The Shadows

Tokyo University

Tokyo University’s Hongo Campus is a very well appointed place with tree lined cobbled pathways, elegant buildings with arches and so on. It looks and feels like the ideal image of a university as we have come to expect such places. Interestingly, the architecture and layout of the older buildings seem to present a classic example of simulation as do many other exercises undertaken in the Meiji period. At the time, many ‘western’ examples were taken as models to be emulated. And much of this this campus might as well be carefully crafted and presented ‘reproductions’ of Cambridge and Oxford, perhaps the models that were emulated. At least, the points of reference for many of the older buildings cannot be in Japan.

The Cage, The Flower and the Building

The Spider in Tokyo

Snapshots of Urban Space: Tokyo