Builder Takes Aim at World’s Obsolete Cities!

Japan’s Amazing Mori Building Company
Changes Conception and Creation of Cities

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Basically, the world’s cities have not changed in some 5,000 years.
That stuck-in-the-past mode is now being challenged!

ROPPONGI HILLS—It is astounding to note that within the last half a century some of the world’s most extraordinary accomplishments in the managing, designing, manufacturing and marketing of leading-edge products have come from a country that just 60 years ago was primarily viewed as a feudalistic society based on an ancient warrior mentality.

That country is, of course, Japan—a tiny island nation that kept itself isolated from the rest of the world during the Industrial Revolution, and then, following its defeat in World War II transformed itself into the world’s second largest economy in less than 30 years.

Beginning in the 1970s hordes of American and European businesspeople began making the long trip to Japan to find out why and how such a small and previously insignificant country could become such an economic powerhouse in such a short time.

What the world generally had not understood about Japan before—and still does not fully appreciate—is that for more than a thousand years prior to the modern era the level of intellectual activity in Japan was very high and the ability of the Japanese to quickly understand and master technology was unsurpassed.

Another element in the character of the Japanese that has traditionally been underestimated is their courage in discarding old traditions and charting new courses—a level of courage that generally does not exist in the United States and European countries.
Once politically and culturally free to exercise this courage, large numbers of Japanese quickly began to distinguish themselves as avant-garde thinkers and entrepreneurs.

One of the most outstanding present-day examples in this group is Minoru Mori, President and CEO of Mori Building. Since the early 1980s Mori and his company have been pursuing the goal of recreating cities that are both user and environmentally friendly, using the most advanced technology that now exists.

Roppongi Hills, the business, dining, residential and shopping complex on a rise overlooking downtown Tokyo that I referred to in an earlier column, is now the centerpiece of the Mori concept of what cities should be like.

There are three basic parts to the Mori mission: total safety and security; the integration of the city environment and nature; and the integration of art and culture into the complex. These three parts incorporate six themes: the combination of urban facilities and nature; the merging of tradition and innovation; the mixing of business and culture; the convergence of universality and uniqueness; the merging of the local and the international; and the fusion of stimulation and tranquility.

The integration of the latest technology throughout the Roppongi Hills complex is a marvel of efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The convenience and ambiance of its facilities has to be experienced to be fully appreciated. The variety of its artistic, cultural and health-related activities is equal to what one expects in a large modern city.

Mori Building, with the advice and help of some of the world’s leading architects and designers and such luminaries as Yoshio Karita, formerly director of protocol for the Imperial Household, is now engaged in a long-range plan to not only recreate Japan’s cities but to spread the concept around the world.

Internationally, the most spectacular of Mori’s overseas projects to date is the towering Shanghai World Financial Center, which became a symbol of the new China before it was completed. The 101-story tower, which rises from a garden setting, includes offices, conference facilities, restaurants, shops, a five-star hotel and the world’s highest observation platform.

Mori Building is now working with other wards in Tokyo and with other cities in Japan to replace large areas of traditional buildings and streets with multi-use complexes similar to Roppongi Hills—a program that will continue for decades if not generations, until all of the main cities have been transformed.

The Mori urban redevelopment vision is encapsulated in the word “hills,” chosen because of the deep meaning the term has for people—and now represented in Tokyo by Ark Hills (the first project), Roppongi Hills (completed in 2003), Omotesando Hills, Atago Green Hills, Holland Hills, and Moto-Azabu Hills.

Each of these projects follows through with the “hills” image by incorporating slopes and hills in the design so that it represents a microcosm of nature—very much like Japan’s traditional landscaped gardens.

In the past, Westerners trooped to Japan to discover the secrets of its economic power. Now I suggest that city leaders and planners from around the world make the trip to Tokyo to learn how they should be rebuilding their cities.
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Copyright © by Boyé Lafayette De Mente
To see a catalog of 30-plus books on Japan by the author, go to his personal website: www.phoenixbookspublishers.com.

The Japanese Way of Pleasuring in the Brevity of Life!

How Communing with the Fragility of Life Can Sharpen

Your Sensual, Intellectual & Spiritual Enjoyment!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

One of the special elements of Japanese culture is the tradition of creating both environments and occasions for communing with the fragility of life—an element that adds enormously to the recognition of this fragility and makes people more inclined to enjoy the years they have.

One of the most memorable afternoons I have spent in Japan was in a traditional ryokan (rio-kahn), inn, situated on the slope of a gorge on picturesque Izu Peninsula southwest of Tokyo. It was a Sunday afternoon. I was alone, and it was raining—not a heavy rain but a light, steady rain that was close to being a mist. I was sitting on the balcony of my room, looking out over the gorge, waiting for a friend to arrive.

As I sat there I began to experience what the Japanese call mono no aware (moe-no no ah-wah-ray)—a Buddhist concept that includes being very conscious of the ephemeral nature of man, his struggle in the face of great odds and the inevitability of his downfall and disappearance.

This aspect of Japan’s culture, developed between 700 and 1200 A.D. was based on the acute recognition of the impermanence of all things—an element that was enhanced by the code of the samurai which required them to be ready to give up their lives at a moment’s notice—resulting in their lives being compared to cherry blossoms...beautiful but fragile to the extreme and subject to being wafted away by the slightest breeze.

This culture of impermanence was especially reflected in the haiku and tanka poetry of the era, as well as in the such great literary works as Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji), a novel about the intrigues and loves of an imperial prince (usually regarded as the world’s first novel) written in the early 11th century by Murasaki Shikibu, a lady in the Imperial Court in Kyoto; and Heike Monogatari (The Tale of the Heike), compiled by a blind monk named Kakuichi in 1371.

The opening lines of Heike Monogatari, which depicts an epic struggle between the Taira and Minamoto clans for the control of Japan in the 12th century, say more about the human condition than many philosophical tomes:

“The sound of the Gion Shôja [temple] bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sâla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last; they are as dust before the wind.”

The culture of Japan reflected this theme in many ways, resulting in the Japanese developing an extensive vocabulary that expressed this inherent sadness of life.

While mono no aware means something like “indulging one’s self in grief,” neither this phrase nor any of the other key words were actually used in sad situations. Instead they referred to a gentle melancholy view of the fragility and preciousness of life that included an element of subdued pleasure.

The annual custom of celebrating the short life of cherry blossoms is the largest of Japan’s the mono no aware rituals. It reminds them to take the time and find ways enjoy life while you can because it will soon be gone.

My spending a quiet afternoon entranced by the natural beauty of the setting as it was being cleansed and renewed by rain was another of the mono no aware practices that are dear to the hearts of the Japanese. Still another way is to engage in “forest bathing”—spending time in an isolated forest, letting the sights, sounds and vibrations of the trees wash over you.

There is also an element of mono no aware in most of Japan’s classic art and craft designs, from kitchen utensils to the kimono wore by older men and women. The famous Tea Ceremony is a pure mono no aware ritual.

Knowledge of this cultural element makes it possible for one to appreciate more fully the distinctive essence of things Japanese—the elements that make them Japanese.

This factor is one of the unspoken and generally un-described things that makes the traditional aspects of life in Japan so sensually, intellectually, and spiritually attractive to everyone, including foreigners who are sensitive to the realities of life, including its brevity.
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente
For a detailed and definitive discourse on aspects of Japanese culture see the author’s book, ELEMENTS OF JAPANESE DESIGN—Understanding & Using Japan’s Classic Wabi-Sabi-Shibui Concepts; The Japanese Have a Word for It!; JAPAN UNMASKED—The Character & Culture of the Japanese; and SEX & THE JAPANESE—The Sensual Side of Japan. To see a full list of his books on Japan, China and Korea, see his personal website at: www.phoenixbookspublishers.com, and/or Amazon.com and other online booksellers.