Motomachi Apartment Complex completed!

Looks surreal but a real photo

This is a photo from a special exhibition on Motomachi, meaning the foundation town. The area was named so because Hiroshima’s development in the early 20th century started here.

The special exhibition is currently being held in the gallery on the basement level of the east wing of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The gallery lies at the further end of one of the two corridors. The poster will tell which corridor you should go down. Quite interesting to see how Motomachi transformed.

For Hiroshima survivors who lost too much, this huge Motomachi Apartment Complex was built by the city and prefecture of Hiroshima. Architect OTAKA Masato, commissioned to design the complex, made four fundamental proposals:

1. The building wings are laid out to stand in a zigzag way.

2. A large scale outdoor public space is effectively secured.

3. Humans and automobiles move on different levels, respectively.

4. Roof tops are open to the public.

Which remind you of Le Corbusier's five points of architecture:

pilotis, the roof garden, an open floor plan, ribbon windows, and a free façade.

No wonder.

OTAKA worked in the office of MAEKAWA Kunio from 1949 to 1961. MAEKAWA (1905-1986) was a drafter for Le Corbusier in Paris from 1928 to 30 and for Antonin Raymond in Tokyo from 1930 to 35.

Another feature which should be mentioned is that OTAKA designed the complex to be a community equipped with a children’s nursery, kindergarten, elementary school, stores, clinic, fire station, police station, and public bathhouse. This sounds a bit like Unité d'habitation (Cité Radieuse) by Le Corbusier. And of course, the Motomachi Complex has pilotis and roof garden.

TANGE Kenzo, who was inspired by Le Corbusier's design for the Palace of Soviets as a young man and later designed Peace Park and the Museum, also worked for MAEKAWA.

There seems to be a world wide web of humans.

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Saijo's modern architecture built in 1920s

TOYOTA Benji [1891-1959]

TOYOTA Benji designed several buildings located in Saijo's Sake Brewery Street district.  Respective office buildings of Kamotsuru and Kirei breweries and the former Saijo Branch of Hiroshima Prefectural Sake Laboratory were all designed by TOYOTA. 

Besides Sake factories, Saijo has these quasi-western buildings and old-fashioned houses of local people. Recently the Kuguri-mon gate, originally built in the 1920s, was restored and now serves as a tourist information and community space. There used to be two gates of the same type as the restored and between the gates stood stores and beyond the gate a theater. 

Feel the history of the town while walking and sipping sake in the Sake Brewery Street of Saijo.

TANGE's original plan for Peace Park

Photo courtesy of arch-hiroshima 

This is how Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Museum, designed by TANGE Kenzo, look today. However, the original drawing/model submitted to the competition held by the city of Hiroshima in 1949 looked relatively different though the overall framework stayed exactly the same. For one thing, the plan TANGE conceived of had to be modified to deal with financial shortage.

Let me point out one interesting item which was in the original plan but missing now: the 120-meter-wide 60-meter-high rainbow-like Peace Memorial Arch with five bells hanging from the top. It’s hard to imagine that could have been built. I’m not sure but I might not like it very much.

One of the judges, KISHIDA, praised TANGE’s plan highly but was critical of this arch thing. He said the arch looked like the gateway arch proposed by Eero SAARINEN for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, St. Louis, U.S., which was eventually completed in 1965.

It seems TANGE was conscious of the possibility that the similarity between his and SAARINEN’s would be pointed out. He included it in his plan anyway.

In an interview conducted much later, he answered that he thought it would be annoying if someone should refer to it. Because he wanted to insist that he was not influenced by SAARINE’s but by Le Corbusier’s design for the Palace of Soviets.

To see SAARINEN’s arch, click here.

TANGE’s original plan can be found here.

More historical photos including that of TANGE’s original plan are posted here. 

This is a page from Hiroshima Peace Site, the official web site of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

Shake hands with La Gioconda

Mona Lisa at Otsuka Art Museum

Yes, it's possible here at Otsuka Museum of Art Naruto, Tokushima. You are allowed to shake hands with her, meaning you can touch the masterpieces. Just they are not original but meticulous reproductions using the ceramic tiles an Otsuka group company produces. Unlike original paintings, they last almost forever with proper maintenance as necessary. They are replaceable even when damaged or broken. And you are sure to enjoy the proximity with the paintings. Besides, where else can you get to see all those artworks at one time?


All the masterpieces you saw in your art textbook gather here,  in addition to those whose titles you might not know but which are nevertheless important in art history.


The museum stands close to the bridge called the Grand Naruto Bridge connecting Shikoku and Awajishima islands.


You can spend a couple of hours easily there. Half a day - yes. All day - if you like it, meaning if your energy lasts. The volume is enormous. 


Free museum tours are available basically in Japanese but audio guide equipment is prepared and they come with an English channel. 


Basically drinks and food should not be brought into but it's possible to drink and eat something easy at the tables and chairs placed out the buildings, like at a terrace and on the grass. My husband and I used the table on the terrace near Monet's waterlily paintings, the originals of which are displayed at Musée de l'Orangerie.


Combined with the bridge visit, where you can see dynamic whirl pools if you come at the right time, the tour to the museum makes one interesting day. 

Let's dine at Teshima Island

Shima Kitchen

Shima Kitchen and IL Vent. Both were built on the occasion of the 1st International Art Festival Setouchi. They serve good food and drinks and are good food and art spaces.

IL VENT

Teshima Museum part of the surrounding hills

Teshima Art Museum & white clover

This time, the Teshima Art Museum in early summer. White clovers were in bloom. The wild flowers matched naturally the terraced rice paddies nearby, enabling the landscape to retain its original idyllic atmosphere. 

The shell of the museum and the cafe/shop are pretty thin; 25 cm. I heard NISHIZAWA wanted to make it thinner like 15 cm. 

The shell is beautifully done. Considering the construction people couldn't see the inner surface of the shell when they were pouring the concrete mixture on top of the joined steel rods which were assembled on the earth mound which formed the museum, they did a splendid job. In addition they couldn't fix the inner surface after the mound was taken. In ordinary constructions, they can polish and complete the inner surface but not in this case. So there was no rehearsal or fixing; only the real act.

The inner space of the museum stretches row and horizontal, making it different from common domes.

Seasons come around and it seems to be an endless journey we're living but nothing stays the same and all are transient. That's the way all things are.

Museum cafe/shop

The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum

Prelude before stepping into Noguchi World

Kagawa prefecture is trying to emphasize on its artistic properties. One of them is the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum in Aji, Takamatsu city. Some 30 minutes away by car from the JR Takamatsu Station.

Reservation required so you need to prepare in advance but worth visiting. Isamu Noguchi said art has to be a gift to future generations otherwise it's not worthwhile. The place is inspiring and peaceful. The museum under the same name in Long Island, New York City, came first. This museum opened after Isamu's death in accordance with his will.

Leave big cities and come to Shikoku, where many pilgrims wearing a white costume and a light brown conical hat are frequently spotted. They are visiting all or some of the 88 temples established in Shikoku in the 9th century by Kukai though their seriousness will vary in level. But they all would like to know themselves more I believe.

How Isamu spent his days in Mure I wonder. Having two cultural backgrounds and a complicated relationship with his Japanese father must have affected him greatly; sometimes in difficult ways because of the times he had to live through and other times as blessing.

Click HERE to know a bit more about the museum.

Isamu-ya, Noguchi's residence, 
is seen among the trees