“Poem II”

Now I am sailing on this rocking chair

back

back

to where tomorrow

washes the pavilions of today

─Derek Jarman

Tokyo Kasumigaoka Apartment

Kasumigaoka Apartment was built in the year of Tokyo Olympics in 1964,
and now demolishment is in progress for the upcoming olympics supposed to be held in Tokyo 2020.
I won't forget when I saw it first time, from the car pane of bus to Harajuku,
it was probably 3-4 years ago. It caught my eyes since those clusters of housing complex 
which had been already dilapidated back time, were oddly prominent in those sophisticated, urban area of Sendagaya. Afterwards, I went back to the place by myself, and saw the sign of "Gaien Market", 
and stepped in the small arcade. I was startled by the voice of the old woman tending the store 
since I never expected it was still open for business. 
No one would believe it truly was the scenery of 21st century. 
There, everything was just completely still, practically and metaphorically. 
And I'd forgotten about it, and a few years had passed.
One day, I found this small article on the internet saying that 
the apartments were scheduled to be torn down within the year of 2015. 
It was already latter half of December, so I rushed to the place again, after several years. 
Nothing had been really changed, it remained still, almost unnaturally, from what I saw last time. 
The only thing noticing its demolishment was the hand-written small paper on the wall 
saying that the store is scheduled to be closed up within the year, and a few words of appreciation for the customers. 
Again, I looked around the arcade, and found some pieces of legacy of the passed time, 
like the cardboard box of videotapes of "the Pacific War - the story from generation to generation", 
or the calendar of the Imperial family, which I remembered 
it was also on the wall of my deceased grandfather's house in my childhood, 
and a few small photo-frames, one of which was taken when this famous Japanese actress 
visited the market for the TV show,  she was smiling with the pair of storekeepers inside the picture. 
It was almost terrifying how everything was just simply outdated. 
I could imagine that the market would have seen all the metastasis of Japan, 
from the rapid economic growth continued to 1980s and also to the downfall later on. 
To say the least, it was abandoned and devastated. 
It was way far from the scenery of the future we had dreamed back in 1960s. 
Now, it is getting to be erased, the land would be soon clear and flat for the upcoming olympics,
as if these housings did not even exist from first, those are simply too fearful for us to face and look at.
Now it's May and I wonder where all those had gone, all those scenes and memories 
of 60 years, buried like the anonymous village silently sank deep in the the dam.
  

Kenzo Tange Architectural visit to Takamatsu

lights and shades

   It's just so quiet back home.