November 4, 2023: Ginza Architecture Tour

 

The Louis Vitton Building has a chromatic film over glass creating a prism of external color.

"After World War II great strides were made in modern Japanese architecture, not only in advanced technology, allowing earthquake resistant tall buildings, but expressing and infusing characteristics of traditional Japanese architecture in modern buildings."---  Harry Seidler

Saturday is BIG day in Ginza. There are so many high end, Rodeo Drive-like stores and malls here in Ginza that they literally shut a number of streets down to make it easier on mere pedestrians to become consumers. Unlike during the week, Saturday is a total mass of humanity on every corner and sidewalk. We thought we would just go next door for a breakfast and found we had to walk about a half mile to find anywhere that had an open seat. We had actually been warned about not trying to eat during 11am to 2pm and now understand why so many people we see are eating at Seven Eleven, which actually has a large variety of foods, a microwave and even a place to sit down and eat.  When those seats get full at Seven Eleven, people find a place to sit on the sidewalk and have a gobble. Eating while walking is considered very rude but copping a squat wherever near a convenience store for lunch is A-okay. 

We scheduled a walking tour of Ginza architecture with Yoko,  seen here on the bed  in the now defunct capsule apartments. 

Our walking tour started at the Buddhist temple which we had familiarized ourselves with partially the day prior and continued through an Asian fish market.  Yoko took us on a scavenger hunt of sorts until we finally found the old capsules (two of them) on display from the stacked capsule apartments. The capsules were meant to be regularly replaced, but instead went into disrepair and had to be disassembled. 

The Nakagin capsule apartments have been disassembled and have been purchased as individual units for a variety of uses.  Originally built as a mixed use business and residential tower in 1970 by Kisho Kurakawa of the Japanese Metabolism architectural movement, the apartment complex was demolished in 2022. Most of the residents were Japanese businessmen using them as a pied a terre and there was a service on the bottom floor that ordered food, did dry cleaning and other support services. Most units did not have a kitchen, but all came equipped with a reel-to-reel tape system and a color television set. We were able to go into on of the disassembled units that is now on display on a Ginza side street through November 5th. 

The reel-to-reel, landline and the TV

The bathroom was tiny (slightly bigger than an aircraft lavatory) , but serviceable. Each capsule was 8 x 13 feet with a round window. Capsules could be connected to make a larger space, but many people were satisfied with this small scale original "tiny house."  During its heyday, any single capsule could be removed from the building without affecting its neighbors. 

From here, we moved on to several other Ginza highlights. 

The Kabukiza Theatre has been an iconic symbol of Ginza since it opened in 1889: fires and airborne wartime attacks damaged and almost destroyed it, but it was rebuilt every time. The theatre's post-war building, completed in 1950, was eventually demolished in 2010 to make way for a completely new structure. As our guide, Johan stated on Day #1, young residents of Tokyo are NOT interested in kabuki and hence the theaters are few and struggling to stay afloat. They even offer tickets to see just one act and you can decide after if you want to pay for the whole show. 

From here onward, we saw the more modern example of Ginza architecture, mostly built by foreign high-end consumer products. 

The Hermes Building. This one has fifteen separate columns constructed to avoid collapse in the event of an earthquake. 

This building, an expensive jewelry store, has a solid exterior that was polished by hand to make it "seamless."

This great car park in the Swatch building is merely a plate like portion of the flooring that rises up to receive your vehicle, then returns it to an underground lot while the floor of the building is restored. I particularly enjoyed the orchids all over the walls. Each watchmaker in this building has its own elevator as well that goes ONLY that watchmakers showroom. Fancy stuff!

In addition to the buildings, the guide took us to see an art exhibition by an environmentally conscious Korean artist living in Japan. We also visited a tiny shrine in a small space between the buildings that is dedicated to commerce. A couple of other people came to the shrine while we were there to make a prayer.

Korean artist's work. Pressed plants on brown tiles. 

These lamps were made of pressed flowers, wood skewers and paper. I am not sure what the representation of wood below was meant to depict?

This exhibit called White Death is a collection of dead coral from Okinawa that the artist gathered as exemplary of what is happening environmentally as water temperatures rise. 

This shrine overseen by a cement fox "god" was hidden in a tight space between two large skyscrapers. The shrine is dedicated to commercial success and businessmen of Ginza sneak in during the day for a quick supplication according to our guide. There is even a fountain for ablutions seen in the foreground in this dark, cramped, but apparently popular space.

Our guide left us around 5pm to attend a music festival and even invited us to come with her. She was very engaging and informed and we felt lucky to have her guide us through Ginza. 

We topped off our day with a visit to a local French restaurant (who knew the Japanese were such Francophiles?) called LeNougat which served typical French fare in yet another very tiny space of only a few tables. 

LeNougat. Local, small but mighty!

‘The Japanese tend to be far more co-operative and group-oriented. It would be easier to get the entire population of Tokyo to wear matching outfits than to get any two randomly selected Americans to agree on pizza toppings.’ – Dave Barry

Paul's Ponderings:  Another great day out in Tokyo, which is more interesting and complex by the day.   Architecture is a great way to learn something about a country or place and Tokyo is a very post-war place with a lot of interesting features in that regard, particularly in Ginza, which is pretty modern in more ways than one.   Our guide, Yoko, was a great resource in that regard.   After that we did spent our evening at another local dinner place that was a Tokyo take on French food.    Tomorrow, we leave Ginza and move to what we believe to be a more "local" area with residential components to start our hiking and walking for the remainder of our time here.