film stills

Madison

Little Tokyo Architecture

Buddhist temple in Little Tokyo
garden is decorated with traditional trees and statues
Building is built mainly in designs of Japanese traditional architectures


This tall and red watch tower symbolizes the Little Tokyo


Another symbol of Little Tokyo: inspired from the Torii Gate



Japanese stores mixed designed with both modern and traditional Japanese architectures

By Yooha Jo

Tittle Tokyo Store fronts: storyboards

As an exploration into Little Tokyo I first peered into Japanese culture by looking at some of the various ways in which they create and bind books. While this greatly intrigued me it did not lend much insight into Little Tokyo. Instead, my research led me to transfer my interest from bookbinding to bookstores, ending on shop fronts in general. With this focus I intend to look at one shop front present time, move backwards to the 1940’s and show what it looked like just before all the Japanese were sent to internment camps. From here I want to move across seas to compare what the shops in Little Tokyo to ones in Japan. I will then return back to Los Angeles to after the war, looking at a shop in Little Tokyo when the Japanese were moving back in. In order to connect back with the starting point, I will bring the research back to present time, showing the same shop to illustrate how it has changed over time. The final product will consist of five modeled shop fronts, two present time, those same two again in the 1940’s and 50’s respectfully, and one from Japan in the 1940’s. These will then be compiled as illustrations in a book bound in a Japanese style.

As reference I will be using a variety of photographs showing the shop fronts in various time periods. One of the first differences I noticed about the shops before the war and those in Japan are the innumerable amount of signs, banners and lanterns that decorate and cover the fronts of stores. While after the war, before the Japanese have really reclaimed Little Tokyo, the fronts of buildings are empty, allowing minimal signage, permitting the architecture of the buildings to offer the decorative aspects.

In the essay Dismantling the East-West Dichotomy: Against 'Hybridity' I found it interesting how rice was used to create a culture separate from China, and how it continued to separate Japan from the "other" even after changes of government and the bombardment of western products and ideals. The self as rice sustained to divide the Japanese from the "others" or the "meat", as in meat eaters being the rest of the western world. But it isn't that they are separate, they have taken parts of western culture and government and have assimilated them into their own version of self, while still maintaining traditions and ideal from ages ago. I also found it interesting how by introducing rice and myth-histories about rice to support the emperor, the Emperor himself was able to create a rice culture bonding all the people together. He then furthered his sense of reign and power by taking a religion and using it to further authorize his power over the people. It is interesting how the people accept him as a god and emperor, bowing to his authority and rule all based on the introduction of rice agriculture. The first Emperor's efforts were truly successful for the tradition of rice to last centuries, remaining prevalent even today, though in more of a symbolic way.

Christine Snelling

Learn Japanese in Little Tokyo By Michelle Nunez

Inspired by the show at the Japanese American museum in Little Tokyo and the children's phonetic television show the "Electric Company", my project consists of Japanese kokeshi dolls that teach the viewer Japanese vocabulary in the setting of Little Tokyo. Here are some examples of elements in my project.

 

 

 

                                                    

    In order to produce a piece of work that both addresses my major of motion graphics along with Incorporating Little Tokyo, I have elected to make a mock children's program to teach Japanese vocabulary in the setting of little Tokyo. My inspiration for the program comes from a literacy children's show called The Electric Company. In the show, they have fun graphics set to hip hop beats, and they sound out words that are displayed on the screen so a child can read along. I find this program enjoyable, and the combination of graphics and the ideas to promote literacy in a fun interactive manner to be a harmonious one. So I intend to have situations that may come up while traversing little Tokyo lead into learning a little about the culture and the language. The characters teaching the viewer the words are dolls inspired by the Japanese wooden figures called kokeshi. They will interact with each other about for example food, like mochi! Energetic , Fun, Informative is what the end result should be.

Coming up next….Storyboards, stay tuned!

Japanese Architecture

Korean American architect David Hyun developed Japanese Village Plaza in 1984 as the centerpiece of the civic crusade to breathe new life into the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Today it is securely at the heart of Little Tokyo, nestled among attractions like the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (JACCC), Japanese American National Museum (JANM), New Otani Hotel, Weller Court and Little Tokyo Square (formerly Yaohan Plaza). Unlike newer Chinese, Corean (Korean) and Vietnamese malls that draw Asian families for weekly shopping and dining excursions, the Plaza attracts visitors in search of rest and refreshment while enjoying the neighborhood's cultural experiences.

Japanese Village Plaza includes a culture center, dozens of Japanese shops, bookstores and restaurants. The Plaza is typically quiet except for lunch and dinner hours and when they are hosting Nisei Week festivities.

One of the most striking structures in Little Tokyo is across the street from the Japanese American National Museum at one entrance to Japanese Village Plaza shopping center. Th Yagura Tower—a replica of a fire lookout tower in old rural Japan—withstood requested destruction by returning Japanese Americans after WWII because it reminded them of the guard towers at the concentration camps.

Japanese archtecture influence

I. Geographical.Japan, with its principal island, Nippon, and the long string of attendant isles to north and south, lies off the east coast of China, with the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Sea of Japan on the west. Japan presents many points of geographical resemblance to Great Britain : both have deeply indented coast-lines with good harbours ; both are island empires well situated for commerce, as they both lie opposite populous continents ; both are at the head of great ocean water-ways, the one of the Pacific, the other of the Atlantic, and both are warmed by ocean currents producing equable temperatures.
II. Geological. the prevalence of earthquakes has favoured timber construction, and the Japanese exhibit scientific ingenuity in the framing together of the various parts. Forests occupy four times the area of the tilled land, with a greater diversity of trees than any other country in the world, and bamboo is largely used in house construction. Stone in Japan is unstratified, hence it is frequently used in polygonal blocks, particularly for the lower part of walls on which is erected the upper timber construction. There are granites, porphyries, and volcanic rocks, but practically no limestones or sandstones.
III. Climatic.the island climate is made equable by ocean currents and by the prevalence of sea breezes. Houses, where possible, face the south, and deeply projecting eaves form a protection against the summer sun, and high courtyard walls against the winter wind. In summer the movable casement windows and partitions, which form the house fronts and offer little resistance to the penetration of heat, are removed, and so leave the houses entirely open to the breezes.

I will conducting video interviews with 1st generation Japanese about their views on tattooed people in Japan and in LA. I will also be interviewing 2nd generation Japanese and younger kids around the area of Little Tokyo on their views of tattooed culture now.

Tattoos in LA culture

Tattoos in LA have totally different meaning compared to Japan. There's even a movie made about the yakuza in Little Tokyo.

signs banning tattooed customers

tattooed bodies can be bad for business, so private pools, water parks, and places where shirts come off and shorts are worn either ban tattooed people from entry, or require them to stay covered-up.

Some public places like bathhouses in Japan carry signs that prohibits anyone with tattoos from entering.

No gangs are more known for their tattoos than the yakuza ( japanese gangster ). In a society that has such strict social codes as the japanese, tattoos are of even greater significance. They forever mark you as an outcast.

Yakuza culture has become less apparent today. Tattoos have started to become common among all social classes, but they still carry a stigma, particularly among the older generation.

tattoo and yakuza in japan

In Japan, there is a long history of tattoo culture and the first noted tattoos on human was around 297 AD. It started off as decoration among men young and old but the Chinese always looked down upon it as a barbaric act and the Japanese soon acquired this mindset as well. Then in the 17th Century, tattoos in Japan started being used to mark and identify criminals and outcasts.

Throughout Japanese history, tattoos have been legalized and illegalized many times due to the relationships between the markings of yakuza members.

Till this day, tattoos are still looked down upon.

There are only a few festival which the yakuza make their participation obvious by riding on the mikoshi ( portable shrines ) bare-chested, displaying their elaborate tattoos.

Storyboard for tattoo culture

Artist: Takashi Murakami

One of the most famous Japanese artist. Murakmi's work ranges from cartoon paintings to quasi-minimalist sculptures to giant inflatable balloons to performance events to factory-produced watches, T-shirts, and other products. Also, he works in both fine arts media, such as painting, as well as digital and commercial media.



MURAKAMI exhibition at MOCA, 2008






Designed for Louis Vuitton

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Original 2 story structural historic building, made of post and beam construction. Fig 2 is known as a hipped-gabled roof.


The dimensions of the buildings changed, going from small at the top to larger at the bottom.
Also the number 5 is symbolic in Japanese culture, so many buildings were being built to be 5 stories high.

Styles changed from big and elegant to simple and sturdy, allowing for easy building.

Modern day Japan. Change in technology greatly affected the architecture. After World War II a lot of japan had to be rebuilt, but the new Japan looked much different than old Japan.

Little Tokyo today.

Kazuyo Sejima

Japanese architect. In 1995 she founded the Tokyo based firm SANAA (Sejima and Nishizawa & Associates. Her projects are all around the world, in places like Germany, Japan, and New York.

The New Museum of Contemporary Art, December 1, 2007. There are many changes from traditional Japanese Architecture to Modern Japanese Architecture.

Western building techniques, materials, and styles were brought to the cities of Japan. Materials such as steel and concrete were much different than the natural materials such as straw and wood, and are also far less flammable and destructible. The styles went from big, rectangular prisms to long and tall skyscrapers.

Nathalie Aguirre