Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2019


The Pericles of Tokushima:

the Heisei Castle Boom and the Long Trajectory of Castles in Modern Japan


Ran Zwigenberg


Wednesday, 6/26, 6:00-7:30PM

Room 10-301, 3F, Building 10, Sophia University


In March 2017 the Nagoya City assembly approved the budget for a $451 million plan to demolish the Nagoya Castle current concrete keep (tenshu) and rebuild it in wood by 2022. Nagoya is the last and largest planned wooden tenshu reconstruction of the Heisei era castle boom, which saw dozens of wooden reconstructions across Japan. In 1989 alone the Asahi shinbun reported 31 new castle schemes, most of which have been realized. The Heisei castle boom is the third wave of castle construction and preservation of the modern era, following two Showa era "booms," before and after 1945. The Heisei boom differs in its emphasis on "authenticity," the use of wood and traditional craftsmanship. Before 1989, all but 12 of Japan's tenshu were concrete reconstructions. Showa era castle architects emphasized architectural form over materials and were proud of using modern building methods, in Heisei authenticity of materials and methods were the prime focus. Nagoya Castle's journey from concrete to wood demonstrates the rapid transformation of notions of authenticity and built heritage in the last half century. This talk examines this transformation through a focus on the Heisei era castle boom and the long trajectory of preservation and heritage activism in modern Japan. It examines the ways in which Japanese architects, activists and scholars engaged with and debated over the meaning of castles, heritage and authenticity from Showa to Heisei and into the Reiwa era.


Ran Zwigenberg is assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on modern Japanese and European history, with a specialization in memory and intellectual history. He has taught and lectured in the United States, Europe, Israel, and Japan, and published on issues of war memory, heritage, psychiatry, and survivor politics. Zwigenberg's first book, Hiroshima: The Origins of Global Memory Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2014), won the the 2016 Association for Asian Studies' John W. Hall book award. This talk build upon his new co-authored book Japan's Castles: Citadels of Modernity in War and Peace (Cambridge University Press, 2019). For more information on this and other projects, please see https://pennstate.academia.edu/RanZwigenberg


Language: English / No Prior registration necessary / This lecture is organized by Professor Noriko Murai (FLA) for ICC Research Unit "Heisei Becomes History."

http://icc.fla.sophia.ac.jp/html/events/2019-2020/190626_Zwigenberg.pdf


Institute of Comparative Culture (ICC) Sophia University: 7-1 Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8554, JAPAN/ Web: http://icc.fla.sophia.ac.jp/