The 107th Installment
"Relation" Design as Inspired by Edo Culture and Design Engineering

by Nobuki Ebisawa,
Professor, Master Program of Innovation for Design and Engineering

　On November 9, 2018, an interesting forum entitled "The Possibilities for Design Engineering Crossed with Edo Culture" was held by Hosei University Research Center for Edo-Tokyo Studies (EToS) and AIIT at Hosei University. It was held as a project memorializing 150 years of Tokyo's founding and as a special event co-organized by the Hosei University Research Center for Edo-Tokyo Studies Symposium and AIIT Innovation Design Forum. The forum consisted of two parts. The first, a seminar entitled "Edo Culture of Ren (Community)," was conducted by Hosei University President Yuko Tanaka. In the second part, Tetsuo Fukuda led a seminar entitled "Enhancing Shinkansen Design through 'Relation'," while Junichi Kanebako conducted "What Edo Can Teach about Relation, Physicality, and Design." It was a fascinating forum that covered a range of topics and made it feel shorter than the roughly 2 hours it lasted.

　The three speakers gave easy-to-follow explanations of their research results, centering on the keyword "relation" from different perspectives. They promoted thought about certain aspects of "relation" as a characteristically-Japanese set of values from varied angles, and covered everything from Edo culture to modern design. In this column I'd like to discuss in a little more detail the original purpose behind establishing this forum and explore where design will go next, with a focus on the keyword "relation."

　In recent years, the terms globalism and globalization are being talked about as important values that should be taken into consideration in all situations. To me, this is not talking simply about whether someone can speak English, work anywhere in the world, or supply the world with products. The more important point seems to be how value is being created that has global relevance. I see the world as becoming gradually more homogenized on a macro level due to the current information revolution and advanced logistics networks for people and things. For instance, a person can experience a McDonald's hamburger or Starbucks coffee in pretty much the same way almost anywhere in the world. It's the same with fashion: some Muslim women will wear the latest designer jeans underneath their black abayas and chadors. In this way, the different values held around the world will gradually become homogenized, and the new values that people adopt will be a sort of identity. Yet this identity will not be a value if it is not understood and accepted. In other words, an identity founded on a code that is universally understood will become a value. When you want to take a trip, do you want to go somewhere with the kind of scenery you see every day? Don't you want to experience scenery and food only available in that place? But what if the food only available in that place is something very different from what people are used to and something most people can't stand? Maybe this is a bad example, but what if it's a bug dish? That unique dish would not be become a value.

　From the perspective of an identity founded on this kind of universal code, "Design Engineering Crossed with Edo Culture" seems to be one methodology for value creation that we should consider in Japan. Apple's Steve Jobs once said, to be creative, one had to stand at the intersection of technology and liberal arts. This comment would suggest that, as modern society becomes more computerized, technology has a shared universalism throughout the world—it is a universal code, in other words. If this is so, the unique value might lie in how technology differs from liberal arts. The foundation of US and European values is probably Greek philosophy and Christianity, while for China it's communism and Sinocentrism. In the Muslim world, values likely come from Islam. That leads, then, to the hypothesis that the foundation of the everyday values held in Japan are perhaps the "Japan" that was established in the Edo period.

　Here I will focus on how Japan particularly values "relation," a characteristically-Japanese value. One characteristic of Japanese culture is the emphasis on relativism rather than absolutism. Things such as the existence of "8 million gods" and the syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism in the face of absolutist monotheism are a set of relativistic values that allow for a mix of Buddhism and Shinto. There are concepts of "真 (Shin)," "行 (Gyo)," and "草 (So)" that borrowed from the typeface of kanji characters and that was used in renga (linked poems) and garden making. On the subject of characters, "真 (Shin)" is in the so-called formal style and is used in public spaces. "草 (So)" is a casual-style character that has been used in personal writings and shorthand. The in-between typeface is "行." There is a saying that goes, "行 (Gyo) is not 真 (Shin), nor is it 草 (So)." In the U.S. and European absolutist ideology, there are just two polar opposite and conflicting categories—formal and casual—and it is important that the in-between state is strongly acknowledged as a relative existence. There are many gradations of this in-between state, and it changes into many different things depending on the place and situation. One could think of this as "ma" (the between), which is difficult to define, being conceptualized in a metaphysical way. Seigo Matsuoka thinks of this as "vicissitudes" and as a uniquely-Japanese aesthetic. I think this "vicissitudes" concept is a relativistic way of thinking that is appropriate to the relation of a place.　 In his renowned book Remnants of Days Past: A Journey through Old Japan, Kyoji Watanabe's draws from the first-hand accounts of foreigners visiting Japan from the end of the Edo period through the Meiji periodand details various aspects of how the Japanese lived at the time. The book depicts the Japanese people as poor but culturally refined. There was a passage in the book that I found particularly memorable. When people at the time went out on errands and ran into people they knew on the street, they would often spend 10 or even 20 minutes exchanging greetings and engaging in small talk. Examples like this are evidence that the "relation" of an encounter—a newly arising occasion—was valued more highly than the reason they originally went out (the "system").

　Things like spaces and how things are built also differ from the Western European dichotomous ideology. With architecture in Western Europe, a space is not a space until there is a complete separation of wall and ceiling and of outside and inside. However, in the case of Japanese architecture, there are spaces such as verandas that are conspicuous features of the overall structure and that are neither inside nor outside. Relation can be freely built depending on the situation. As an extreme example, a space can be turned into a place for the guards to descend by putting up bamboo in all four corners and using a special rope to cordon off sacred areas, as with a ceremony for sanctifying ground. In traditional Japanese houses, spaces can be flexibly built depending on how they will be used and the circumstances by using movable walls such as shoji and fusuma made of paper and wood that cannot be completely separated. Even within those temporarily established spaces, smaller spaces can be made simply by putting up partitions. A space can thus be freely transformed according to the people in that space at that time, or to the relation to the situation.

　I also noticed that Japanese dramaturgy such as can be seen in things like kabuki also shows "relation." Take Kanjinchō, for example, a classic kabuki program. The main theme revolves around Togashi, a barrier-keeper in Ataka, and Benkei, protector of Yoshitsune, who is in disguise. To protect his master, Benkei reads a blank scroll as a temple solicitation book and beats his master Yoshitsune. Impressed, Togashi lets Benkei and his party pass even though he sees through Benkei's deceit. In other words, Togashi is more impressed at the "relation" between Yoshitsune and Benkei that is ultimately created on this occasion than he is at the idea of a barrier keeper as a "system," and Togashi decides to prioritize the "relation" of the occasion over his own duty as a "system." The audience is also awed by the conflict that happens. Shakespeare's four great tragedies provide counterexamples. In MacBeth, for instance, the rebellion against the "system" of killing the master is what leads to ruin. It is likely that the characters struggling against the system (fate) considered the situation a tragedy. The goal of this forum has been to explore the possibilities of a methodology for transforming this look at "relation," which one could call a characteristic of Japanese culture, into values in the form of an identity in the global age.

　In this forum, Ms. Tanaka hinted at the possibilities of transforming occasions through linked verses and the diversity among individuals in Ren, as well as the circularity of Edo as an ecosystem. Touching on such ideas as the nature of the relation between people as seen in Ren as a new system for creation, the creativity of meaning transformation through linked verses, and the polynomial nature that expresses oneself on unusual occasions such as "Kyoka poet names," he hinted at the idea that the kind of lifestyle that will lead to the various modern open innovation and creative incubation businesses, as well as future values some refer to as things like multilife, was already established in the Edo period. Mr. Fukuda, on the subject of his own shinkansen designs, talked about the importance of the perspectives of function and relation in industrial design expression, exploring the process of achieving a shinkansen design that achieves unique function, that of reducing vibration, by thinking of aerodynamics. which is thought to be a method of reducing total resistance and therefore reducing total energy usage, in terms of the relation to people and how much comfort it can provide. Lastly, Mr. Kanebako proposed using the body as a new instrument, using the latest digital technologies to reimagine the concept of the connection with how one uses their body, which has been passed down since the Edo period, and brought a new relation to the event by having everyone participate in a performance within the venue.

　As alluded to above, it is because we live in a global age, when creativity is an intersection of technology and liberal arts, that we must once again notice the characteristics of Japanese culture, which has possibilities that are becoming increasingly somatized within us unconsciously, and think seriously about how to translate that into modern values. From among those perspectives, the perspective of Edo culture as presented at this event provided numerous useful hints. These were the importance of the inventiveness to transform occasions in linked poems and the building of "relation" with people outside our everyday circle, and the expressions of these are such things as different names (Kyoka poet names) and circulatory societies which function as ecosystems that can help to achieve the SDGs. This forum was an attempt to explore the possibilities of a methodology for creating a unique "intersection of technology and liberal arts" that will be universally relevant in this global age. From the perspective of value creation in design, we will continue thinking about design with an awareness of our various views on "relation."