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Tradition in Metabolism: The Varied Approaches of Kenzo Tange and Kisho Kurokawa in Their Utilization of Tradition in Architecture

Part 2 Dissertation 2014
Terence Tang
 National University of Singapore | Singapore
The utopian megastructural visions of the avant-garde Metabolists initially appear to suggest a new urbanism primarily driven by the employment of futuristic technology. However, a closer reading of the movement reveals itself as a critical response against functionalist modernism and an attempt to assimilate Japanese tradition into modern architecture. Does therein not lie a seeming contradiction, for do we not associate technology with the present, while tradition, the past?

In The Invention of Tradition, Eric Hobsbawm challenges our common perception of tradition by suggesting that traditions are but deliberate constructs of modernity. Certainly, Japanese modernists in postwar Japan were observed to approach the use of tradition with an enthused, opportunistic attitude; why and how did they utilize tradition in the creation of modern Japanese architecture?

A critical study of Kenzo Tange and Kisho Kurokawa, two figures central to Metabolism, reveals that both architects adopted distinctively different approaches in their utilization of tradition; while Tange is observed to adopt an occasionally formalistic – and arguably, predictable – approach, Kurokawa’s is characterized by the use of abstract philosophical references, littered with neologisms.

The investigation will culminate in a comparison between their respective Metabolist proposals for the city: Tange’s Plan for Tokyo (1960) and Kurokawa’s Floating City (1961). Elucidating the differences between the two schemes, this paper will analyze and critique how Tange’s and Kurokawa’s varied approaches towards the use of tradition have resulted in two markedly different visions for the future cit
Terence Tang
Tutor(s)
Tsuto Sakamoto
2014
Kenzo Tange’s Plan for Tokyo (left) and Kisho Kurokawa’s Nagakin Capsule Tower (right), representative works for the Metabolists’ megastructural visions for the future city and for architecture.
Kunio Maekawa’s competition entry for the Japan-Thailand Cultural Centre (left) and Tange’s competition entry for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere Memorial Hall (right), early works which illustrated how Japanese architects sought to incorporate
Tange would continue to use traditional elements in his modernist designs, such as in his Tokyo Metropolitan Government Headquarters (left) and Kagawa Prefecture Office (right), which utilizes a traditional post-and-beam structure albeit realized in a mod
However, it emerges that Tange’s methods of representation are repetitive and almost predictable in their use of contrasting, dualistic elements. For example, Tange refers to Yoshio Watanabe’s photograph of the Ise Shrine complex (left), in which the refi
Similarly, this is also illustrated through the observation of an unmistakable similarity between the following two photographs. The first is a photograph by Yasuhiro Ishimoto taken within the Katsura Palace (left), unorthodox in its composition with a la
Nevertheless, in his various schemes, Tange retains a sensibility and groundedness in his architecture. In particular, Tange exhibits a predilection for urban planning, which he again relates to tradition: “It is urban planning that affords a context[…] T
In Kisho Kurokawa’s works, the link to tradition is largely abstract and metaphorical; Kurokawa argues that the philosophy of impermanence and continuity can be derived from wood-based culture of Japan, and it is based on this philosophy that his Metabol
Kurokawa’s Metabolist works are observed to place an emphasis on conveying futuristic imagery. Metabolist elements such as structure, joint, core and capsule are deliberately exaggerated and pronounced in accordance to a futuristic aesthetic , as can be s
A table summarizing Tange and Kurokawa’s varied approaches in utilizing tradition in their designs.
Perhaps, the differences in Tange’s and Kurokawa’s approaches in relating Japanese tradition to their modernist designs is best summarized in their two very differing schemes for the city of Tokyo which have become iconic of the Metabolist movement. Tange
A table summarizing the differences between Tange’s Plan for Tokyo and Kurokawa’s Floating City.
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