occupying)and)mapping)the)tōkaidō)megalopolis)...fujita’’’i’’’japan’summer’studies’abroad’2018’’’...

FUJITA I Japan Summer Studies Abroad 2018 180115 171106

Occupying and Mapping the Tōkaidō Megalopolis “How many maps, in the descriptive or geographical sense might be needed to deal exhaustively with a given space, to code and decode all of its meanings and contents?” – Henri Lefebvre, 1991.

Tōkaidō bungen no zu, 1 Hishikawa, Moronobu, approx. 1618-‐1694, UBC Rare Books & Special Collections

Tōkaidō gojūsantsugi ichiran, Andō, Hiroshige, 1839, UBC Rare Books & Special Collections The act of making maps, reading maps, traveling with maps, and imagining a space through a map, was popularized in the Edo period in Japan (1603-‐1868). Today mapping remains a vital mode through which Japanese people learn about and relate to the built environment. As Kären Wigen states in the introduction to Cartographic Japan, “The Japanese people today are voracious consumers of cartography” (Wigen, 2017). Through efforts like ‘town watching’ following the Kobe Earthquake in 1995, and the ‘citizen mapping’ of nuclear radiation readings following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, mapping is also becoming a vital mode through which non-‐expert political subjectivities are formed.

Japanese cartography developed from a combination of surveying techniques from China and the West. As a result, maps that were produced starting in the Edo period were highly accurate and served as excellent instruments of ‘path-‐finding’. At the same time, many of these same maps contained elements of ‘place-‐initiation’: historical and cultural knowledge in the form of imagery or text that might typically be found in a guidebook (Traganou, 2004). The rise of print culture and (later) tourism in the Edo period popularized the consumption of maps and


guidebooks so that the conflation of objective and subjective elements remained a distinctive feature of many of these maps.

This course will engage with historical maps from the Tōkaidō Megalopolis region as a starting point to understand Japanese history, culture, architecture, geography, cartographic and representational practice, and tourism networks. The historic map will provide the groundwork for a complimentary and radically contemporary study of Japan’s Tōkaidō Megalopolis region.

Tokyo, Sohei Nishino, 2004

The Tōkaidō region is chosen as the site for this study because of its significance on both the physical and the cultural development of Japan. The Tōkaidō Road was developed in the Edo period to connect Edo (now Tokyo) to Kyoto and Osaka. As early as the mid-‐1600’s, the road epitomized urbanism as we understand it today: a space of power, commerce, culture, diversity and exchange. Then and now the Tōkaidō Road is a vital physical space to occupy as well as a space that flourishes in the social imaginary of the Japanese people. Today one can traverse it in 3 hours on the bullet train as well as absorb its cultural impact through an exhibition of art it has


inspired. The emergence of Tōkaidō after WWII as a Megalopolis, a “vast linear conurbation”, motivated “virtually all subsequent planning efforts” in Japan (Sorenson, 2002). The Tōkaidō Megalopolis is inescapable; it plays a role in every urgent social, political, and economic issue in Japan.

Kyoto, Sohei Nishino, 2003

Maps from UBC’s Rare Books and Special Collections will be studied in the pre-‐trip seminar. The seminar will include an overview of Japanese History, the History of Japanese architecture and urbanism, as well as some cultural orientation.

The trip to Japan will include stops in Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka, the major cities of the Tōkaidō Megalopolis. Through the act of travel, students will engage with the site of their maps through guided tours by local experts, train travel, walking derives, and other modes through which to experience and read the physical and imaginary space.


Tours of prominent buildings, landscapes, and museums will be planned along the way. Tours of design firms and conversations with architects and architecture professors will also be planned along the journey.

A 3-‐5 day break will be planned at the approximate halfway+ point of the trip so that students can pursue self-‐guided excursions to locations in Japan that are West/South of Osaka. (The schedule will be refined when the class composition is set and we can discuss individual and collective aspirations for the trip to Japan.)

For the final project, students will engage in citizen-‐mappings of the Tōkaidō Megalopolis region to build scholarship and to reflect on and to explore the potential of maps and representations of space in Japan.

The selected maps will be analyzed through an iconological perspective; one that borrows from Michel Foucault and J.B. Harley, and addresses the ideological context of the maps. In addition, the contemporary maps selected will be ones that exemplify “thick descriptions”; ones that embody the voices of a “multiplicity of complex conceptual stories, many of them superimposed upon one another, which are at once strange, irregular, inexplicit” (Geertz, 1973).

objectives -‐ Learn about Japanese history and culture through the study of the Tōkaidō Megalopolis Region. -‐ Learn about the history of cartography and read “postmodern “ theories of maps such as J.B. Harley’s iconological analysis, and Clifford Geertz’ invocation for thick descriptions. -‐ Learn about Japanese Cartography and other forms of spatial representation. -‐ Access the UBC Rare Books and Special Collection. -‐ Travel to Japan to do architectural tours of cities, buildings, design firms, meet architects, meet professors, etc. -‐ Take a meta-‐stance to being a tourist; self-‐aware of how tourism is the #1 project for Japan’s economic recovery, and it figures one’s experience traveling through the country. proposed dates mid April/end of April pre trip seminar end of April / 3 weeks in May travel and study in Japan end of June/beginning of July final project is DUE credits any pre-‐requisites+ eligibility 6 credits; no pre-‐requisites; open to all SALA students


estimated expenses Estimated Course Fee $800-‐900 Students are responsible and should budget for: Flight R/T YVR to Tokyo ~$1200 Ground Transportation: 3-‐week japan rail pass and subway ~$800 Accommodation 21 nights @ $25-‐ $100 ~$525 -‐ $2100 (we will book hostels when possible; hostels cost ~$25/night) Meals 21 days @ $30-‐$50 ~$630-‐$1050 Travel Visa $0 for Canadians / check if not Canadian Fee for 6 credits if you are an undergrad domestic $1038 internat. $6983 not included: museum admissions

The blue line represents the bullet train’s path through the Tōkaidō Megalopolis

occupying)and)mapping)the)tōkaidō)megalopolis)...fujita’’’i’’’japan’summer’studies’abroad’2018’’’...

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