; in fact, you can
find many objects simply abandoned in the streets. At the same time, the value of
these objects has decreased, as we attach neither specific feelings nor meanings
to them. Indeed, from paper wrappings to junk mail, we cannot live efficiently
without abandoning a lot of garbage every day.

The price of objects has become cheaper than ever, and consequently the
aesthetic value of objects and how we consider beauty have changed. Everything
is now mass-produced, prices have fallen as a result, and a flood of objects is
entering our homes and towns. That is why we have to reexamine the situation
to find aesthetic values inherent in objects, and we also need to understand the
meaning of the current rampant consumerism.

Researchers who undertook the initial psychological and sociological studies of

this trend reached fairly negative conclusions. They determined that the appeal
of consumer goods came from imitation rather than from positive creativity,
from whim and curiosity, and that it was the product of ugly and immoral minds
building on a sense of superiority. Despite these findings, manufacturers’ pro-
duction and marketing departments still need to engage in complicated assess-
ments of the value and price of attractive and artistic products if their businesses
are to be successful, and recent economics- and management-based studies that
have considered this phenomenon seriously have reached different conclusions.

Yet in the sacred area of aesthetics, scholars steeped in psychological and

sociological research continue to barricade themselves behind their fixed inter-
pretations and claim that the epidemic of consumer goods is outrageous and
inhuman—a blasphemy against true beauty because of its ephemeral nature.
According to this view, the study and aesthetics of the consumerist epidemic
seem to present an insurmountable problem for those who admire only an
idealized eternal beauty. But we should dare to look at this phenomenon more
closely. In our contemporary society, every person’s life is conducted amid the
rapid movement of products in a materialistic whirl. Although everyday life may
seem humdrum, we all have to make our day-to-day lives meaningful as we go
about working to meet our ongoing needs, such as clothing, food, and housing.
However, these needs have changed, influenced by our perceptions and tastes,
and we no longer cling to older aesthetic values based on previous ages when
material conditions were poorer. [. . .]

Selected Writings on Design and Modernology   211

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Indeed, the relationship between objects and people has changed throughout
history. For example, the aesthetic forms of everyday objects in the period lead-
ing up to the industrial revolution—including buildings (on all scales), imple-
ments, and clothing—underwent drastic change. [. . .]

So let us examine the idea of the consumer epidemic and the aesthetics of
objects through the eyes of those with modernist ideas. [. . .] If we accept only the
rarefied notion of a bygone golden age and reject the many other factors relating
to that period and to individual tastes, we simply have to conclude that many
sectors of the population lived without an aesthetic sense regardless of whether
they lived happily or unhappily. This attitude is overly transcendent, with no con-
nection to people’s lives as they were lived, and seems to consider the notion of
happiness of our everyday lives from a lofty and disinterested standpoint.

Recently, there have been incidental and opposite reactions to this. Because of
advances in engineering and the advent of new building materials, people natu-
rally rebelled against the formal beauty found in old stone buildings. Moreover,
as a result of recent studies in hygiene and ergonomics, we have had to revise
our ideas of formal harmony and reexamine the notion of rational beauty. [. . .]
These technological developments necessitated revisions and transformations in
the traditional concept of architectural beauty, and people suddenly conceived
of a new psychology in which beauty exists only in the so-called rational, effi-
cient atmosphere of engineering. This form of modernism, supported by many
intellectuals, has prevailed; we are already bombarded with these forms in every
town. Square shapes, glass, and white walls are typical characteristics. Though
they surely attract people’s attention, people’s lives are very much unrelated to
such features.

The beauty desired by the general masses may be derived from various sources:
symbolic, efficient, commercial, leisure, and lifestyle. We do not have a clear
sense of the abstract beauty of buildings, but we are all interested in what kind
of beauty is finally realized when a building is completed. Of course we are
interested in the prevailing form, but we are also interested in practical objec-
tive beauty. People specifically demand both.

So-called commercial beauty is tied to sales objectives, as this is one of the tools
for selling goods. Advertising boards, posters, salespeople’s clothing, and man-
agers’ hairstyles are all examples of commercial art. [. . .]

212  West 86th V 22 N 2

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
In contrast, factory buildings and factory workers’ clothes are designed with the
sole purpose of allowing people to work efficiently. [. . .] Home kitchens may
also belong to this category. [. . .] So, why did we invent colored dyes? Why did
people long ago develop painting and sculpture, which have made our leisure
time enjoyable and have contributed to our cultural refinement? [. . .]

Originally published in Chugai Shōgyō Shinpō (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha,

July 1935).

Socialism of the Beauty in Craft [kogei bi] (June 1947)

Bruno Taut wrote that he saw mysterious and inexplicable things in Japan. He
said that he saw marvelous buildings, such as the Ise Shrine and the Katsura
Pavilion, along with ugly buildings, such as the Nikko Mausoleum, and that he
could not understand how these buildings could be built by the same people in
the same period. [figs. 5, 6] [. . .]

I wish I could easily accept the reasonableness of these words, expressed as they
are by someone who is an artist, but I cannot stop ruminating upon this. Still, I
would like to express my respect for Taut’s single-minded and courageous view
that the architect’s raison d’être and value as an artist is solely demonstrated by
constructing formal beauty.

It may be apparent that, in feudal times, such as at the beginning of the Edo
period, buildings of very different appearance were constructed (such as Ka-
tsura and Nikko) because of the huge difference between the upper and lower
classes in their respective cultural refinement. What cultural refinement actu-
ally means within the various classes still needs to be examined, but I would sug-
gest that a person’s cultural refinement can be defined according to the quality
of his lifestyle and the benefits to be gained from his leisure pursuits. [. . .]

Interestingly, during a visit to Tokyo, Taut and his wife, along with Isaburo Ueno
and myself, went to Asakusa to see a comedy show and enjoy the popular plays.
He actually admitted that he enjoyed the rather crude and coarse theater in

Selected Writings on Design and Modernology   213

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Fig. 5 Main pavilion of Katsura. Photo: Licensed under Public Domain via Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shoin.jpg#/media/File:Shoin.jpg.

Fig. 6 Main gate of the Nikko Shrine. Photo: Licensed under Public Domain via Commons: https://
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nikko_Toshogu_Yomeimon_M3249.jpg#/media/File:Nikko
_Toshogu_Yomeimon_M3249.jpg.

214  West 86th V 22 N2

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Asakusa as well as the less intellectual people in the audience. He soon returned
to being a gentleman, an intellectual, and an idealist, however, when the talk
shifted to architecture and art. In other words, Taut believed in the idea of the
spirit of the age and the principle of formal styles that exemplify it, and he was
critical of art forms of the Edo period that did not fit the latter. I am rather sur-
prised by his double standard and how he could separate his life from his work,
his private life from the public one of the architect. [. . .]

The Ise Shrine and the Katsura Pavilion are based on the ideals of the tradi-
tional Japanese aristocrat-intellectual, while the Nikko Mausoleum reflects the
nouveau riche taste of samurai warriors and monks. The latter style, along with
its decoration, were intended to please the general masses of the time. [. . .] The
architecture of each type of building developed for very different reasons, and
in assessing them in relation to his personal set of values and his own tastes,
Taut praised one and adamantly rejected the other. [. . .]

Coincidentally, new forms that seem to coincide with Japanese aristocratic taste
have surfaced recently in Europe, mainly owing to the current scientific and
industrial revolutions. [. . .] People seeking to pursue an economic and ratio-
nal efficiency in their products have altered their idea of beauty accordingly.
[. . .] Furthermore, leading European architects have begun to discover and
admire the surprisingly formal taste in certain Japanese works[. . . .] However,
the problem is whether we acknowledge only the European idea of beauty and
reject any other. If we accept only Ise and Katsura, all Japanese people may have
to become aristocrats. [. . .] But in the real world, society does not consist only
of intellectuals. We have to acknowledge that the lifestyle of those constituting
the majority in our society are forced to emphasize work and getting enough
to eat above all[. . . .] Consequently, if we have to develop a “socialist theory of
creativity,” how should we go about it? The classic theories of Ruskin and Morris
may be too idealistic. [. . .] Intellect and preferences in taste are spread unevenly
across real society[. . . .] If we abandon the need to address these differences
through either socialism or educational policy, and if we do not recognize
the artist’s responsibility here, highbrow tastes will remain stuck as a form of
idealism that ignores reality. [. . .] If, in our goal of broadening people’s taste
and improving their living conditions, we discuss ideas that people either don’t
listen to or fail to understand, or if we have notions that circulate only among
intellectuals, how can we institute them successfully? [. . .]

We have to reexamine what the socialist theory of creativity should be. [. . .]

From an idealistic standpoint, the traditional tastes of the working class may

Selected Writings on Design and Modernology   215

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 seem disappointing to those in other classes, who would prefer to reject them.
Be that as it may, primitive decorative creations, while often dismissed as non-
sense, directly stimulate people’s perceptions and so cannot be discarded. [. . .]
If idealistic formal taste is forced on every person in society, the individual’s
ability to live fully will be diminished. [. . .] Thus, we have to attain a balance in
creating artworks for each person according to his/her real way of life, because
a person’s lifestyle cannot be divorced from the value of craft beauty [kogei bi].
To be sure that we understand what is needed in creating beauty, we have to
examine the lifestyle of each group of people in society. [. . .]

Originally published in Kōgei Gakkai shi [Journal of the Academy of Craft] (Tokyo,
June 1947).

216  West 86th V 22 N2

This content downloaded from

88.189.35.75 on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:24:29 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms