Art Archival Journal ̶ KISEKI

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Foreword to KISEKI, English edition, no. 1
Akihiro Kubota (Director, Tama Art University Art Archives Center)

The Tama Art University Art Archives Center (AAC) was founded in April 2018as an adjunct institution to the University. Every year since its founding, theCenter has published KISEKI, an annual research journal dedicated to the topic
of art archiving. This, the inaugural English edition, is a re-edited compilationof essays featured in previous issues, complete with articles introducing the
AAC’s major archives, the Media Network Committee, and more besides.
Held on December 4, 2021, the 4th Tama Art University Art Archives Symposium, titled The Philosophy of Archiving, was originally envisaged as an international symposium. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic making it impossible to invite participants from abroad, the event went ahead online instead,featuring a Japanese-only lineup of guest speakers. This English-edition bulletinhas been put together in the hope of spreading word of the AAC’s activities
beyond the Japanese-speaking world; it was with this in mind that the Tama Art
University Art Archives Center Showcase section featured in these pages wascompiled.
The second half of the symposium opened with a roundtable discussion onMichel Foucault and archives, the origin of this year’s theme. This was followedby presentations and discussions on a host of subjects both mainstream andotherwise, ranging from Minakata Kumagusu and D. T. Suzuki to the Garakutashū “sect” of collection and hobby enthusiasts; from shining exemplars of“good taste” to ﬁgures and objects more typically (if unfairly) scorned. I hopethat this bulletin manages to convey to you, the reader, even a small taste of theintellectual passion that was on display throughout the symposium.

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ContentsKISEKI, English edition, no. 1
November 2022

Preface
Foreword to KISEKI, English edition, no. 1

2

Akihiro Kubota (Director, Tama Art University Art Archives Center)

Tama Art University
Art Archives Center Showcase

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Matazo Kayama Archive / Misao Yokoyama Archive

Archiving and Exhibiting Japanese Painting:
A Research-Based Collaborative Enterprise
Between the Tama Art University Museum and Art Archives Center

8

Kyoko Kinoshita (Tama Art University)
Makoto Wada Archive

How Things Stand:
A Status Report on the Makoto Wada Archive

16

Yohei Takahashi (Tama Art University)
Miyoko Ono Archive

The Miyoko Ono Research Exhibition and Archiving Design

22

Sachiko Yuzawa (Tama Art University)
Shuzo Takiguchi Library

The Shuzo Takiguchi Library:
Completing OPAC Cataloging and Tasks for the Future

Yuri Mitsuda (Tama Art University)

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Seiko Mikami Archive

Archives of Interaction

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Akihiro Kubota (Tama Art University)
Norimichi Hirakawa (Artist)
Shoya Dozono (Designer, Programmer)
Shigeo Anzai Photo Archive / Mono-ha Archive

Mono-ha and Archives – Shigeo Anzai, Contemporary Art Accompanist

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Toshimi Koizumi (Tama Art University)
Monyo Archive

The Creative Possibilities of Monyo:
Tracing Monyo Research at Tama Art University

56

Yuko Fukatsu (Tama Art University)
Kuniharu Akiyama Library

The Kuniharu Akiyama Library

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Koichi Ebizuka (Tama Art University)
DNP Poster Archive / Makoto Saito Poster Archive / Takeo Poster Collection

The Tama Art University Poster Collection
Ichiro Saga (Tama Art University)

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The Philosophy of Archiving

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Summary

Michel Foucault and Archives

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Archive Networks – Kumagusu, D. T. Suzuki, and Garakutashū

82

Reiji Ando (Tama Art University)

Tama Art University
Media Network Committee
A Hub Within an Archive Network

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86

Reiji Ando (Director, Tama Art University Library)
Developing a “Cosmogonic” Methodology

87

Mayumi Tsuruoka(Director, Tama Art University Museum; Director, Institute for Art Anthropology)

A Platform Centered Around Creation

88

Yasuhito Nagahara (Director, Tama Art University Media Center)
A Research Base Fit for an Art University

89

Akihiro Kubota (Director, Tama Art University Art Archives Center)

Introducing the Tama Art University Art Archives Center (AAC)

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Contributor Profiles

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Japanese names are presented in Western fashion (personal name ﬁrst, followed byfamily name), except in cases where individuals’ names are widely recorded in
English using the reverse order (e.g. Minakata Kumagusu, Lee Ufan, etc.).

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Tama Art University
Art Archives Center Showcase

This section serves as an introduction to the main collections held in the Tama Art
University Art Archives Center (AAC).
Several of the pieces contained within these pages are based on presentationsdelivered during Part 1 ( “AAC Showcase 2021” ) of the 4 th Tama Art University
Art Archives Symposium, The Philosophy of Archiving, held online on December 4,2021. Transcriptions of these presentations have been supplemented with endnotes
and images, with minor adjustments made as necessary by editorial staff and the
speakers themselves.
An overview of the AAC’ s activities and materials, as well as information on how
to use its various archives, is provided on pp. 90–93.

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Archiving and Exhibiting Japanese Painting:
A Research-Based Collaborative Enterprise
Between the Tama Art University Museum and Art Archives Center
Kyoko Kinoshita (Tama Art University)

It is common for museums of art universities, in keeping with the nature of theinstitution, to purchase artworks by retiring faculty members. When Tama Art
University (TAU) Japanese Painting professor Matazo Kayama (1927–2004) died,a sizable collection of his works was donated to the University, including paintings and trial proofs of prints, as well as sketches and other materials related tohis creative process. This prompted the founding of the Matazo Kayama
Research Group in 2005 .1 Joint research at TAU is a multi-disciplinary aﬀair,
carried out by faculty members and assistants from several departments; for the
Kayama project, curators from the Tama Art University Museum also participated, with the group’ s eﬀorts culminating in a series of three solo exhibitions,Matazo Kayama: Memories of the Atelier, held in the University Museum.2
After the Tama Art University Art Archives Center (AAC) was founded in2018, this Kayama-related material, including a portion of his artworks (drawings, etc.) was moved there, where it is now kept as the Matazo Kayama Archive.
In 2017, items and works belonging to another venerable TAU professor ofJapanese Painting, Misao Yokoyama (1920–1973), were also donated to the
University. Yokoyama’ s wife and daughter had both passed away within ashort space of one another, and relatives tasked with putting the late artist’ s
studio in order approached the then-head of the Japanese Painting Department, Kiyokazu Yonetani, about the possibility of arranging a donation. In
April of that year, Yonetani put together the Misao Yokoyama Research
Project;3 the following month, the bulk of the items in the late artist’ s studiowere inventoried, leading to the discovery of several new paintings. First pickof the artist’ s works went to the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, theNiigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, and Fukui Fine Arts Museum,with the remainder then shared between Tama Art University Museum and the
AAC. In July, over 500 items were donated to both the University Museum andthe AAC: a selection of the artist’ s paintings and original illustrations to theformer, and paintings, prints, sketches, illustrations, photographs, 8 mm and9

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16 mm ﬁlms, books, handwritten manuscripts, painting materials and more to
the latter.
Given the fact that Kayama and Yokoyama’ s tenures at TAU almost
perfectly overlapped, it made sense that both research projects were conductedin parallel, with me taking over the reins of the Yokoyama project when Mr.
Yonetani retired in 2018.4
To avoid the prospect of Yokoyama’ s family having to pay additional tax,
the material had to be exhibited within two years of its donation. In November
2019, the Exhibition of Misao Yokoyama’ s Archives5 ̶a showcase of the itemsin the AAC’ s collection ̶was held in the University’ s Art-Theque Gallery.
Alongside the works and materials exhibited, the exhibition featured recordedinterviews with TAU professors of Japanese Painting as well as Yokoyama’ sformer students.
One of the principal aims of the Yokoyama project was to establish a
picture of the late artist as an educator. In his role as an instructor of Japanesepainting, what kind of guidance did he oﬀer his students, what exactly did heteach them, and what message did he hope to convey? A curriculum or syllabus
alone often fails to give an accurate picture of what actually happens in thepractical lessons at an art university. For this reason, we approached
Yokoyama’ s former pupils and associates for interviews, recording them andlater exhibiting the results. One of those who kindly agreed to be interviewed,
Kunio Motoe (1948–2019), had witnessed ﬁrsthand the developments of the Japanese Painting Course over the years as a faculty member of both the General
Education and Art Departments (he also led the Matazo Kayama ResearchGroup). Before moving to TAU, Motoe had served as Chief Curator of the
Department of Fine Arts at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo,
during which time he oversaw the purchase of several of Yokoyama’ s works.6
During the interview, which also charted the recent history of the Japanese
Painting Course, Motoe reﬂected on his impression of Yokoyama during his
years as Chief Curator, and on what he’ d been like to work with as a fellow
faculty member following Motoe’ s move to TAU.
In 2020, the centenary of Yokoyama’ s birth, we received requests from up anddown the country to lease the artist’ s works and images for exhibition and/or
publication. In addition to handling these requests, members of the former
Yokoyama and Kayama research projects put together Tamabi DNA – A Genealogy of Contemporary Nihonga,7 an exhibition held simultaneously in theTama Art University Museum and Art-Theque Gallery from April 3, 2021,
which aimed to provide an overview of the legacy of the two artists’ educational philosophies within the University’ s Japanese Painting Course.

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Major exhibited works included Yokoyama’ s Getting Dark (1958), on loan
from the Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, and Kayama’ s Landscape in
the Northern Song Manner (1989) [Fig. 1], kindly donated to the University
Museum by the artist’ s family shortly after his death in 2004. Overall, the twin
exhibition seems to have proved eye-opening for students, successfully piquing
their interest in the lives and works of these two formidable painters [Figs. 2–5].
One of the issues encountered during the planning of this exhibition was thegenerally disorganized nature of information regarding works by past faculty
members and students, making it diﬃcult to access when necessary. It remains
to be decided how the material and ﬁndings gathered for the exhibition (fromthe Japanese Painting Course Research Office and more) will be stored andused now that the Yokoyama project has disbanded, but this is an importantquestion for future consideration.
Working on the Tamabi DNA exhibition, I realized that now would be an
opportune moment to look back at the tumultuous years of the sixties’ student
protests to see how the principles of the University and past faculty members
were incorporated into the lessons being taught at TAU during that time.
Looking forward, we hope to continue to ﬁnd collaborative ways of bringing
together and making use of the wealth of material held in the University
Museum, the AAC, and the Japanese Painting Course Research Oﬃce.

Fig. 1

Matazo Kayama, Landscape in the Northern Song Manner (1989; Tama Art University Museum collection)

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Fig. 2

Fig. 3
Figs. 2–3 Tamabi DNA exhibition (Tama Art University Museum)
Photos: Yukinori Suda

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Fig. 4

Fig. 5
Figs. 4–5 Tamabi DNA exhibition (Tama Art University Art-Theque Gallery)
Photos: Yukinori Suda

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Chronology
1973
2004

2005

2017

2018

2019
2021

Misao Yokoyama dies aged 53. Most of his major works are donatedto national art museums.
Matazo Kayama dies aged 76. A collection of his works and materials totaling 7,541 items is donated by his family to Tama Art
University.
Founding of the Matazo Kayama Research Group. An exhibition,
Matazo Kayama: Memories of the Atelier, is held in the Tama Art
University Museum, with 2 nd and 3rd iterations held in 2007 and2008.
Yokoyama’ s family members reach out to Kiyokazu Yonetani about
the works and materials stored in the artist’ s atelier. Yonetani establishes the Misao Yokoyama Research Project, which begins sorting
through and cataloging the atelier’ s contents with the help of university funding. Yokoyama’ s works and materials are donated to the
University.
Founding of the AAC. Kayama’ s materials are moved to the AAC
along with some of his works; Yokoyama’ s archive and painting
materials are also stored there.
The Exhibition of Misao Yokoyama’ s Archives takes place in the
University’ s Art-Theque Gallery.
Tamabi DNA – A Genealogy of Contemporary Nihonga is held simultaneously in the University Museum and Art-Theque Gallery.

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Notes
1

The group’s members were as follows: Kunio Motoe (lead researcher), Kiyokazu Yonetani, Arata Shimao,
Tatsumasa Watanabe, Satoshi Tabuchi, Akihiro Kubota, Shuhei Takahashi, Dan Higaki, Nobuo Tsuji, Kihachi
Kimura, Tsukasa Senni, Tetsuya Kayama, Yuki Kayama, and Mao Kayama.

2

Matazo Kayama: Memories of the Atelier (April 3–May 5, 2005, Tama Art University Museum); Matazo Kayama:
Memories of the Atelier II (January 6–February 25, 2007, Tama Art University Museum); Matazo Kayama:
Memories of the Atelier III (September 28–November 3, 2008, Tama Art University Museum).

3

Following Yonetani’s retirement, Kyoko Kinoshita took over the role of lead researcher on the project in 2018. The
group’s other members were Keizaburo Okamura, Ryozo Kato, Raizo Yamasaki, Ayane Mikagi, Hitomi Yamamoto,Peng-yu Chen, Yuki Hanamure, and Kana Takada.

4

Having each culminated in a final exhibition (Matazo Kayama: Memories of the Atelier and the Exhibition of Misao
Yokoyama’s Archives), active work on both research projects is now officially over.

5
6

Exhibition of Misao Yokoyama’s Archives (November 9–15, 2019, Tama Art University Art-Theque Gallery).
Purchases made by the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo in 1984 include Impression of Karaganda, Tower,
and Wall Street. In autumn 2018, the museum acquired Posthumous Work, which was discovered in Yokoyama’s
studio.

7

A simultaneous exhibition showcasing the work of Misao Yokoyama and Matazo Kayama alongside 87 other artists
connected to the University’s Japanese Painting Course, in addition to materials related to the Yokoyama andKayama research projects and Japanese Painting education at TAU. [Fig. 2] shows Kayama’s preparatory drawings
for Landscape in the Northern Song Manner (1989), and [Fig. 3] a selection of his preparatory drawings of cats (allheld in the AAC). Exhibition details are as follows: Tamabi DNA – A Genealogy of Contemporary Nihonga (April 3–
June 20, 2021, Tama Art University Museum; April 3–May 7, 2021, Tama Art University Art-Theque Gallery).

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How Things Stand:
A Status Report on the Makoto Wada Archive
Yohei Takahashi (Tama Art University)

As a researcher specializing in the ﬁeld of illustration, in the summer of 2021 I
was offered the position of director of the Makoto Wada Archive, a role I
gladly accepted. Today, I will be talking about the current state of the archive,with the hope that what I say might bring new perspectives to the research
being done into its material.
But first, a brief look at the life of the archive’ s subject, Makoto Wada
(1936–2019). Wada graduated from Tama Art University (TAU)’ s Department of
Design in 1959 before going on to become a famed illustrator and practitioner
across a variety of disciplines. Throughout his lifetime, he was the recipient of ahost of awards for his poster and book cover designs as well as his output as afilm director.1 In March 2020, following Wada’ s death the previous year, asizable portion of works and materials related to his creative process was
donated by the Makoto Wada Oﬃce to the Art Archives Center (AAC) at TAU,
his alma mater. 2 While efforts to catalog this donated material were stillongoing, the University and the AAC leased works and other materials in thecollection̶332 original pictures and works dating from Wada’ s childhood to
his later years, together with 578 digital images̶to Tokyo Opera City Art
Gallery, with whom we were working closely on a major solo exhibition of theartist’ s work [Fig. 1]. This wealth of material oﬀered exhibition visitors a valuable opportunity to come to grips with the sheer variety and scope of Wada’ s
oeuvre.

The Future of the Makoto Wada Archive:
Searching for an Art University-Specific ApproachWith work on this comprehensive retrospective complete, the next question wasfrom which angle to best approach and utilize the material in the archive.
Wada’ s work in the commercial sphere had already been widely exhibited, andcollated publications of his work well received during his lifetime: both eﬀorts,
it was thought, that were likely set to continue. Moreover, it was decided better

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instead to search for ways of approaching his work that were speciﬁc to theresearch, education, and practice-based character of an art university.
Based on the above considerations, work on the Makoto Wada Archive canbe distilled into three general aims: 1) to continue cataloging and organizing thecollection through the lease/use of its contents; 2) to approach Wada’ s workand activities from as wide a range of perspectives as possible; 3) to “pay back”
the results of said research by utilizing them in the classroom setting. Arguably,
these are standard aims for any archive interested in the research and promotion of its collection, but in the case of a ﬁgure as widely known and sociallysigniﬁcant as Wada, they are particularly worth bearing in mind. Work on thefirst of these goals is already partly underway, as each new exhibition andpublication contributes to a gradual accumulation of digital images and information about the archive’ s contents. With regards to the second, in addition toregularly providing material in response to requests, we believe in the importance of conducting research across a range of disciplines.
The third aim is where our attentions are most focused. The Makoto Wadasolo exhibition previously mentioned presented a broad overview of the artist’ s
diverse range of achievements, divided by category into portraits, picture
books, manga, book covers, children’ s books, films, magazines, and othermoving image-related media. What form might research into such a wide bodyof material take? Here, we encounter one of the chief diﬃculties in the ﬁeld ofillustration research: namely, that illustration isn’ t simply a matter of the materials and techniques used, but is instead intimately connected to questions ofexpressive style, commercial arrangements, media formats, social background,and the history of design and art. With so many ﬁelds of inquiry each oﬀering
their own entry point into the subject, many of which are intricately interwoven
with one another, the focus of the research can often seem frustratingly diﬀuse.
One possible focal point of inquiry being considered̶and one that overlaps
with my own research interests̶is Wada’ s illustrations based on or created in
response to disasters. For example, one could imagine investigating his posters
for Amnesty International [Fig. 2], or his poster on the Vietnam War [Fig. 3],
often considered one of his greatest works. A particularly interesting piece is
one he created for the No More Fukushima! poster exhibition [Fig. 4] held after
the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake (an exhibition to which I submitted work
myself). Created in response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster that occurred in
the wake of the earthquake, prints of the poster were later sold for charity, withproceeds going towards the donation of a grand piano to a community centerin Iwate Prefecture. Thinking about such works and their role in charity eﬀorts
can be a springboard from which to explore more deeply the theme of how
illustrators can engage with and respond to the aftermath of disasters.

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Utilizing Wada’s Work to Fuel Student Creativity
All these topics of inquiry share one large problem in common: that is, thequestion of how to take the results of said research and incorporate them into
the educational setting of an art university. Research by its very nature is ofcourse concerned with the broadening of knowledge, but in the case of an art
university, where the students themselves are also creators, it is necessary toconsider how to bring the contents of this research to life in the work thatstudents create. Say a group of students is tasked with creating something original based on Wada’ s work. This isn’ t just about paying homage or trying toimitate the artist’ s style; it might require entering into a dialogue with the workby suggesting approaches that Wada himself didn’ t take. Crucially, it’ s about
letting students locate their own entry points for interacting with the work. As

Fig. 2

Fig. 3Fig. 4

Fig. 2

Makoto Wada, Posters for Amnesty International (left: 1980, right: 1999)

Fig. 3

Makoto Wada, Poster for Exhibit in Support of Vietnamese Women and Children (1968)

Fig. 4

Makoto Wada, Poster for the No More Fukushima! poster exhibition (2011)

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an archive, we are always on the lookout for ways to ensure that Wada’ s
artworks serve as inspiration and fuel for future creation.
Ideally, research into the Makoto Wada Archive will not be limited to theﬁelds of graphic design and illustration but will instead involve scholars andpractitioners from a wide range of disciplines. The archive’ s content is suﬃciently rich to support a variety of approaches, from ﬁne art and history ofliterature to the design disciplines, whether information, environment, product,or textile. If anyone is interested, I invite them to get in touch with me by anymeans.
Finally, I’ d like brieﬂy to mention the fact that Wada’ s illustrations wereused in the poster for this very symposium, in a piece designed by Katsuya
Kato, an associate professor in the Department of Graphic Design. Whatmakes this design so wonderful is its willingness to experiment with somethingthat Wada, an accomplished graphic designer himself, never tried: namely,
superimposing words over his illustrations. It is precisely this kind of openminded approach, in close collaboration with all involved, that we hope toinstill in our students in their own dealings with Wada’ s work. Kato’ s poster
reﬂects this philosophy perfectly, making it to my mind a particularly apt mainvisual for the symposium.

Notes
1

For a chronology of Wada’s lifetime and a list of awards he received, see the Makoto Wada Exhibition Production
Team (2021) and Yutaka Tsukada (2020).

2

For details on items held in the Makoto Wada Archive collection and their transportation, see Yutaka Tsukada(2020, 2021) and Ichiro Saga (2021). See also AAC Director Akihiro Kubota (2021) for a detailed account of thecircumstances leading up to the donation.
References
・Akihiro Kubota, “Makoto Wada and the AAC,” Makoto Wada Exhibition, ed. Makoto Wada Production Team(Blue Sheep, 2021), pp. 518–519.
・Ichiro Saga, “How the Makoto Wada Archive Came to Be Donated and Beyond,” Kiseki no. 3 (Tama Art

University Art Archives Center, 2021), pp. 38–42.
・Yutaka Tsukada, “Tracing Design’s Contours – Notes on Makoto Wada Office’s FileMaker Pro,” Kiseki no. 2(Tama Art University Art Archives Center, 2020), pp. 76–81.
・Yutaka Tsukada, “Towards an Open Utilization of the Makoto Wada Archive,” Kiseki no. 3 (Tama Art University

Art Archives Center, 2021), pp. 43–51.
・Ed. Makoto Wada Production Team, “Chronology,” Makoto Wada Exhibition (Blue Sheep, 2021), pp. 7–505.

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Fig. 1

Makoto Wada Exhibition (October 9–December 19, 2021, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery)

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Photos: Nao Shimizu

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For the purposes of this exhibition, the AAC’s Makoto Wada Archive leased 332 materials
including original pictures and paste-ups, and 578 digital images (also used in the exhibition’s catalog).

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The Miyoko Ono Research
Exhibition and Archiving Design
Sachiko Yuzawa (Tama Art University)

Tama Art University (TAU)’ s Department of Architecture and Environmental
Design is dedicated to researching the relationship between people and physicalspace/environment, and encompasses ﬁelds such as interior design, architecture, and landscape. Miyoko Ono (1939–2016) graduated from the Department of
Design (as it was then known) in 1963, after which she went on to accomplish
outstanding achievements in the ﬁeld of bridge design. Ono began her career as
an interior designer working in furniture, product, and spatial design before
making the leap to architecture, where she expanded her practice to work on
civil engineering projects on a much grander scale.
Ono may have passed away, but the fruits of her creation continue to be
used by people in their everyday lives. They also remain as beautiful parts of
the landscape, living on in the memories and feelings of those of us lucky
enough to live near them. In fact, so seamlessly do they manage to blend inwith the scenery, as if they had always been part of it, that it sometimes feels as
though we have lost the ability to see them. What made Ono capable ofdesigning such vast objects on a scale equivalent with the environment andlandscape? And how did she manage to do so while still imbuing her creations
with a human perspective, capturing in each project a viewpoint that ranged
from the millimeter to the kilometer? The Miyoko Ono Archive aims to answer
precisely such questions.
The Miyoko Ono Archive began when Ono’ s relatives and her company, theM+M Design Office, donated her professional archives to the University in2020. Ono frequently transcended the art world’ s boundaries; as head archivist
on the project, it was therefore important to me from the very start that any
archive bearing her name engage in collaborative research with figures fromoutside the art university framework, such as professionals in bridge construction and urban planning. The Miyoko Ono Research Exhibition: From Millimeters to Kilometers̶realized in collaboration with students from the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Tokyo, the Department of Civil

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and Environmental Engineering at Hosei University, and the Architecture andEnvironmental Design Department at TAU̶represented a ﬁrst tangible step
towards this goal [Figs. 1–4].

Exhibiting Students’ Own Impressions of Archived Material
as Research Findings
Though the pandemic limited the extent of exchange possible between theparticipating universities, work on the exhibition nevertheless proceeded as aclass eﬀort, with the TAU contingent comprising 4 th year undergraduate andgraduate volunteers. Working together under a common goal, students were tocommunicate the results of their research not as a paper, but in the form ofartworks to be displayed at the abovementioned exhibition. What made it
unique was the fact that the works were based on students’ own impressions of
the donated Ono material, which they got to spend time with during classes.
Ono’ s bridges are huge civil engineering projects that exist as part of thelandscape; yet as with her most famous project, the Yokohama Bay Bridge(1989), we tend to see these structures every day without stopping to think about
the person who designed them. As such, the central signiﬁcance of conducting
lessons which made use of the University’ s archive material was arguably ingetting students to look afresh at the urban landscape that we normally take for
granted, and to convey something of this perspective to their peers.
Despite the highly public nature of social infrastructure projects (of which
bridges are but one example), work in this ﬁeld tends to be highly anonymous,with the name of individual designers remaining stubbornly under the radar.
Ono herself, despite being well known among fellow civil engineers and those inrelated ﬁelds, remained relatively unknown even at TAU, her alma mater. As
work on this exhibition proceeded, it received modest newspaper1 and television
coverage,2 which I hope served to highlight and spread awareness of the importance of design within the field of social infrastructure that supports our
everyday lives.
Many of those who attended the exhibition were visiting the University forthe ﬁrst time, giving me a sense of growing interest in the school within society
at large. What with the recent heightened awareness around natural disasters
and climate change, and growing scrutiny into the state of public works
projects, I couldn’ t help wondering whether these factors might lead more andmore students to choose TAU when continuing their studies.
In the process of preparing and holding the exhibition, three topics for
future consideration emerged: the question of whether students consider
bridges as “designed objects” ; Ono’ s unique sense of scale, which encompasses

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the minute to the vast; and issues relating to social implementation and design
inheritance.

Are Bridges Objects of Design?
First, the question of whether bridges are considered “designed objects.” I
asked my students this very question in our ﬁrst class; I was genuinely interested to hear what students at an art university would make of it. My impression gleaned from daily interactions with our students was that they overwhelmingly gravitate to creating objects small in scale; there seemed to me atendency among them to cling to what they already knew, a wish to remain in apre-established world intensely private in scope. Hence my curiosity: when theylooked at large-scale creations on the magnitude of bridges, would they see
them as objects that had been designed?
Interestingly, when I asked students from Tokyo and Hosei University thesame question, they found the question obvious: of course bridges were
designed. Say someone needs to build a log bridge to cross a river; ﬁrst, he or
she would have to ensure the surface was ﬂattened slightly so that people didn’ tslip while walking across it. Achieving this would be an act of problem-solving,and hence a matter for design. On hearing a Tokyo University student makethis argument, the TAU students in the class reacted with blank stares. Just as
interdisciplinary exchange encouraged a fusion of ideas among students, I
imagine that Ono herself derived a sense of possibility from working acrossmultiple ﬁelds. I like to think that, by working alongside students from diﬀerent
disciplines to their own, our students got a sense of what happened when Ono
herself eﬀortlessly transcended boundaries.

From Millimeters to Kilometers:
Encompassing the Minute to the Vast
The vast majority of Ono’ s archived material is made up of photographs andblueprints. Most of these blueprints are not hand-drawn originals but digitizedversions and computer-aided designs drawn up by someone else. When working
on projects of a highly public nature, a single proposal must be submitted tomany diﬀerent people. For this reason, it takes a great deal of time and eﬀort
for a decision to be made about even a single material, with everything having
to be explained in language that is clear and easy to understand. Take thiscross-section diagram of bridge piers, for instance [Fig. 5]. This is a part of thestructure that is all too easily overlooked, yet here it is laid out in minute detail,with each slight diﬀerence carefully explained.

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Ono traveled frequently in Europe, where she took many landscape photos,
particularly in the Nordic countries often considered the world’ s leading design
nations. One of her photos can be seen in [Fig. 6], which we suspect was taken
somewhere in the Swiss Alps (though we can’ t be sure exactly where). Japan,
for reasons to do with earthquakes and ground conditions, has tight laws
governing structural constraints and seismic strengthening, but these kinds ofbridges can be found in places where this isn’ t the case. [Fig. 7] is a photo of ahighway; there is a pleasing simplicity in the relationship between the signposts,
their symbols, and the streetlights. As evidenced by [Fig. 8], a characteristicfeature of Ono’ s photos of public places is the presence of people and birds.
She had a dynamic eye capable of capturing the world at grand scale while also
focusing on the details, such as the people and animals living in it. One could
say that her gaze was drawn to the totality of a landscape as defined by acertain framework or structure, as well as its relationship to the people, animals,
and natural environment within it.

Fig. 5
Cross-section
diagram ofbridge piersFig. 6

Fig. 7

Figs. 6–8 Photos taken by Ono in northern and western Europe.

Fig. 8

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[Fig. 9] shows a sketch drawn by Ono, titled Gulliver’s Chair (2010). Inspired by
the artist’ s series of furniture by the same name, students created and exhibited
their own works based on the theme of “sense of scale.” [Fig. 10] shows the ﬁrst
chair Ono made in this series. Its design greatly resembles that of a bridge, rightdown to its method of distributing force. Gulliver’s Chair 2 (2010) [Fig. 11] looks alot like Yokohama Bay Bridge. Its wood is smoothed to a fine finish for
comfort; in fact, the chair’ s entire frame stabilizes when sat upon. In otherwords, the chair doesn’ t simply “exist” as a standalone object but is in fact
designed to be at its most stable when someone uses it. Here too, we can see theexchange of inﬂuence at play in Ono’ s work between the worlds of bridge andinterior design.

Fig. 9Miyoko Ono, Gulliver’s Chair (Sketch) (2010)

Fig. 10
Miyoko Ono, Gulliver’s Chair 1 (1989)

Fig. 11
Miyoko Ono, Gulliver’s Chair 2 (2010)

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[Fig. 12] shows the Jingashita Viaduct (2001), which many students wereparticularly fascinated by. Atop the viaduct runs a dual carriageway [Fig. 13]
separated by an open central reservation, with trees poking through the gap
between the lanes. Light ﬁlters through this opening down to the ground below,
showing the deep thought that has gone into the relationship between the roads
and the land beneath. It’ s possible to walk under the bridge, following thestream that winds its way through Jingashita. A breeze passes through, plants
thrive, vines twist their way around the mushroom-shaped pillars̶it is an environment in which nature and man-made objects can co-exist, one that arguably
wouldn’ t have come about were it not for Ono’ s involvement.
An important role of any university archive is to carefully research the items
in its care while also reinterpreting them for people in easily understandable
terms. Old documents, by their very nature, often present a considerable challenge for the lay reader to comprehend. What is a particular archived object’ ssigniﬁcance, and what kind of social changes did it bring about? What is its
enduring inﬂuence on people today? Attempting to provide answers to thesequestions and more is a crucial undertaking for any archive.

Fig. 12Fig. 13
Figs. 12–13 Miyoko Ono, Jingashita Viaduct (2001)

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Social Implementation and Design Inheritance[Fig. 14] shows Hasune Pedestrian Bridge (1977), Ono’ s breakthrough work andthe ﬁrst bridge she ever designed. The photo was taken shortly after the bridge
was completed. Its design ̶ a central platform with a circular opening,
connected to three gently branching walkways̶provided a solution to thelocation’ s high accident rate by means of a grade-separated footway bridge.
One problem faced by structures built for public use is that time and periodic repair work often conspire to change their appearance and color, and eventhe materials used in their construction. While the overall form of Hasune
Pedestrian Bridge remains unchanged, the design that once adorned its surface
has completely disappeared. The photo in [Fig. 15] shows a circular patternwith people on it, and an elderly man sitting on a bench. The colors and shapeof the pattern were originally designed to guide foot traﬃc around the walkway.
Some of the students in my class chose to investigate this use of color, some thebridge’ s overall form, while others conducted ﬁxed-point observation surveysof the site.
Japan Public Highway Corporation employees visiting the exhibition wereshocked to discover just how much the bridge’ s appearance had changed since
its original construction. Within the realm of public design, ensuring the proper
inheritance of public works from one generation to the next has arguably often
been something of an afterthought. This exhibition succeeded in highlighting
the importance of passing on a design’ s original ingenuity, and the intent
behind it, to future generations.
The Hasune Pedestrian Bridge was designed to be accessible for the mostvulnerable in society too, including pregnant women and the elderly. Braillemessages imprinted on the handrails show an attention to detail that extends
also to touch [Fig. 16]. These are yet further examples of Ono’ s attention to theentirety of the scale spectrum, from the minute to the vast.
The attention students brought to the question of design inheritance wasone of the major contributions to emerge from this exhibition. I hope to buildon this by collaborating with faculty members from other universities in ourcontinued research into Ono and her work.

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Fig. 14

Fig. 16

Fig. 15
Figs. 14–15 Miyoko Ono, Hasune Pedestrian Bridge (1977)
Fig. 16

Braille on Hasune Pedestrian Bridge handrail

Notes
1

“Traversing Miyoko Ono – Notes on a Research Exhibition,” Kyōryō Tsūshin (June 15, 2021), p. 3.

2“Yokohama Bay Bridge: Miyoko Ono’s Bridge Design” was a featured segment on Shin bi no kyojintachi (NewKohei Kato, “Tama Art University Holds Miyoko Ono Research Exhibition,” Tokyo Shimbun (June 29, 2021), p. 18.
Giants of Beauty), broadcast on TV Tokyo on June 12, 2021.

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Fig. 1

Fig. 2
Figs. 1–4 Miyoko Ono Research Exhibition: From Millimeters to Kilometers (June 21–July 7, 2021, Tama Art University Art-Theque Gallery).
Photos on p.28 (top/bottom) and p.29 (top) are courtesy of the Miyoko Ono Exhibition Committee.
The image on p.29 (bottom) is taken from recorded footage of the exhibition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLGTvVvBgD0 (ﬁlmed and edited by Kazuomi Furuya).

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Fig. 3Fig. 4This exhibition based on the AAC’s collection of Miyoko Ono materials was a joint venture
between the Department of Environmental Design at TAU, the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Tokyo,
and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Hosei University.

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The Shuzo Takiguchi Library:
Completing OPAC Cataloging and Tasks for the Future
Yuri Mitsuda (Tama Art University)

My name is Yuri Mitsuda, and I joined the Tama Art University Art Archives
Center (AAC) as a research member in April 2021. The AAC holds aroundtwenty archives dedicated to the lives and works of particular individuals.
While much of the material contained within these archives currently remains
behind closed doors, we are looking into ways to increase the amount of it thatcan be viewed upon request. The Shuzo Takiguchi Library, which I will betalking about today, is one of the bodies of material that is open for public
viewing.
Shuzo Takiguchi (1903–1979) worked as a poet, art critic, and occasional
artist, and was a complex and fascinating ﬁgure [Fig. 1]. He produced importantworks in the ﬁelds of art and literature and was a leading researcher of surrealism. A staunch collaborator, he worked with artists both Japanese and foreign
on illustrated poetry anthologies and more; he was also an avid collector,
amassing collections of items ranging from art and “objets” gifted to him byother artists to buttons and pebbles that he himself found. His collection of art
is now held at the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design. The AAC’ s
Shuzo Takiguchi Library is comprised mainly of the books he owned, while
primary documents including his personal correspondence and photos are kept
in the Keio University Art Center (KUAC).

Fig. 1
Photo of Shuzo Takiguchi

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As a poet, Takiguchi’ s output was more intermittent than prolific: hepublished his ﬁrst collection of poetry after the war, despite having been activein the ﬁeld since the 1920s. As an art critic, he became a mentor-type ﬁgure forcontemporaneous avant-garde writers after translating André Breton’ s (1896–
1966) Surrealism and Painting in 1930. His major work of art criticism, Modern
Art, was published in 1938 and remained in print until the 1980s, proving
particularly inﬂuential with artists among whom it was widely read.
In his later years, Takiguchi became increasingly focused on producing
things by hand: he made and bound his own books, experimented with surrealist techniques like decalcomania, and produced pictures using a method
similar to automatic drawing.

A Brief History of the Archive from Donation to Present Day
The room which houses the AAC’ s Shuzo Takiguchi Library is located on the
4 th floor of the Art-Theque, situated on the University’ s Hachioji campus[Fig. 2]. The archive was donated to the University in 1986, making it older thanthe AAC itself. Takiguchi passed away in 1979, leaving behind a vast library ofbooks and multiple collections. When art critic Yoshiaki Tono (1930–2005), then aprofessor in the Department of Art Studies, made it clear that the University
would be only too happy to receive the material, I imagine it was much to therelief of everyone involved, including Takiguchi’ s wife Ayako, who was getting
ready to move house. The photo in [Fig. 3], which is kept in the AAC, was taken
at the Takiguchi residence and shows the Takiguchis relaxing with Tono andfellow art critic Yusuke Nakahara (1931–2011). It captures an intimate moment
between two generations; Tono had idolized Takiguchi ever since the latter’ s
debut as an art critic. It was this relationship that is arguably one of the reasonsthe Library can be found at Tama Art University today.

Fig. 2The AAC’s Shuzo Takiguchi Library

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The archive was originally looked after by the University Library, whichbegan work on cataloging it shortly after its donation; ten years later, in 1996,
an exhibition showcasing Takiguchi’ s poster collection was held in the TamaArt University Museum.2 In 1999, materials from the Shuzo Takiguchi andKatue Kitasono archives went on display in dedicated exhibition rooms within
the Kaminoge campus library, and similar exhibitions have been held several
times since. The Department of Art Studies has also been busy at work photographing Takiguchi’ s personal sketchbooks, and in 2014 Aya Ebisawa, a graduate student at the time, inventoried the diverse range of ephemera in thecollection. Upon the founding of the AAC in April 2018, the archive’ s contents
were moved there, and in 2021 work on OPAC cataloging of the Library’ s
volumes was ﬁnally completed. This was our biggest achievement of last year;of the over 13,000 volumes registered in total, more than 2000 were new entries,
predominately made up of books, magazines, catalogs, and pamphlets acquired
by Takiguchi during his travels abroad. Though this data is yet to be made fully
public, the database is currently searchable from within the University, and weare looking into ways of opening up the archive’ s contents more fully in the
future.

The Shuzo Takiguchi Library’s Contents
Most of the volumes kept by Takiguchi are in Japanese, English, and French,
many made highly unique by their marginalia and the inserts Takiguchi would
keep tucked inside them. The archive also contains volumes related to his work
and interests, which were added later when the University Library oversaw thecollection. He also kept magazines and catalogs, with photographs, artworks

Fig. 3
A snapshot taken at the Takiguchi residence around1960. From right to left are Tono, Takiguchi,
Nakahara, and Takiguchi’s wife Ayako.

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(including his sketchbooks), posters, ephemera, and some cherished everyday
items rounding oﬀ the rest of the archived material. Literature and art-related
books constitute the bulk of the stored volumes, including many rare andimportant books, magazines, and catalogs on the topic of surrealism. As aleading researcher and translator of Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), his collectionof works related to the French artist is particularly impressive and is one of the
Library’ s deﬁning characteristics.
[Fig. 5] shows the illustrated poetry anthology Distance de Fée, a collaborative work between Takiguchi and artist Nobuya Abe (1913–1971). Released in 1937
in a limited print run of only 100 copies, the specimen held in the archive is invery good condition. Takiguchi himself wrote that all the books he owned werelost in the war, but in fact the archive contains several of his projects frombefore this time. Also included are several so-called “artist’ s books” that Takiguchi received as gifts, including the modern compositional milestone Corona
for Pianist(s) (1962), a graphic score by Toru Takemitsu (1930–1996) and graphic
designer Kohei Sugiura. The score is made up of several different-colored
sheets, which can be overlaid to create unique conﬁgurations designed to beread intuitively by the performer.

Fig. 4
À L'Infinitif (The White Box)(1967)
A portfolio housed in a white box
containing 79 facsimile notes anddrawings by Duchamp.

Fig. 5
Shuzo Takiguchi, Nobuya Abe,
Distance de Fée (1937)

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Takiguchi also made his own notebooks [Fig. 6]. The contents of these vary̶their pages are adorned with photo copies, oﬀprints, clippings from books
and magazines̶but he appears to have bound them to keep close to him
passages and sentences that he was particularly fond of. He would write his
own titles on them and select labels and colors for each book, making themcompelling materials which shed direct insight into his preoccupations as a
researcher and lover of art.
Included in his printed ephemera are photographs, pamphlets, leaﬂets, andeven conference material: for example, a set of documents from meetings in
preparation for the 1st International Biennial Exhibition of Prints in Tokyo.
Featuring prints selected by special recommendation, these biannual exhibitions (held from 1957 to 1979) began after Japanese artists started winningawards at print exhibitions abroad after the war, fueling calls for Japan to host asimilar exhibition of its own. Takiguchi attended meetings in preparation of
the exhibition in his capacity as a committee member, scribbling notes about
the artist selection process, the prize system, and invitations on the conference
documents. This material sheds insight into Takiguchi’ s stance towards the
preparations, as well as revealing the hosts’ sheer enthusiasm for holding amajor international exhibition a little more than a decade after the end of thewar.
Of all the material held in the Shuzo Takiguchi Library, it is his poster
collection that has seen the most subsequent use. One reason for this might bethat its contents were published as a catalog released to coincide with the exhibition of his posters in 1996.3 During his lifetime, Takiguchi was sent many
posters, some of which he would store in tubes for safekeeping. Now stored in
the AAC, these posters represent a selection that is, in a very real sense, curated
by Takiguchi himself.

Fig. 6

A selection of Takiguchi’s handmade notebooks

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[Fig. 7] shows a handmade glasses case, one of several of Takiguchi’ s cherished everyday items now kept in the archive. The two instances of the word“mouth” visible below the lenses come from a Jasper Johns print, which Takiguchi has repurposed here [Fig. 8]. Takiguchi asked Johns to contribute a work
for inclusion in the deluxe edition of To and From Rrose Selavy (1968), his longin-the-making monograph on Marcel Duchamp; Summer Critic (1966) was theartist’ s response, a sculpture and accompanying sketch of a pair of sunglasses
with the word “mouth” emblazoned on both lenses. This is a reference to The
Critic Sees (1961–1967), an earlier satirical work by Johns in which two mouths
can be seen appearing to speak from behind a pair of glasses’ lenses, implyingthat the critic sees not with his eyes but his mouth. In Summer Critic, theglasses have become sunglasses, obstructing the act of seeing even further.
Using the abovementioned sculpture, Takiguchi worked with collaborators to
produce an embossed print (also titled Summer Critic [1966]4), part of which hethen used in the creation of his glasses case.
Such material resists easy classiﬁcation; indeed, from a library or art gallery
curator’ s perspective, it might even be viewed as the “chaos” or “noise”
Chairman Aoyagi referred to in his keynote address. And yet, within the wider
context of an archive, items possessing such “chaotic,” difficult to classify
elements also convey a message and have the power to bring life to other materials in the collection.
2021 saw both the incorporation of the Takiguchi Library’ s material into
lessons, as well as the founding of a research group dedicated to Takiguchi and
Yoshiaki Tono’ s research into Duchamp. In 2022, further research is planned
that aims to maximize the potential of the archive’ s contents as thought-provoking material for use in the classroom setting.

Fig. 7

Fig. 8Handmade glasses case by Shuzo Takiguchi

Jasper Johns, Summer Critic (1966)

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Notes
1

On the left-hand side of the room upon entering are the bookcases; posters are housed in the map cases at the back,while Takiguchi’s artworks (decalcomania images, etc.) and ephemera are stored in acid-free archival boxes visible on
the right of the photo.

2

Poster Collection of the Shuzo Takiguchi Library – Graphic Design as Told by Era (October 23–November 10, 1996,
Tama Art University Museum).

3
4

Poster Collection of the Shuzo Takiguchi Library (Shuzo Takiguchi Library, Tama Art University Library, 1996).
Though the print was actually produced in 1968, the signature on it reads 1966, which was the year Johns made theoriginal sketch and sculpture.

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Archives of Interaction
Akihiro Kubota (Director, Tama Art University Art Archives Center)
Norimichi Hirakawa (Artist)
Shoya Dozono (Designer, Programmer)

Seiko Mikami (1961–2015) was an artist and professor in the Department ofInformation Design at Tama Art University (TAU), where she taught on the
Art and Media Course from 2000 until her sudden death during her tenure.
The artworks she produced after her arrival at TAU are now kept at the
Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM), while the Tama Art University Art Archives Center (AAC) houses records and relevant materials related
to her works and lectures. Using this body of material as the core of our investigations, we are conducting research into Mikami’ s interactive media installations, which began in the 1990s.1
One installation of Mikami’ s we are particularly focused on is Eye-Tracking
Informatics (2011–, hereafter referred to as “ETI” ).2 ETI is an interactive artwork built
around the theme of “observing the act of observation.” The work features an
eye-tracking input device that senses and tracks the participant’ s gaze, withimages and sounds algorithmically generated based on the user’ s moving lineof sight. By looking once more at his or her own visualized lines of sight, theparticipant sets in motion a feedback loop in which the very act of observation
is observed. Furthermore, when two people experience the work simultaneously, they can communicate with each other in an almost “haptic” fashion via
their respective lines of sight [Fig. 1].
Writing about a previous iteration of this concept, an installation by thetitle of Molecular Informatics (1996–, hereafter referred to as “MI” ), Mikami observes
that “without a viewer participating in the artwork, there is no ‘artwork’ to be
spoken of̶just hunks of machinery.” 3 Like its predecessor, ETI requires aparticipant in order to exist as a functioning artwork; it has no content of its
own to offer. At the same time, the various components of the work̶
everything from the video screen and eye-tracking device to the chair on which
the participant sits, and the software that generates the video ̶come together
in the form of an artwork that exists as a “system” of experience. In thisregard, ETI strongly embodies the characteristics of interactive media installations of the 1990s and 2000s.

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As attested to by the four diﬀerent versions of MI in existence, Mikami’ s
media artworks continued to change and evolve during her lifetime. Indeed, themain objective of our research is to ﬁnd a way to extract the bare essence of theworks themselves from among their various transitions through multiple iterations and exhibitions.
What makes ETI particularly important is the diversity of interactions it
makes possible. Far from a formulaic button-pushing experience, ETI oﬀers alevel of interactive freedom equivalent to that of painting on a blank canvas. It
is within this diversity that one could argue the essence of interactive work lies.
This presents an interesting dilemma for an archive looking to preserve thisessence: namely, how can we capture and archive this record of the observer's
experiences?
The exhibition of a work of art does not mark its “endpoint” ; on thecontrary, after a work is exhibited, there begins the important, reciprocal, andcontinuous process of how society experiences, analyzes, criticizes, and interprets said exhibition. Unearthing what is hidden within these diverse interactions of meaning is profoundly important, as doing so will lead us to explore
arguably the biggest question of all: what is the essence of interactive art?
To conduct research into the interactions made possible by ETI, we
acquired and analyzed 770 sets of eye-tracking data from visitors who experienced the work during exhibitions at the University’ s Art-Theque Gallery andFig. 1

Seiko Mikami, Eye-Tracking Informatics (2011/19)
Photo: Naoki Takehisa

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the NTT Inter Communication Center (ICC) in Hatsudai, Tokyo.4 For every
ﬁve-minute period that was spent with the work, we were able to obtain about
15,000 samples, including timestamps, on-screen eye movements, and frame
coordinates of the virtual structures these eye movements subsequently generated. In 2020, in order to look more closely at individual data, we ﬁrst createdvisualizations showing the eye movements and structures, then analyzed therelationship between the speed and acceleration of eye movements and themorphology of the resulting structures [Figs. 2–3].
The data revealed several distinguishable patterns of eye movement. In the“gliding pattern,” for example, the eyes glide smoothly through the virtual
space without making sudden movements, while in the “restless pattern” they
move quickly about the virtual space, exploring.
Building on our analysis of the data at a micro level, last year we worked onunderstanding the overall picture of this data set. This involved enlisting thehelp of Shoya Dozono in applying machine-learning techniques to analyze all
the ETI eye-tracking data.
For this, we utilized a variational autoencoder (VAE), an unsupervised
learning model used to recognize characteristic features from among a set ofdata. A VAE is a kind of “generative model” that not only classiﬁes a given setof data but seeks the very data distributions themselves. By compressing(encoding) a huge amount of data into latent space and then decoding it, the
VAE is able to generate and predict new data.
Using this VAE, we compressed both the line-of-sight data and the coordinate data of the 3D structures into a 2D latent space. Within this compressed
latent space, we can then classify the data, and decode and generate theeye-movement data from it.

2
Fig. 2

3

A visualization showing various eye movements recorded by ETI. (Yellow circles – high acceleration;
green circles – high velocity; red circles – high acceleration and high velocity; thick white lines – slow
movement.)

Fig. 3

An example of a virtual structure created by eye movements. (Yellow circles – high acceleration; green
circles – high velocity; red circles – high acceleration and high velocity; thick white lines – slow movement.)

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There are several ways to implement VAEs, including fully connected(dense) neural networks, convolutional neural networks (CNNs), and recursive
neural networks (RNNs). In this case, we opted for a dense network, whichanalyzes all data as a one-dimensional array. We also tried to predict new datausing the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) method.
After having the VAE learn the eye movements and virtual structures, thedata was then projected into a two-dimensional latent space, creating the visualizations seen in [Figs. 4–5]. Here, the densest areas of distribution represent“typical” examples, while the data points circled in red are the special cases(i.e., the exceptions). By examining these special cases individually, we could
extract and discount any data that didn’ t require analyzing, such as instances
when the device malfunctioned or the program terminated prematurely.
Next, we had the VAE relearn the data using only the “typical” examples.
This allowed us to see the latent space of the typical examples [Figs. 6 –7], as wellas the corresponding eye movements and shapes of the virtual structures [Figs.
8–9]. Through this kind of machine learning-assisted analysis, we graduallyacquire a clearer grand picture of all the interactions taking place within the
ETI installation.

4

5

6

7

Fig. 4

Latent space representation of all eye movements

Fig. 5

Latent space representation of all virtual structures

Fig. 6

Latent space representation of “typical” eye movements

Fig. 7

Latent space representation of “typical” virtual structures

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Fig. 8Virtual structures created using non-typical data

Fig. 9Virtual structures created using typical data

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Together with Norimichi Hirakawa, we are currently working on the development of “Proto-ETI,” an experimental testbed for verifying the interaction
analysis carried out by ETI. Proto-ETI simulates ETI by generating the skeleton of a virtual structure from not only the eye-tracking device, but also its
recorded data and mouse input. What’ s more, the parameters of the ETI interaction can be set and changed in real time via the user interface. Users can alsochoose whether or not to communicate with one other, as well as toggling theon-screen grid on and oﬀ [Fig. 10].
When it comes to appreciating the end results, Proto-ETI allows us to take acloser look at the virtual structures created by the experience [Fig. 11]. During
previous exhibitions of ETI, the need to help users into and out of the machine

Fig. 10

Screenshots of Proto-ETI

Fig. 11

Visual renderings of interactions

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meant it wasn’ t possible to carefully observe the virtual structures created after
each person’ s experience with the device. The development of Proto-ETI will, I
hope, prove an opportunity to think more deeply about the act of viewing theseinteractions, almost as if they were works of art in themselves.
What makes Proto-ETI particularly interesting is that it can be operatedusing dummy eye movements artiﬁcially generated by the VAE [Fig. 12], allowing
us to analyze and view in detail the artiﬁcial structures that they create [Fig. 13].
Such experimentation and analysis has made it possible to discuss the individual details of interactions in a way we previously couldn’ t. We plan tocontinue using this platform to conduct research into what it means to understand, interpret, and appreciate interactive art, using ETI as a case study. We
will also continue to study the feature extraction of individual data, such as the
LSTM-enabled predictions of lines of sight and virtual structures.
Another issue for investigation is the question of how the appearance of thevirtual structure created by the user’ s line of sight is relayed back to the eye
movements of the experiencer. We believe that Proto-ETI, which can reproduce
the way the structure is seen by the experiencer, will play a useful role in thisanalysis as well. Lastly, parametric experiments of interaction using Proto-ETI
are another major research topic for the future.

Fig. 12

Artificially generated “dummy” eye movements

Fig. 13Visual renderings of artificial interactions

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A multitude of technologies have been used in the creation of media
artworks. Through our research, we would like to consider how technology canbe used not only to create artworks, but to analyze and understand them. By
doing so, we hope to build tools and environments that will enable even deeper
critiques of the interactive artworks created by Mikami and others like her.

Notes
1

Write-ups of major research projects conducted using material primarily from the Seiko Mikami Archive are as
follows:
Seara Ishiyama, “Lecture Materials in the Seiko Mikami Archive,” Kiseki no. 3 (Tama Art University Art Archives
Center, 2021), pp. 54–58.
Seara Ishiyama, Akira Sone, Akihiro Kubota, “Basic Research for the Creation of a Video Archive: Assessing the
Status of the Seiko Mikami Archive and Future Plans,” Kiseki no. 3 (Tama Art University Art Archives Center,2021), pp. 104–107.
Akihiro Kubota, Jung-Yeon Ma, Tomoya Watanabe, “Media Art and a Generative Archive,” Kiseki no. 1 (Tama Art
University Art Archives Center, 2019), pp. 10–31.
Akihiro Kubota, “Methods of Interaction Analysis in Media Art: A Case Study Using Seiko Mikami’s ‘Eye-Tracking
Informatics,’” Kiseki no. 3 (Tama Art University Art Archives Center, 2020), pp. 25–37.
Jung-Yeon Ma, Akihiro Kubota, “A Preliminary Investigation into Generative Archives for Media Art (Part 1),”
Tama Art University Bulletin no. 31 (Tama Art University, 2017), pp. 93–98.
Jung-Yeon Ma, Akihiro Kubota, “A Preliminary Investigation into Generative Archives for Media Art (Part 2),”
Tama Art University Bulletin no. 32 (Tama Art University, 2018), pp. 65–76.
Akihiro Kubota, Seara Ishiyama, “Archives of Interaction: The Ontology of Seiko Mikami’s Interactive Artworks,”
Kiseki no. 2 (Tama Art University Art Archives Center, 2020), pp. 17–27.
Norimichi Hirakawa, Tomoya Watanabe, Jung-Yeon Ma, Akihiro Kubota, “A Preliminary Investigation into
Generative Archives for Media Art (Part 3),” Tama Art University Bulletin no. 33 (Tama Art University, 2019), pp.
71–79.
Jung-Yeon Ma, Tomoya Watanabe (Eds.), Seiko Mikami: A Critical Reader (NTT Publishing, 2019).

2

Since Mikami’s death, ETI has been re-exhibited posthumously at the following exhibitions:
Seiko Mikami: Eye-tracking Informatics Version 1.1 – A Collaborative Research Exhibition with YCAM to
Commemorate the 20th Anniversary of Tama Art University’s Department of Information Design (January 9–11, 2019,
Tama Art University Art-Theque Gallery).
Open Space 2019: Alternative Views (May 18, 2019–March 1, 2020, NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]).

3

Seiko Mikami, “About and Around the ‘Molecular Informatics – Morphogenic Substance via Eye Tracking’Continuum,” Molecular Informatics – Morphogenic Substance via Eye Tracking (Centro de ediciones de ladiputación de Málaga [CEDMA], 2014), p.18.

Seiko Mikami, “Toward a Museum/Mausoleum of Perception” (2004), Seiko Mikami: A Critical Reader (trans.

Jung-Yeon Ma, Tomoya Watanabe), (NTT Publishing, 2019), pp. 6–17.
4

Eye-tracking data (770 sets in total) were acquired from visitors who experienced the work during its exhibition at
the University’s Art-Theque Gallery, and at ICC between January 12 and March 1, 2020 (see Note 2 above).

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Mono-ha and Archives– Shigeo Anzai, Contemporary Art Accompanist 1
Toshimi Koizumi (Tama Art University)“Mono-ha” (literally, “School of Things”) collectively refers to a group of artists
active between the late 1960s and early ‘70s who together constituted a signiﬁcant movement within the development of contemporary Japanese art. Creating
works out of both organic (wood, soil, stone) and largely unmanipulated industrial materials (lumber, steel plates, glass) which they presented either as standalone objects or in juxtaposition with one another, the Mono-ha artists sought
to forge new connections between the concept and artwork through installations which drew attention to the relationship between the objects themselves
and the space around them. Mono-ha’s formation is commonly attributed tothe exhibition of Nobuo Sekine’s (1942–2019) outdoor sculpture Phase: Modern
Earth (1968). Like Sekine, many of the movement’s foremost practitioners̶
including Katsuro Yoshida (1943–1999), Susumu Koshimizu, Kishio Suga, Katsuhiko Narita, and main ideologue Lee Ufan̶were either alumni of, or closely
connected to, Tama Art University (TAU), which is one of the major reasons
behind the University’s eﬀorts to create and manage a Mono-ha archive today.
From 2015 to 2017, Tama Art University and the Museum of Modern Art,
Saitama cooperated on the Mono-ha Archive Research Project, working inclose conjunction with the artists themselves as well as aﬃliates, academics, andarchivists to survey and catalog the movement.2
As part of this larger undertaking, a symposium, Mono-ha and Archives, washeld on March 16 and 17, 2016. This event was an attempt to reframe the discussions surrounding Mono-ha that had so far taken place within an art criticaland historical framework, considering them afresh from an archival perspective
instead.
Held simultaneously in the University’s own Art-Theque Gallery, Mono-ha:
The Seventies by ANZAÏ featured 176 photographs by Shigeo Anzai (1939–2020)
taken between 1970 and 1978, 134 of which were sourced from the collection heldin Hong Kong’s M+ museum.3 These important documents of the Mono-ha
movement were scanned from the originals before being reproduced at actual
size using an inkjet printer, a process overseen by the photographer himself.

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Shigeo Anzai’s relationship with TAU was established in the late 1960s throughhis acquaintance with leading Mono-ha ﬁgures such as Yoshida and Shingo
Honda (1944–2019) ̶ both pupils of Yoshishige Saito (1904–2001) ̶ as well as Lee,Suga, and Sekine, an aﬃliation that was deepened further still through his laterencounter with Yoshiaki Tono (1930–2005).4
In 2004, Anzai took up a post as visiting professor in the Department ofPainting Faculty of Art and Design, where in 2009 he taught a course on movements in contemporary art from the 1970s onward. In this class, which was open
to students from all years and departments, participants were split into groups
that were each assigned a diﬀerent decade, with each group then tasked withinterviewing Anzai about their designated period. The results were later collated
and published by the students in the form of a booklet, Wednesday 5th Period(2009), which was accompanied by two exhibitions, one held in the Tama Art
University Museum and the other in the University’s Hachioji Library Arcade
Gallery.5 [Fig. 1] is a photo of the latter, a chronological exhibition of 955 photos
taken by Anzai between 1970 and 2009, depicting exclusively ﬁgures associatedwith the University and artwork created by them. All photos exhibited were
inkjet prints of scans procured with support from the artist himself, as well as
the ANZAÏ Photo Archive at the National Art Center, Tokyo.6

Fig. 1

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In 2015 a further exhibition, The People of Tama Art University – Photographs by Shigeo Anzai [Fig. 2], was held in the Art-Theque Gallery as part of
the University’s 80th anniversary celebrations.7 This time, 181 inkjet prints of
the artist’s photographs were featured alongside slides of portraits of Yoshiaki
Tono and Lee Ufan, which were projected onto inﬂated balloons [Fig. 3].
At the abovementioned exhibitions, prints were pinned directly to the wallor else aﬃxed to hanging metal panels with magnets. This was also true ofthe more recent works, which have grown larger in size as a result of laser andinkjet printing technology. Indeed, while the shooting itself may still happen on
ﬁlm, the shift from silver halide to digital processing has arguably led to greater
freedom in an artist’s range of options when it comes to presenting his or her
work. From an administrative standpoint, too, there is undoubtedly a sense ofease that comes with exhibiting digitally printed works as opposed to vintage
originals.
Since 2015, the University’s Shigeo Anzai Photo Archive has been scanningoriginal ﬁlms containing the photographer’s works. This project began withthe scanning of 321 rolls’ worth of negatives ̶ some 7,000 images ̶ containing
367 of the artist’s photographs that were displayed at a 2017 exhibition8 at the
National Museum of Art, Osaka (where said photographs are held).
Prior to 2015, most of the scanning and digitizing done by the archive was ofprints provided to us by Anzai himself. And yet, given that a 35mm roll of ﬁlm
contains approximately 36 exposures ̶ or around ten in the case of 120 ﬁlm,
depending on the size ̶ it was considered likely that images of archival significance existed among the artist’s negatives, too, even if never printed as ﬁnal
works. With this in mind, we began scanning the entire roll, sleeves and all.
The envelopes housing Anzai’s processed negatives include details suchas date, location, and the creators of any photographed artworks; some even
include the name of exhibits any developed photos were displayed at, or where
they ended up being donated. We title the negatives according to this information before scanning them chronologically. Finally, we create a contact sheet
containing all the negative images, allowing an entire roll to be previewed at
once.
Barring only a few exceptions, Anzai himself rarely created contact sheets.
Instead, he had an uncanny capacity for storing his images mentally, using
nothing but the information recorded on the ﬁlms’ processing envelopes.

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Fig. 3

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Let us look at some examples. [Fig. 4] is a photograph by Anzai of Kishio Suga’s
Inﬁnite Situation I (window), an installation from the Trends in Contemporary
Art exhibition held at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto in 1970.9
The photo is dated July 6. As of this writing, seven rolls of ﬁlm containing
Anzai’s photos documenting this exhibition have been veriﬁed, taken over a
two-day period.
Shots taken on the ﬁrst of these two days, July 5 [Fig. 5], capture Suga as heworks. Though we have only a few images to go by, they oﬀer us a glimpse ofa work in transition: one created not according to a pre-decided plan, but by
an artist responding ﬂexibly to the demands of the space. [Fig. 6] shows what
appears to be the artwork in a practically complete state, yet evidently positioned in a diﬀerent exhibition room from that of the day before. Whether asa result of negotiations with the gallery or else for security-related reasons (thedetails are unclear), the installation appears to have been moved to a diﬀerent
ﬂoor, with the photo capturing this shift in perspective.
Clearly, an understanding of a work based solely on a photo of its ﬁnal form
[Fig. 4] is necessarily going to diﬀer from one reached with an appreciation ofits gestation process. Particularly in the case of the works and artists of theMono-ha movement, records of the production and installation process proveinvaluable resources that deserve to be archived wherever possible.

Fig. 4

Fig. 6

Fig. 5

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[Fig. 7], taken on July 6, is another shot of a Suga work in progress, this time
his Inﬁnite Situation II (steps).10 [Fig. 8], meanwhile, is dated July 5, the same
day as the ﬁrst photo of the window installation above ̶ thus revealing that thetwo pieces were constructed simultaneously.
Anzai has mentioned in interviews how Suga preferred having his work
photographed in a state of ﬂux rather than in its ﬁnished form. From early on, it
seems, Anzai had an intuitive understanding of Suga’s shifting creative process.
His ability to adapt ﬂexibly to each artist’s individuality and process, without
overstepping his mark, goes a long way to explain how he managed to bequeath
such a treasure trove of information to later generations.
In the early hours of August 13, 2020, Shigeo Anzai passed away from cardiac
arrest. Owing to the coronavirus pandemic, work on the archive project wasproceeding more slowly than expected; at the time of his passing, we were indiscussions with him regarding our plans for 2021 and beyond. Currently, 525
rolls of ﬁlm (approximately 11,000 images) have been scanned and digitized.
Moving forward, our most pressing task will be using interviews he gave during
his lifetime to shed further light on this data, thereby increasing its accuracy anddepth as a body of resource material.

Fig. 8Fig. 7

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In his later years, Anzai personally made several donations to the Photo
Archive, including original prints, books, negatives, photography equipment,
and posters, as well as pieces from his collection of aﬃliated artists’ work.
Having also been a painter, he donated some of his own paintings, too, which weare also in the process of archiving. We hope to continue improving our archive
to create the most comprehensive record of the artist’s life and work possible.
(All personal titles and honoriﬁcs have been omitted.)

Notes
1

This text is an edited version of two previously published essays: “Mono-ha and Archives – Shigeo Anzai, Contemporary Art Accompanist” (Kiseki no. 1, pp. 50–55) and “Shigeo Anzai and ‘Wednesday 5th Period’ at Tama Art
University” (Kiseki, no. 3, pp. 12–15).

2

The Mono-ha Archives Research Project was commissioned by the Cultural Affairs Agency as part of a larger
project titled “Briefing Session on the Collection and Publication of Relevant Material Aimed at the Strategic
Dissemination of Contemporary Japanese Art.”

3

Mono-ha: The Seventies by ANZAÏ (March 16–17, 2016, Tama Art University Art-Theque Gallery, 2F) was a repeatof an earlier exhibition, Mono-ha: The Seventies by ANZAÏ (October 10–21, 2016, Tama Art University Art-Theque
Gallery 2F), held the previous year as part of the University’s 80th anniversary celebrations.

4

Yoshishige Saito was a professor on TAU’s Oil Painting Course between 1965 and 1972. Yoshiaki Tono taught in the
University’s General Education Department from 1967 before establishing the Department of Art Studies in 1981,
where he subsequently taught as a professor until 1993.

5

By ANZAÏ: Contemporary Art and Tamabi – Toward the Artists of Tomorrow (November 1–28, 2009, Tama Art
University Hachioji Library Arcade Gallery); Shigeo Anzai Retrospective: By ANZAÏ – Artists Through Anzai ’s Lens
(October 23–November 23, 2009, Tama Art University Museum).

6

For the search page of the ANZAΪ Photo Archive, National Art Center, Tokyo, visit: https://www.nact.jp/anzai/
index.php

7

The People of Tama Art University – Photographs by Shigeo Anzai (October 10–24, 2015, Tama Art University
Art-Theque Gallery 1F).

8

When Attitudes Become Form: Japanese Art of the 1970s through the Photography of Anzaï Shigeo (October 28–
December 24, 2017, National Museum of Art, Osaka).

9

Trends in Contemporary Art (July 7–August 9, 1970, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto). An original
print of [Fig. 4] is also held in the National Museum of Art, Osaka.

10

At least, the shot is assumed to have been taken on July 6. The 6x6 processing envelope housing the ﬁnished work islabeled simply “July 1970,” so further veriﬁcation is needed to pinpoint the exact date.

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The Creative Possibilities of Monyo:
Tracing Monyo Research at Tama Art University
Yuko Fukatsu (Tama Art University)

Monyo (decorative designs of the variety typically found on clothing, arts andcrafts, and architecture) are visual motifs deeply connected to our everyday
lives, boasting a heritage as long as the history of human creativity itself. In
2017 I embarked as part of a small team on the Monyo Study Project, which in
the years since has promoted such initiatives as A Study on Archiving Decorative
Monyo in Asia and Its Educational Application,1 A Study on Monyo Connecting
Japan and Asian Archipelagos,2 and Creating Monyo Design Archives in Japan:
From the Perspectives of East-West Cultural Exchange and Japanese Modern
Design.3 Through ﬁeld surveys conducted across Japan and Asia as a whole,
we have researched topics including traditional monyo, what makes monyo
unique, and the changes traditional monyo have undergone up to the presentday, publishing our results in the form of papers,4 reports,5,6 ﬁlms [Fig. 1],7 exhibitions,8 and via our very own monyo database-cum-archive, TAMA MON 22 on
Web.9 We have also dug into the history of monyo studies as a discipline at the
University, and are currently engaged in eﬀorts to catalog, conserve, and recontextualize the achievements and results of these earlier generations of scholars.
Tama Art University (TAU) boasts a long and venerable tradition of monyo
research. This history includes the activities of the Monyo Design Institute,founded in 1973; the joint research of second university president Eiichiro Ishida(1903–1968) and his vision for a “comprehensive art university”; the arabesquemonyo found in the graphic designs of former faculty member Ayao Yamana(1897–1980); and even extends as far back as the publication of Compendium of
Human Figure Designs From Around the World (Sekai jinbutsu zuan shiryō shūsei, 1952),
compiled by the University’s founding president Hisui Sugiura (1876–1965).10
Here, I will look back at some of the Monyo Design Institute’s previous
projects that would go on to form the basis of our research, as well as outline thesigniﬁcance of monyo studies as a discipline within the University at large.

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In April 1968, cultural anthropologist Eiichiro Ishida cited monyo and material science as two guiding themes in his vision for a university-wide research
project to be titled Comprehensive Study into the Emergence and Developmentof Monyo.11 Sadly, he passed away in November of the same year, leaving
behind only his exhortation to “tell the history of human creativity through[the medium of ] monyo.” After this turbulent start came the campus protestsof the late ‘60s, and it wasn’t until 1972 that the question of monyo studies
was reopened; the Monyo Design Institute was founded on the University’s
Kaminoge campus the following year. Headed by Tomoyuki Yamanobe, theinstitute comprised a diverse team drawn from within and outside the University of eleven core members including Takemi Ohbuchi, Seiichi Sasaki, andToshimi Tazawa, and four research fellows. Securing funding via a Grant-in-Aid
for Scientiﬁc Research (KAKENHI), the Foundation for In-Serving Training and
Welfare of the Private School, and a university-issued group research grant, thegroup collected examples of monyo both domestically and abroad. Throughout,they adopted a unique approach to group research rooted in Ishida’s vision,encompassing ﬁelds as diverse as art and craft history, archaeology, history ofarchitecture, aesthetics, sociology, cultural anthropology, design, and mathematics.12
In 1974, Sasaki, Tazawa, and Ohbuchi’s team published Research Report
1: Decorative Monyo in the Architecture of Nikko’s Toshogu Shrine. In 1975,
Yamanobe and Masakazu Utsumi dispatched a team of research fellows toIndonesia, where they collected 188 examples of dyed and woven textiles.13 In
a supplementary volume released to accompany a new edition of the Encyclopedia of Japanese Decorations (Nihon sōshoku taikan; ed. Masao Kawabe, originallypublished in 1915), Ohbuchi oﬀered a new overview of the evolution of decorative monyo with the aid of detailed drawings and photographs. In Monyo ofMomoyama (Momoyama no monyō, 1976), he considered the Momoyama period
through the lens of decorative monyo, making innovative use of color photosof the patterns adorning buildings and traditional craft products. In 1978, 7th
university president Shiro Takahashi published his research into the muqarnas,
a variety of stalactite vault found in Islamic architecture (his publicly available
lecture notes make frequent reference to the monyo research happening aroundthis time).14 As a postgraduate student, in the early ‘90s I myself took part ina monyo-based research expedition to Tohoku, and in 2004 reinvestigated thepreviously collected 188 samples of Indonesian textiles housed in the University’s Monyo Design Institute.15 Later, in 2005, Monyo, Design, Technology 2005
(ed. Hidemi Kondo) was published by the Tama Art University Monyo Oﬃce.

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Cili and Lamak: The Mysterious, Imagination-Stirring Monyo of Bali (Bali, Indonesia no. 1 from the Asian Decorative

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As evident from their initial statement issued upon its founding, the Monyo
Design Institute’s members dreamed of someday opening a World MonyoMuseum. Though this ambition was never realized, their multidisciplinary
approach to research, and the spirit that animated it, remain to this day crucial
parts of TAU’s unique historical legacy. As inheritors of this tradition andspirit̶and in search of new creative possibilities for monyo in the 21st century̶
my colleagues and I are widening our ﬁeld of academic inquiry even further toinclude media art, design programming, ﬁlm, music, and art anthropology in
our vision for a new approach to monyo design archiving.
Today, the wealth of material collected by these pioneers is kept in the
University’s new Art Archives Center (built on the former Monyo Oﬃce siteon the Hachioji campus). By compiling and entering this material into our own
TAMA MON 22 on Web database, my colleagues and I hope to revitalize thisslice of the University’s history as an academic resource for the 21st century.
Recording and archiving the shifts in monyo studies over the years, we believe,
will better enable us to “tell the history of human creativity through [the mediumof ] monyo.”

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Notes
1

Conducted as a Tama Art University group research project (2017–2019). Team members: Toshio Yamagata, Yuko
Fukatsu, Naruaki Sasaki, Toshiharu Ito.

2

Conducted with the support of the Science Research Promotion Fund from the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan (2019–2020).

3

Supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientiﬁc Research (B), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (grant number:
JP21H03767) (2021).

4

Yuko Fukatsu, Naruaki Sasaki, Shunji Ito, “Monyo in the Tropics: A Focus on Visual Images Created by People
from the Indonesian Archipelago,” Tama Art University Bulletin no. 35 (Tama Art University, 2021), pp. 149–161.

5

Toshio Yamagata, Yuko Fukatsu, Naruaki Sasaki, Toshiharu Ito, “A Study on Archiving Decorative Monyo in Asia
and Its Educational Application,” Tama Art University Bulletin no. 33 (Tama Art University, 2018), pp. 163–171.

6

Toshio Yamagata, Yuko Fukatsu, Naruaki Sasaki, Toshiharu Ito, “From ‘A Study on Archiving Decorative Monyoin Asia and Its Educational Application’ Toward ‘A Study on Monyo Connecting Japan and Asian Archipelagos,’”
Tama Art University Bulletin no. 34 (Tama Art University, 2019), pp. 147–162.

7

The Asian Decorative Monyo Archive Film Series comprises ten short ﬁlms on the monyo of Bali, Indonesia (2018–2019) and two on those of Japan (2020).

8

Asian Currents of the New Century: The Creative Possibilities of Monyo (November 20–22, 2019, Tama Art University Art-Theque Gallery).

9

https://www.tamabi.ac.jp/research/tamamon22/ (Last accessed March 31, 2022.)

10

Eiichiro Ishida assumed the presidency of Tama Art University in 1968 before passing away suddenly in Novemberof the same year. Ayao Yamana served as a professor in the Department of Design from 1947 to 1967. A founder andheadteacher of Tama Imperial Art School (the University’s original predecessor, 1935–1946), Hisui Sugiura went on
to serve as administrative director of the University in its various subsequent incarnations: Tama Art and Design
School (1947–1949), Tama Art Junior College (1950–1952), and ﬁnally Tama Art University (1953–).

11

Takemi Ohbuchi, A Record of 37 Years of Design Education: Professor Takemi Ohbuchi Special Retirement Issue(Tama Art University Graduate School Design Oﬃce, 2002), p. 7.

12

Tama Art University Monyo Design Institute, Tama Art University Guidebook (Tama Art University, 1980), pp.
30–31.

13
14

For high-quality photos of these textiles, see the TAMA MON 22 on Web database at the following link: https://www.tamabi.ac.jp/research/tamamon22/indonesia.html (Last accessed March 31, 2022.)“A History of Tama Art University (Shiro Takahashi’s Lecture Notes),” http://www.shiro1000.jp/tau-history/
history-site.html (Last accessed March 31, 2022.)

15

Hidemi Kondo, Yuko Fukatsu-Fukuoka, Noriko Furusawa (Eds.), Textiles of Indonesia, Tama Art University Art
and Design Institute Catalogue of Holdings (Tama Art University Monyo Oﬃce, 2004).

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The Kuniharu Akiyama Library
Koichi Ebizuka (Tama Art University)

Looking back, my ﬁrst encounter with the documents and records of Kuniharu
Akiyama came during a group research project I took part in with other faculty
members of the Department of Art Studies, titled “A Comparative Cultural
Investigation into Postwar Japanese Art: Shedding Light on 1953.” Work on the
project began in 1993 under then Director of Art Studies Toshiaki Minemura
and was carried out by a fourteen-member team including myself and Akiyama,
Sakumi Hagiwara, Akira Tatehata, Yasuo Murayama, Takashi Hiraide, Masatoshi Nakajima, and several department assistants. Our eﬀorts culminated in an
exhibition, Shedding Light on Art in Japan, 1953, held at the Meguro Museum ofArt, Tokyo between June 8–July 21, 1996 (co-organized by Tama Art University[TAU] ; Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo; and The Asahi Shimbun Company).
In our introduction to the exhibition’s catalogue, the planners of the event (ofwhom I was one) wrote as follows:
The unique character of this exhibition can, we believe, be boiled down to
the following three points:
1) Its origin as being the result of an entirely collaborative process
between a university and art museum;2) Its method of art historical inquiry, which focused on a particular
year to conduct a close, synchronic examination of events pertaining
to the art world of the time;3) Its foregrounding of historical analysis and criticism unswayed by
the “name value” of the events or phenomena researched.1(Also involved in the collaboration was the Meguro Museum of Art’s thencurator, Tamayo Iemura, currently a professor in the University’s Departmentof Art Studies.)

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In his foreword to the catalogue, Toshiaki Minemura writes:
As already mentioned, it was a point of principle for us not to lean on
the name recognition of well-known events, movements, or collectives. By
the same token, critical research cannot aﬀord to neglect matters that aresensational in name only, but whose actual substance remains surprisingly
unknown, or else habitually reported full of errors. After carefully considering and discussing several such topics, we decided to focus our exhibitionon the following three areas of interest, approaching each from the vantage
point of “historical rediscovery”: 1) Gallery Takemiya solo exhibitions;2) Gutai artists prior to the founding of the Gutai Art Association); and3) the activities of the Experimental Workshop.2
These three areas were overseen by me, Tatehata, and Akiyama (a former
member and associate of the Experimental Workshop) respectively; Akiyama
also put together and planned a series of concerts and screenings to accompany
the exhibition. Unfortunately, he was too unwell at the time to contribute text
to the catalog, so for Akiyama’s portion of the exhibition, Katsuhiro Yamaguchi was asked to write something instead. In any case, I was struck by theattention to detail with which, during his research into the Experimental Workshop, Akiyama scrutinized his own past activities, exhibiting a sense of responsibility that marked him out from other critics. As a practicing artist myself, I
have never been one to take particular care of my own materials and documents,
including my own artwork. By contrast, I still remember how shocked I was by
the sheer wealth of material Akiyama had kept pertaining to his own activities.
His memory was also impressive; I was amazed at how perfectly his recollections
matched up with the information in the four ﬁles full of Experimental Workshop
material he’d kept. What’s more, these ﬁles even contained records relating to
my own ﬁeld of study, such as promotional leaﬂets and ﬂyers for Hideko Fukushima and Shozo Kitadai’s solo exhibitions at Gallery Takemiya. The “Activitiesof the Experimental Workshop” section of the Meguro Museum of Art exhibition was sourced mainly from Akiyama and Yamaguchi’s personal collections
and records. Since then, the Kuniharu Akiyama Library (hereafter the Akiyama
Library) has continued to provide material for exhibitions, including 32 pieces
for 2013’s Experimental Workshop: Pioneers of Postwar Art (a touring exhibition
held at the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura; the Iwaki City Art Museum;the Museum of Modern Art, Toyama; the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum ofArt; and Setagaya Art Museum). Indeed, it is hard to overstate the signiﬁcanceand reach of this library’s material within contemporary art today.

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As I recall, work on the Akiyama Library joint research project began in
2003. I took the role of lead researcher, with the rest of the team made up as
follows: Toshiaki Minemura, Akira Tatehata, Yasuo Murayama, Norio Nishijima (all faculty members of the University’s Department of Art Studies),
Hiroshi Hirasue, Jun Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki Watanabe, Reina Okura, Hitoshi
Kubo, Sen Uesaki (assistants or alumni of the same department), and Aki Takahashi. One of the ﬁrst questions we faced was how best to go about organizing
and utilizing such a vast trove of material. First, we had to physically gather andsort through all the material before digitally cataloging it, followed by creating
the archive and website (in preparation for its being made publicly available).
At least, this was the idea; in reality, things didn’t proceed quite as smoothly as
we had hoped. The material also needed to be researched̶a time-consuming,
expensive task, not to mention one requiring someone with the necessary zeal.
As this kind of time and funding would exceed the scope of a joint research
project, this remains a matter for further consideration. Having researchmembers on the team for archiving purposes is one thing, but for more dedicated research, a single-minded, more committed approach to the material isindispensable.
Organization of the Akiyama Library material is currently proceeding acrossﬁve major categories: 1) the Experimental Workshop; 2) Fluxus; 3) chronologizing Akiyama’s own writings (articles, poems, etc.); 4) the 1970 Osaka World
Expo; and 5) Erik Satie-related (photocopied) material. Of these, more detailed
research is still needed on the Experimental Workshop and Fluxus materials.
The amount of Fluxus-related photographic material is particularly vast, andundoubtedly contains precious information yet to be uncovered. As custodiansof this wealth of physical data, it is our responsibility here at the University to
explore it together with Fluxus experts as a matter of priority.
Of course, any archive of Akiyama’s work and materials worth its salt mustalso reﬂect his work as a critic and researcher of music. With this in mind, on
November 16, 2016, as a special project to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of its composer as well as the twentieth year since Akiyama’s
passing, Aki Takahashi (Akiyama’s wife) and I organized a production of Erik
Satie’s musical comedy Le piège de Méduse in the Art-Theque Gallery on the
University’s Hachioji campus. (Translation by Kuniharu Akiyama; directedby Kanji Shimizu and Tomoco Kawaguchi; piano: Aki Takahashi; performers:
Kanji Shimizu, Yasuhiko Takeuchi, Jiro Shigemori, Takashi Otsuki, Ayano
Durniok.) Speaking of Satie, his name always puts me in mind of Shibuya JeanJean, a small theater formerly situated beneath the Tokyo Yamate Church in
Shibuya that was once the venue for a series of Akiyama-produced Erik Satie

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recitals. The ﬁrst of these concerts̶originally envisaged, Akiyama writes, tocommemorate a half century since Satie’s death̶was held on September 17,
1975. He also noted: “The enthusiasm of the young audience that packed thevenue each time wasn’t only in response to Satie’s music, though of course it
was partly that; it was also the product of an era when the very idea of theaudience itself was beginning to change” (Memoranda on Erik Satie, Seidosha,
1990, p. 499). I myself was one of those youngsters in the audience when, at the
6th concert, the piano piece Vexations (c. 1895)̶which features the same motif
repeated 840 times̶was performed. The ﬂyer for the event, which estimateda performance time of around sixteen hours, lists the performers as follows:
Toru Takemitsu, Hikaru Hayashi, Haruna Miyake, Shinichiro Ikebe, Maki
Ishii, Toshiro Mayuzumi, and Shigeaki Saegusa. My memory of the concert isvague, but I can recall audience members coming and going freely throughout
the performance. (Yoshiaki Tono, also in attendance, recounted his memory of
the event to his seminar group, who subsequently performed their own rendition of the piece for their seminar group exhibition.) Aki Takahashi, of course,
performed at every one of the concerts. In fact, I can trace the beginning of
my relationship with contemporary music back to this very performance. If I
hadn’t been there, I don’t think I would have gone on to spend nearly as muchtime with music as I did. That’s how powerful its eﬀect on me was. You might
say it marked my ﬁrst encounter with Kuniharu Akiyama’s unstinting energy.
To this day, I can still remember how delighted I felt when, in 1981, Akiyama
joined TAU as a professor.
Lastly, I shall quote here an extract from a round-table discussion Akiyama
participated in for the April 1965 issue of Music Art titled “Is Music Criticism
an Established Art? Part 2,” which I believe perfectly encapsulates his attitude
toward criticism:
What I’ve always been interested in doing is elucidating and pursuing
something of my own, whether it be a particular notion or my way of
thinking about an issue; to tell a myth of my own making, perhaps. At
times this might mean talking about a piece of art that’s in front of me,
but not necessarily to oﬀer an appraisal of its value. I think there shouldbe space for criticism that tries to get at the essence or the possibilities ofmusic in a more personal, individual way. If music is a creative endeavor,
then criticism too should be engaged in as a parallel act of creation.3

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When I ﬁrst encountered these words, they seemed to me to sum up something essential of Kuniharu Akiyama’s philosophy. Speaking as an artist witha fondness for criticism myself, I came to see that Akiyama’s work was indeed
an act of creation̶that by positioning himself in a space where practice andthe written word could coexist, he was engaged in a search for art’s new horizons. Accordingly, his vast repository of documents and records can also beseen as raw material for the act of creation, making surveying and researching
it tantamount to touching his creative spirit. This is why having access to such a
precious archive at TAU is so signiﬁcant.
I will end by noting that, to maximize the potential of the Akiyama Library,
it is crucial that Akiyama’s writings on John Cage, too, receive the thoroughresearch they deserve.

Notes
1

Tama Art University, Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo, The Asahi Shimbun Company, “Greeting,” Shedding Light on
Art in Japan, 1953 (Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo, Tama Art University, 1996), p. 4.

2

Ibid., p. 14.

3

Kuniharu Akiyama, Kosuke Nakamura, Masaaki Niwa, “Round-table Discussion: Is Music Criticism an Established Art? Part 2,” Music Art (April 1965 Issue, Ongaku no Tomo Sha Corp.), pp. 24–31.

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The Tama Art University Poster Collection
Ichiro Saga (Tama Art University)

The Tama Art University Art Archives Center (AAC) maintains three poster
archives which together make up the Tama Art University Poster Collection:
the Takeo Poster Collection 1 (entrusted to the AAC in 1997 by Takeo Co., Ltd.)[Fig. 1], the DNP Poster Archive 2 (donated in 2018 by the DNP Foundation for
Cultural Promotion) [Figs. 2–3], and the Makoto Saito Poster Archive 3 (donatedin 2018 by the Makoto Saito Oﬃce). Here at the Art Archives Center, we researchand digitally archive these materials, presenting our results chieﬂy in the form of
exhibitions.
In this essay I hope to provide a brief overview of these research and archival
activities, while also considering the signiﬁcance of their being undertaken
within the sphere of an art university.

From Research to Exhibiting and Archiving
Of the three archives mentioned above, research began ﬁrst on the Takeo Poster
Collection in 1998 as a joint project between Takeo Co., Ltd. and Tama Art
University (TAU). From its inception right up to the present day, this research
has centered around the twin axes of holding exhibitions and the creation ofa digital archive, eﬀectively establishing an archetype for all subsequent poster
research conducted at the University. In fact, this simultaneous approach to
exhibiting and digital archiving̶that is to say, overseeing the whole processfrom research right up to the “publishing” of results̶is a distinct characteristicof the University’s approach to poster research.
Behind this modus operandi is the fact that said research has always been
conducted collaboratively by Graphic Design Department faculty members of
two diﬀerent stripes: practicing designers on the one hand (the department isprimarily a place for fostering practical skills), and design researchers on theother. This way, it is hoped, the department’s expertise can be exploited to its
full potential, producing results unobtainable by other means.

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A Poster Collection’s “Value” Within an Art University
Generally speaking, the value of a digital archive lies in its accumulation andarrangement of material, and in the way it widens access to said material
according to how it is organized. In other words, an archive derives its value
from providing opportunities to discover̶and even create̶the value of thematerial it contains.
There is no denying a digital archive’s importance in this regard. Yet it canalso be argued that this alone is not enough̶that an archive’s material holds
no practical value unless its signiﬁcance is actively and appropriately conveyed
in such a way that it can realistically be expected to be absorbed by, and thus
enrich, students. This is a view of the role of archives that TAU’s approach toposter research̶a comprehensive eﬀort encompassing not only research but
everything from the planning and designing of exhibitions to the digitization ofits material̶necessarily embodied.
This approach to archiving holds signiﬁcant implications not simply for theend result (i.e., the exhibitions themselves), but for every stage of the process up
to that point: for how collected materials should be considered and organized,
for instance, or for what a digital archive system or interface for accessing thisorganized material should ideally look like, and so on.
Such questions oﬀer a good opportunity to consider the very nature andmeaning of research within an art university, topics that haven’t been expressly
investigated thus far. A poster’s value̶that which we should be impressing
upon our students, the next generation of designers̶isn’t simply a matter ofthe role it has played historically. Rather, far more signiﬁcant for students living
through this period of media transition is single-sheet printing’s sheer distillation of function (its ability to convey a message) and expression (artistry), alongwith the techniques underpinning the form (paper manufacturing, printing,production environment, typeface): the way it fuses together all of these within
its supreme simplicity of form. It’s precisely this uniqueness of posters as a
medium that explains why poster production continues to be included on design
education curriculums. This medium-speciﬁc focus, while primarily concernedwith education, also holds profound implications for the way research is
conducted; it is also, I would argue, a perspective uniquely suited to an art
university.
Instead of a ﬁxed perspective, it is likely to be a broader one encompassing
how best to forge a relationship between the conventional digital archive andthe user that grows in importance in the future.

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Additional Remarks
Moving forward, our plan is to combine the research being carried out on eachof our poster collections, which until now have been treated independently of
one other. This will involve considering the eﬀect such a joint enterprise will
have on the value of a digital archive, as well as the art university as an institution.
In addition to the three collections outlined above, the AAC houses several
other archives/collections, all related either directly or indirectly to graphic
design. These collections of posters (and more besides) include: the Koichi Sato
Archive, comprising selected works, rough sketches, and more of Koichi Sato
(1944–2016), who taught in the University’ s Graduate School and Department ofGraphic Design; the Masaru Katzumie Archive, consisting of primary andsecondary materials belonging to Masaru Katzumie (1909–83), a leading Japanese design figure of the pre- and postwar periods; and the Makoto Wada
Archive, which documents the wide breadth of activities of its namesake
Makoto Wada (1936–2019). (Among those collections indirectly related to graphic
design is the Shuzo Takiguchi Library, a repository of material once belonging
to famed poet and art critic Shuzo Takiguchi [1903–1979], including over 150
posters.)
Broadening the scope of our combined research to include these collections,too, is something else to consider. The iconic format of the large, single-sheet
poster may be the ideal medium when it comes to representing era and culture.

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Fig. 1

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Constructive Posters of the 20th Century (January 30–April 11, 2021, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum). Organizedby Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum; Nikkei Inc.
©2021 Poster Collaborative Research Group.
Photos: Koji Honda

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Fig. 2Kazumasa Nagai: Poster Life (April 12–May 10, 2019, Tama Art University Art-Theque Gallery)

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Photos: Jinta Kuwabara

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Fig. 3

Ikko Tanaka: The Poster (May 13–29, 2021, Tama Art University Art-Theque Gallery)

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Notes
1

Takeo Poster Collection
Entrusted to the University by Takeo Co., Ltd in 1997, this collection consists of around 3,200 historical posters
from 20th century Europe, America, and Japan. In 1998, the Poster Collaborative Research Group was formed
between Takeo and professors from the University’s Department of Graphic Design, including Jun Tabohashi, Koji
Kusabuka, Takashi Akiyama, Shobun Nakashima, Koichi Sato, and Yasuhiro Sawada. For over two decades, thegroup has conducted research centered around organizing exhibitions (both special and permanent) and the creationof a digital archive, with upwards of twenty exhibitions held in venues including TAU’s own Art-Theque Gallery and
the Takeo showrooms at Mihoncho Honten.

2

DNP Poster Archive
Donated in 2018 by the DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion under the initiative of Department of Graphic
Design professor Katsuhiro Kinoshita, with joint research commencing in 2019. The archive holds approximately
1,800 posters̶around 600 each by three of Japan’s most celebrated poster designers: Kazumasa Nagai, Ikko
Tanaka, and Shigeo Fukuda. Plans were made to exhibit the three designers’ works over the space of four years; thefirst of these exhibitions, Kazumasa Nagai: Poster Life, was held in April 2019, while Ikko Tanaka: The Poster washeld in May 2021. Held simultaneously alongside both exhibitions was Poster Nippon, a showcase of work by
students from the University’s Department of Graphic Design.

3

Makoto Saito Poster Archive
Donated in 2018 by the Makoto Saito Office under the initiative of Katsuhiro Kinoshita, with support from the
DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion. The archive comprises 184 pieces selected by the artist: 137 in Japanese
B0 format and 47 in B1 or smaller. Having swept the top prizes of all the major international poster competitions
during the 1980s and ‘90s, Saito made the switch to painter with his Makoto Saito: SCENE [0] exhibition (August
2–November 3, 2008, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa). In 2017, he requested that the DNPFoundation for Cultural Promotion dispose of all his posters, keeping only a few copies of his most importantworks. The following year, he donated this valuable set of materials to a mere five art museums and institutions
nationwide, including Tama Art University.

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edition of Archiving Summary
ArtUniversity
Archival Art
Journal̶Symposium:
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Archives
The Philosophy

4 th Tama Art University
Art Archives Symposium:
The Philosophy of Archiving
The 4 th Tama Art University Art Archives Symposium, The Philosophy ofArchiving, was held online on December 4, 2021. In this section, Art Archives
Center staff member Reiji Ando summarizes the main talking points raised during
Parts 2 and 3 of the symposium, titled “Michel Foucault and Archives” and“Archive Networks – Kumagusu, D. T. Suzuki, and Garakutashū” respectively. For
information on Part 1 ( “AAC Showcase 2021” ) of the symposium, please refer tothe Tama Art University Art Archives Center Showcase section (pp. 7–75) of thisjournal.

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4 th Tama Art University Art Archives Symposium:
The Philosophy of Archiving
ProgramFacilitator:

Reiji Ando (Tama Art University)

Opening Address
Masanori Aoyagi (Chairman of Board of Directors, Tama Art University)● Part 1

AAC Showcase 2021
Archiving and Exhibiting Nihonga:
A Research-Based Collaborative Enterprise Between the Tama Art University Museum and
Art Archives Center

Kyoko Kinoshita (Tama Art University)
How Things Stand:
A Status Report on the Makoto Wada Archive

Yohei Takahashi (Tama Art University)
The Miyoko Ono Archive Exhibition and Archiving Design
Sachiko Yuzawa (Tama Art University)
The Shuzo Takiguchi Library:
Completing OPAC Cataloging and Tasks for the Future

Yuri Mitsuda (Tama Art University)
The Seiko Mikami Archive:
A Status Report

Akihiro Kubota (Tama Art University)
Norimichi Hirakawa (Artist)
Shoya Dozono (Designer, Programmer)
Moderator:

Akihiro Kubota

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Michel Foucault and Archives(Pre-recorded)

The Biopolitics of Archives:
A Technology of Immortality

Jun Tanaka (University of Tokyo)“The Era of the Universal Archive” and Foucault Archives
Hidetaka Ishida (Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo)
Commentators:
Moderator:

Kenji Kajiya (University of Tokyo), Reiji Ando

Reiji Ando

● Part 3

Archive Networks– Kumagusu, D. T. Suzuki and Garakutashū
Connecting Minakata Kumagusu’s Archives to the Outside World
Ryugo Matsui (Ryukoku University)
Bridging the East and the West:
The Activities of D. T. Suzuki and Beatrice Lane Suzuki

Tomoe Moriya (Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture)
Garakutashū as an International Network:
On Transnational Archive ResearchHelena Čapková (Ritsumeikan University)
Moderator:

Reiji Ando

Closing Address
Akira Tatehata (President of Tama Art University)

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4 th Tama Art University Art Archives Symposium:
The Philosophy of Archiving Summary (Part 2)

Michel Foucault and Archives
Reiji AndoThe second part of The Philosophy of Archiving symposium was moderated bythis writer, with presentations and discussion centering of the theme of “Michel
Foucault and Archives.” The session began with a pre-recorded presentation
by Jun Tanaka, professor at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo; next came a talk from Hidetaka Ishida, professor emeritus andspecially-appointed professor at the University of Tokyo, followed bycomments from Kenji Kajiya, professor at the Graduate School of Arts andSciences, University of Tokyo. In the limited time remaining, the session
concluded with a discussion between all members of the panel.
In his lecture entitled “The Biopolitics of Archives: A Technology ofImmortality,” Professor Tanaka began by noting how for Foucault, the archive̶the aggregate of a set of discourses analyzable by his archaeological method
̶existed as a “monument” with a certain materiality, a view memorably
encapsulated by the “physical vibration” Foucault reportedly felt upon coming
into contact with such a body of material. Today, however, the nature of this
discourse̶the kind, say, recorded as a monument to the “lives of infamousmen” after a momentary encounter with power̶is undergoing a tectonic shift.
By way of reference to Boris Groys’ s Art Power (2008), Tanaka showed how inthe contemporary art space a “radical museumiﬁcation of life” is underway;
how the technological immortality aﬀorded by archives’ ever-increasing prevalence is creating a world in which a person’ s entire life, right down to thesmallest detail, is becoming recordable and archivable. Faced with their overwhelming prevalence, Tanaka concluded, in order to locate new possibilities inarchives we will have to consider afresh those silent bodies of material traditionally spurned by oﬃcial records, those repositories of “secrets” that caused
Foucault to tremor.
In the process of arriving at a ﬁnished work, Foucault left behind several
preliminary drafts. The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969), in which the philosopher attempted to put in order the various strands underpinning his proposed

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method of archaeology, is no exception. What’ s more, earlier drafts of thismajor work contain numerous astute insights which speak directly to the stateof archives today, but which were subsequently removed from the ﬁnal version.
Picking up from where Professor Tanaka left oﬀ, the next presentation̶
“‘The Era of the Universal Archive’ and Foucault Archives” ̶was delivered byProfessor Ishida, likely the ﬁrst person ever to have conducted a close readingof Foucault’ s initial draft from 1966. In the beginning to this earlier version of
his famous work, Foucault writes that human culture is formed from the repetition of discourse (the “déjà dit,” or that which has already been said), in which“discourse” is defined as the totality of messages in their broadest sense,
including audiovisual media such as images and information. Furthermore, in
language uncannily predictive of the advent of the Internet era, Foucault
argues that our own civilization of the 20 th century onwards, deﬁned as it is by
this repetition of discourse, might be characterized as belonging to an age of
the “universal archive.” As just one example, Ishida notes the irony inherent incurrent eﬀorts to archive all of Foucault’ s research notes and writings, despite
the writer’ s own adamant opposition during his lifetime to the idea of any
posthumous publications.
Professor Ishida concluded his talk by quoting Foucault’ s own stated aim
to “make visible […] the interface of knowledge and power, of truth andpower.” Applying some of the questions posed by the session’ s ﬁrst presentation to the ideas of the second, Professor Kajiya oﬀered his own comments.
These were broad ranging in scope, though unfortunately there wasn’ t time toaddress every point raised. The ensuing discussion focused on what bothspeakers acknowledged as our age of the universal archive, in which artists’very lives are increasingly being rendered archival fodder by means of various
technologies, and in particular on several speciﬁc attempts by artists to resist
this̶topics, one suspects, that will prove most significant when consideringarchives’ future role and place within art.

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4 th Tama Art University Art Archives Symposium:
The Philosophy of Archiving Summary (Part 3)

Archive Networks– Kumagusu, D. T. Suzuki, and GarakutashūReiji Ando

The third part of The Philosophy of Archiving symposium, titled “Archive
Networks – Kumagusu, D. T. Suzuki, and Garakutashū,” was also moderated
by the author, and featured presentations by Ryugo Matsui, a professor ofInternational Studies at Ryukoku University; Tomoe Moriya, a senior research
fellow within the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture; and HelenaČ apková, an associate professor in the Global Liberal Arts Faculty at
Ritsumeikan University. Though time was again limited, the session was
rounded oﬀ with a short discussion between all members of the panel.
Professor Matsui, who serves as the director of the Minakata Kumagusu
Archives, began by noting how the institute’ s name might feasibly be interpreted in two ways: both as an archive of Minakata’ s work, but also as an institute dedicated to research into Minakata as an archive-like ﬁgure himself. He
then traced the contours of Minakata Kumagusu’ s (1867–1941) life̶showing, forexample, how his ecological investigations illuminated the relations formed
between all life forms inhabiting a particular space; or how his so-called“Minakata mandala,” the visual embodiment of his philosophy, represented an
attempt to reveal the world as formed of an extremely intricate web of causalities. In all that he did, Minakata aspired to a highly systematic, network-likeknowledge of the world.
In the early 1990s, eﬀorts got underway to classify and analyze Minakata’ s
notebooks and research material in order to provide a more concrete grasp of
his unique brand of knowledge. This process was helped immensely by the
introduction of personal computers, allowing for the creation of a databasethat would go on to form the basis for all future research. Work on expanding
this database continues to this day, Matsui concluded, with the goal not only ofproviding a comprehensive source of information on all things Minakata, butalso as a way of reviving something of the dynamism inherent in his thoughtprocesses.

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By way of a segue into Professor Moriya and Professor Čapková’ s presentations, this moderator posited that something Minakata, D. T. Suzuki (1870–
1966), and the members of Garakutashū all had in common was their interest in
Theosophy. Originating in the late 19 th century, Theosophy was a conduit
through which many Europeans and North Americans were exposed to, andcame to understand, Mahayana Buddhism. Inﬂuenced by this movement, or
perhaps so as better to respond to it, Minakata and Suzuki read voraciously
any books related to Theosophy they could ﬁnd. Its teachings were also at thecore of the ideology behind Garakutashū, many of whose members were also
associated with Yanagi Soetsu’ s Mingei ( “folk crafts” ) movement. (Yanagi,
one of Suzuki’ s earliest pupils, was the scholar’ s initial choice to be entrustedwith the directorship of the Matsugaoka Library, envisaged by Suzuki as acomprehensive museum of Mahayana Buddhism, and which served as his baseof operations during the ﬁnal years of his life.)
In considering Suzuki’ s reception to Theosophy, perhaps no one is more
important than his life partner Beatrice Erskine (1878–1939). Despite this, she hasoften been given short academic shrift, being typically treated as little morethan Suzuki’ s eccentric wife. In her presentation, Professor Moriya argued
instead the necessity of viewing the couple in tandem, as two figures bothcomplementing the other. In fact, it was Beatrice, not Suzuki, who was a central
figure in the Theosophical networks spreading across the globe at the time.
Professor Moriya also outlined the latest developments in research into Suzuki,
pointing to a plethora of recent discoveries made of records and documents in
English-speaking countries, while shining light on Beatrice’ s previously hidden
background as hailing from a progressive, left-wing American family with aninterest in spiritual movements. In the section’ s ﬁnal presentation, Professor
Čapková painted a picture of Garakutashū as a group who, in their sharedpassion for all things hobby-related, insisted on the equality of all occupations,genders and nationalities. The group accordingly boasted a sizable non-Japanese following, attracting members from places like India, Poland, and former
Czechoslovakia, nearly all of whom were brought together by their involvementin Theosophical networks. They were also heavily involved in the colonial independence movement.
In the last remaining minutes of the session, discussion focused on the
networks connecting “objects” and people on a variety of levels, with theobservation that it is precisely through archives that a full picture of an individual emerges hinting at possible directions for future inquiry.

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Journal
軌 跡 Art University
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Media
Network̶Committee

no. 1, November 2022

Tama Art University
Media Network Committee

The Media Network Committee is an organization set up to strengthen ties acrossthe University’ s various institutions, and encompasses the Tama Art University
Library, the Media Center, the Institute for Art Anthropology (IAA), the Tama Art
University Museum, and the Art Archives Center (AAC).
The AAC’ s logo serves as a visual representation of the University’ s Media
Network concept. It depicts a grid in the center of which sits the AAC surroundedby four distinct segments, representing in turn the University Library, the Media
Center and IAA, the University Museum, and the Art-Theque Gallery.
The AAC serves as the foundation for a Media Network which facilitates
coordination between the University’ s different facilities, collating and integrating
the rich body of artistic and creative resources found within them. (Its logo alsocomes in several variations, which can be chosen between to suit the specificmedium and context.)
In this section, the directors of the various institutions that make up the Media
Network each provide a brief introduction to their facility and its activities, as wellas the role they see it playing in the University’s future.
Akihiro Kubota

Logo Design: Katsuya Kato

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● Tama Art University Library

A Hub Within an Archive Network
Reiji Ando (Director, Tama Art University Library)

Building and developing a media network means fully integrating its various
archives such as to create not a monolithic structure, but instead a web in whichreference materials, artworks, practical creation, research, and education are allinterconnected. In fact, I would argue that it is only via such a free, multidisciplinary network of archives that true 21st century creativity is possible. Achieving
such a feat requires a common philosophy, one arrived at through sustained
dialogue across diﬀerent archives about the exact nature of the network being
built.
The library as an institution is the ideal place for the fostering of such aphilosophy. Modern archaeological ﬁndings show the extent to which, ﬁrst andforemost, mankind has always been an artistic species, having created works ofart since the days of our earliest ancestors. Art contains within it the possibilityof uniting disparate ﬁelds of research and genres of expression under one ﬁgurative roof. Here at the Tama Art University Library, we hope to unleash theinstitution’s potential as one hub within a network of archives and reposition it
as a place that, through dialogue, can produce and foster a philosophy of the artof tomorrow̶a philosophy capable of leading art universities into a new era.

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● Tama Art University Museum, Institute for Art Anthropology

Developing a “Cosmogonic” Methodology
Mayumi Tsuruoka (Director, Tama Art University Museum; Director, Institute for Art Anthropology)

Cosmogony, according to Lithuanian archaeologist Marija Gimbutas (1921–1994),
lies at the root of all of mankind’s imagery. 1
In contrast to Cosmology, which tends to view the universe in terms of anordered hierarchy, Cosmogony instead attempts to understand it through thelens of growth dynamics. It is this latter, arguably more expansive methodologythat is currently being put to provocative use across the various scientiﬁc disciplines.
This cosmogonical way of looking at the world is precisely what’s needed in
the linked practices of collecting, archiving, research, and exhibiting̶activities
which seek to convey mankind’s legacy to present and future generations in theform of image-based literacy (i.e., as image-based recognition and expression).
The Media Network Committee was formed with a view to restructuring
the homo faber collective platform that is the art university so as better tocollate, analyze, interpret, and further develop the fruits of mankind’s creativity.
Within the realm of artistic creativity and production, the crossing of intellectual enquiry with emotional experience results in a hybrid form of art, an everchanging compound that speaks to both body and soul. By awakening to thereality of our present moment, it will become possible once more to create art
intimately connected to our everyday lives, like that at the root of our species.
The 2021 symposium organized by the Art Archives Center served as a showcase of the impressive progress already made in this regard.
What with its Art Archives Center, the University Museum, Institute for Art
Anthropology, Media Center, and more, Tama Art University boasts an educational, research, and exhibiting/dissemination infrastructure of the like unseen
in any other Japanese university, past or present. It is hoped that this will prove
the perfect environment for providing the necessary support and drive to create
ever-generating artworks, ones that combine media and output exponentially in
new and creative ways.

Notes
1

Marija Gimbutas, The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe. (Translated by Mayumi Tsuruoka, Gensousha, 1989,
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● Tama Art University Media Center

A Platform Centered Around Creation
Yasuhito Nagahara (Director, Tama Art University Media Center)

The Media Center was founded in 2001 as a multipurpose facility made up of1) various support centers for lending equipment and technical expertise acrossa wide range of disciplines, including photography, ﬁlmmaking, machine tool
manufacturing, and 3D printing; 2) a Color, Materials, and Trends Exploration Laboratory (CMTEL); and 3) the Center for Network Services (in chargeof overseeing the University’s online network). It might best be described as aworkshop for everything once classiﬁed as artes mechanicae (“mechanical arts”),
albeit today of course also encompassing computer technology and electronic
devices.
The word “media” in the center’s title reﬂects the high hopes held for its
output particularly in the realm of digital media. The center is outﬁtted withthe latest in VR technology and digital fabrication facilities, making it wellequipped to be the ﬁrst to embrace experimental practices, including everythingfrom the cutting-edge ﬁeld of virtual photography to the creation and exhibition of works in the metaverse of the not-so-distant future. To this end, we holdvarious lectures on state-of-the-art technology in collaboration with corporations, as well as providing learning and educational support.
By experimenting with the latest technology and sharing our practicalknowledge, we here at the Media Center are committed above all to contributing
to the strengthening of the University’s Media Network as a platform centeredaround creation.

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● Tama Art University Art Archives Center

A Research Base Fit for an Art University
Akihiro Kubota (Director, Tama Art University Art Archives Center)

Much debate has been had about the signiﬁcance and methodology of researchhere at Tama Art University, and more widely within institutions dedicated tothe creative practices of art and design. Of course, several established modesof research already exist in society, from the scientiﬁc cycle of proposing
and testing a hypothesis, to the delving into the history and signiﬁcance of aparticular topic more common to the humanities. In institutions dedicated toart and design, however̶places for whom “practice” lies at the core of theirethos̶it is important that we don’t simply adopt these previously establishedmethodologies wholesale, but instead create for ourselves alternative styles ofresearch rooted in creation and exhibiting, experimentation and suggestion.
I sometimes like to refer to the Media Network Committee as a “researchbase network”̶in other words, a multidisciplinary platform linking together all
the school’s resources for the purpose of creative research. A point of organic
coalescence between, say, the Art Archives Center’s physical body of researchmaterial, the Museum’s artworks, and the Library’s volumes, supplemented by
the Media Center’s production equipment, the Art-Theque Gallery, and placesof research such as the Graduate School and the Institute for Art Anthropology
̶taken together, they form a platform for contemplation and experimentation,
promoting a style of research rooted in production and education both within
and outside the University. A University-wide database in development since2019, together with a research portal (the database’s main entry point, whose
Beta version went live in March 2022),1 represent the Committee’s ﬁrst tangible
steps toward this goal.
Art, design, education, creation, and research all call for a deeply inquisitive spirit and a critical mind not afraid to question orthodoxies. Here at the
Art Archives Center, we are committed to further developing and realizing theMedia Network Committee’s potential as a network for fostering just such qualities.

Notes
1

https://mn.tamabi.ac.jp (Last accessed July 15, 2022)

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Introducing the Tama Art University
Art Archives Center (AAC)

Overview of the Art Archives Center
The Art Archives Center was established in April 2018 as a research and education hub to oversee the storage and management of the art materials that the
University has collected over the years.
The AAC holds a wide range of materials including manuscripts, photographs, drawings, sketches, watercolors, artworks, posters, books and magazines, dyed and woven materials, models, and musical instruments. The oﬃce of
the AAC, located on the fourth floor of the Art-Theque at the University,
comprises seven rooms for storing archival materials, large and small depositories, as well as administration and research spaces. The galleries on the ﬁrst andsecond ﬂoors of the Art-Theque are available for displays of research outcomes
and creative works related to each archive.
By engaging with the cycle of artistic creation and documentation,
including the management and storage of collected materials, research, publicdissemination, and new creative activities, the AAC aims to be a platform that
supports not only our students’ learning, but also artistic research inside andoutside the University.

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Tama ArtJournal
University̶
Art KISEKI
Archives English
Center edition

no. 1, November 2022

Summary
1 Archive Construction and Availability
The AAC is building archives for the materials held at the University, which
it will endeavor to make widely available online and through viewing
services once complete. The AAC also supports students, educators, andresearchers inside and outside Tama Art University.

2 Presentation and Exchange of Research Outcomes
Research outcomes are presented at the Art-Theque and other galleries at
the University. The AAC also promotes archival research through presentations and exchanges among experts and symposiums, and shares information through the Kiseki art archival journal (established in 2019) and the AAC
website (https://aac.tamabi.ac.jp).
By building and providing access to the archives and presenting theoutcomes of research, the AAC aims to generate interaction between creation and research through the materials held in the archive.

Viewing the Materials
The Art Archives Center is currently in the process of organizing the body ofmaterials in the collection. The materials managed by the AAC are available tothe following users:(1) Tama Art University faculty members (2) Tama Art University graduate students (3)Tama Art University undergraduates (requires recommendation from a faculty member at
the University) (4) Faculty members at other universities (5) Museum staff (6)Researchers who collaborate with full-time faculty members at Tama Art University (7)Other users with proper referrals
Inquiries:
For information about viewing the materials, please email us at aac@tamabi.ac.jp.
Prior application is required to view materials.
Available viewing dates and times:
1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays- Except mid-August, New Year holidays, and February.
- One viewing lasts no longer than two hours.
Reception hours:
Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Location of the AAC:
Art-Theque 4F, Tama Art University Hachioji Campus

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Guide to the Materials at the Art Archives CenterNow open to the public
Katue Kitasono Library:Primarily books and photography works from the personal collection of Katue Kitasono(1902–1978), a well-known Modernist poet of the prewar era.

Shuzo Takiguchi Library:Primarily materials from the former collection of Shuzo Takiguchi (1903–1979), a well-known
poet and art critic.

Upon consultation
Matazo Kayama Archive:
Rough designs, large drawings, sketches, patterns, tools, and woodblock plates of Matazo
Kayama (1927–2004), a former professor of Japanese Painting at Tama Art University (TAU).

Masaru Katzumie Archive:
Primary and secondary materials of Masaru Katzumie (1909–1983), a leading light in theworld of Japanese design.

Seiko Mikami Archive:
Works and materials, video recordings, and books belonging to Seiko Mikami (1961–2015), aformer professor of Art and Media in TAU’ s Department of Information Design.

Monyo Archive:
The archive uses sophisticated media to continue the work of the Monyo Design Institute.

Miyoko Ono Archive:
Works and materials by TAU Department of Design graduate Miyoko Ono (1939–2016), a
designer of spaces known for her bridge designs.

Takeo Poster Collection:
Twentieth century posters entrusted to Tama Art University in 1997 by Takeo Co., Ltd. forpurposes of joint research.

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Preparing for public release
Makoto Wada Archive:
An extensive collection of original drawings, master designs, design output, and primarymaterials tracing the broad-ranging activities of Makoto Wada (1936–2019), a graduate of
TAU’ s Department of Design.

DNP Poster Archive:
1,800 posters by Kazumasa Nagai (1929–) , Ikko Tanaka (1930–2002), and Shigeo Fukuda(1932–2009). Donated by the DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion.

Kuniharu Akiyama Library:
The personal papers of the music critic, music producer, poet, and composer Kuniharu
Akiyama (1929–1996), a former professor in TAU’ s Department of General Education.

Shigeo Anzai Photo Archive:
The photographic materials of photographer Shigeo Anzai (1939–2020), who documented
the contemporary art scene from 1970.

Mono-ha Archive:
Currently consists mainly of works and materials by Nobuo Sekine (1942–2019), Shigeo
Anzai (1939–2020), and Ko Nakajima (1941–), with plans to expand to other related artists inthe future.

Makoto Saito Poster Archive:
A selection of 184 poster works by Makoto Saito (1952–), chosen by the artist himself: 137 inJapanese B0 format and 47 in B1 or smaller.

Koichi Sato Archive:
The works and materials of Koichi Sato (1944–2016), who taught in the University’ s Graduate School and Department of Graphic Design.

Misao Yokoyama Archive:
Works and materials of Misao Yokoyama (1920–1973), a leading painter in postwar Japanand former professor of Japanese Painting at TAU.
─ As of November 2022

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Contributor Profiles (listed in alphabetical order of last name)

Reiji ANDO

Koichi EBIZUKA

is Director of the University Library, a professor in the
Department of Art Studies, and a research member of
the Institute for Art Anthropology. He is also an art
critic whose recent works include Minakata Kumagusu –Life and Spirituality (Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2020),
Labyrinth and the Universe (Hatori Shoten, 2019),
Archipelago Festival Theory (Sakuhinsha, 2019), andDaisetsu (Kodansha, 2018).

is a professor emeritus at the University, where he served
as a professor in the Department of Art Studies until
2021. In his work as an artist, he combines materials
such as stone, wood, iron, and water to create sculpturesthat expand into and permeate space. Major recent solo
ex h i b i t i o n s i n c l u d e Scenery Born of Emptiness– Open/Visible (Tama Art University Museum, 2021–2022). In 1991 he was awarded the Denchu Hirakushi
Award. His work is held in the National Museum ofModern Art, Tokyo, among other places.

●●

Yuko FUKATSU

Kyoko KINOSHITA

is a professor in the Center for Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Her major research interests include costume and textile
history, through which she explores wider questions
related to fashion, art, and society. She is actively engagedin efforts to transform traditional textile practices into
sustainable methods of textile design, working extensively
with local communities.

is a professor in the Center for Liberal Arts and Sciences,
and a curator of East Asian art at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art. Her research interests include thedissemination of Japanese art abroad and Japan-US
cultural exchange, with a particular focus on earlymodern painting. From 2018 to 2020 she served as headof the University’ s Misao Yokoyama Research Project,which investigated artworks and other materials related
to Yokoyama and his curriculum during his timeteaching on the University’ s Japanese Painting Course.

●●

Toshimi KOIZUMI

Akihiro KUBOTA

is Head of the Faculty of Art and Design and aprofessor of Oil Painting in the Department of Painting.
He is also active as a sculptor. His current research
considers the artists of the Mono-ha group, examining
them mainly through the photographic records ofphotographer and art documentarian Shigeo Anzai. Hissolo exhibitions include Polaris (2016), Farther (2015),
and Atlas (2011). In 2011 he was the recipient of the
37 th Teijiro Nakahara Prize.

served as Director of the Art Archives Center until
March 2021. He is currently Director of the International
Exchange Center, a professor of Art and Media in the
Department of Information Design, and Chief Professorof the Experimental Workshop (EWS). In 2015, he wasawarded the 66 th Minister of Education Award for Fine
Arts (Media Arts Division) for his work on the ARTSAT
Project. His recent publications include Design for
Otherness (BNN, Inc., 2017).

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Yuri MITSUDA

Yasuhito NAGAHARA

is Director of the Art Archives Center (having taken up
the post in April 2022) and a professor in the University’s
Graduate School of Art and Design. She specializes in
the history of modern and contemporary art andphotography, and has worked as a curator on numerous
exhibitions of postwar art. Recent edited publications
include An Anthology of Japanese Art Criticism: 1955–
1964 (Geika Shoin, 2021) and For a New World to Come:
Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography 1968–1979(Yale University Press, 2015).

served as Director of the Media Center until March
2021 and is a professor of Interaction Design in the
Department of Information Design. As an art director
he oversees digital media and exhibition projects, while
also being an active practitioner of multimedia design.
He has published The Stream of Information Graphics(Seibundo Shinkosha, 2016), among other works.

●●

Ichiro SAGA

Yohei TAKAHASHI

is an associate professor in the Department of Graphic
Design. His research mainly focuses on the history andapplication of typography. He has co-authored A
Cultural History of Letterpress Printing (Bensei
Shuppan, 2009) and recently oversaw the publication ofConstructive Posters of the 20 th Century (Nihon Keizai
Shimbun-sha, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum,2021).

is an associate professor in the Department of Graphic
Design. He received his PhD from Tama Art University
in 2019. Major awards received include the GoldenBook Prize (Japan Book Design Award 2016, Paperback
Jacket Section), the Golden Bee Award at the 12 th
Moscow Global Biennale of Graphic Design (2016,
Russia), and a gold award in the Graphis Poster Annual
2021 (United States).

●●

Mayumi TSURUOKA

Sachiko YUZAWA

is Director of both the University Museum and theInstitute for Art Anthropology. She specializes in thehistory of Celtic art and culture and Eurasianornamental design. Her publications include Quest for
the Celtic Imagination (Seidosha, 2018), The Celtic Idea
of Revival (Chikuma Shinsho, 2017), The Soul of
Ornamentation (Heibonsha, 1997), and Ornamental
Ideas in Celtic Art (Chikuma Shobo, 1989). She is also
the editor of Lectures on Art Anthropology (Chikuma
Shobo, 2020), among other publications.

is a professor in the Department of Architecture andEnvironmental Design and also an interior architect. In
her research, she creates multi-disciplinary works which
examine the ideal relationship between people, objects,
and space. Of late, she has been investigating the creative
potential inherent in Miyoko Ono’ s bridge designs.

KISEKI, English edition, no. 1

Art Archives Center Management Committee(2021)

Editor-in-Chief
Art Direction
Editors

November 2022

Akira Tatehata

President of Tama Art University

Akihiro Kubota

Director, Art Archives Center; Professor of Art and Media,
Department of Information Design

Reiji Ando

Professor, Department of Art Studies

Toshimi Koizumi

Head, Faculty of Art and Design; Professor of Oil Painting,
Department of Painting

Ichiro Saga

Associate Professor, Department of Graphic Design

Yuko Fukatsu

Professor, Center for Liberal Arts and Sciences

Yuri Mitsuda

Professor, Graduate School of Art and Design

Kenichi Yoneyama

General Manager, Art Archives Center

Akihiro Kubota
Ichiro Saga
Art Archives Center Office
Hiroko Nakano

Assistant Editors

Ayako Hirase
James YorkTranslation

Adam Sutherland
Hirokazu Mori

waonica

Coordinator

Yutaka Kounosu

DAIGAKU TSUSHIN CO., LTD.

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