In 2018, I went to the Yatsugatake Kogen Music Hall to listen to a concert by Taeko Onuki. Perhaps it was the light rain that day, or perhaps it was the high altitude, but it felt chilly for the start of summer. The building, a combination of concrete and wood, is linear yet blends into the surrounding terrain.
Upon entering the music hall, which was built with the advice of musician Toru Takemitsu, one is greeted with the impression of a church. Large windows for natural light are placed on the ceiling and at view height, giving the hall a homely, intimate feel.
Churches and residences must have always been important projects for Junzo Yoshimura, the architect who also designed the Yatsugatake Kogen Music Hall. With this in mind, I sat down in a folding chair designed to fit perfectly side-by-side. The leather seat supported me as if sinking into it. Surprised by how comfortable it was, I commented to my wife, who was with me, "It seems Junzo Yoshimura didn't skimp on furniture either."
As I was caressing the chair, the man sitting next to me called out, "I made that chair." Unable to respond properly, I listened and learned that it was Yoshimasa Maruya, who was responsible for the chair's production at the time, along with architect Yoshifumi Nakamura, who continued to be in charge of furniture at the firm even after he left Junzo Yoshimura Design Office. Maruya runs a small furniture workshop, and apparently once made a chair for Yoshimura at Nakamura's request. It was through this connection that he joined the "foldable chair" team.
It took three years from the conception to the delivery of 300 chairs to the Yatsugatake Kogen Music Hall. On that day, roughly 30 years later, Maruya will sit in the chairs he made himself as an audience member for the first time and watch a concert. Just as I was imagining what thoughts were running through his mind, Onuki Taeko appeared and the concert began. As the sun set, the wind and rain intensified due to an approaching typhoon, but the sound of the wind hitting the chairs also seemed to be part of the music.
Rereading the paperback edition of At the Foot of the Volcano by Hitoshi Matsuie, the above memories seemed to come back to me. The story follows the protagonist, who has just been hired by the office of leading Japanese architect Shunsuke Murai, as he gradually receives more work and develops relationships with others. The "summer house" where the entire office moves to for the summer and lives communally is located in an area called Aoguri Village, which is likely modeled after the Hosei University Village in Kitakaruizawa.
Novels based on facts limit the imagination at some point, but in "At the Foot of the Volcano," the imagination turns inward. Textures, temperatures, and the interwoven textures of people are cultivated. It is a rare novel filled with architectural richness, and in the "Afterword to the Paperback Edition," the author, Matsuie, reveals for the first time that the architect in question was Junzo Yoshimura.
"Mr. Yoshimura resigned from his position as designer of the new Imperial Palace in 1965. For various reasons, he found himself unable to communicate with the Imperial Household Agency, and felt that he could no longer continue in his role as designer responsibly. In his initial concept for At the Foot of the Volcano, he wanted to portray the architect who had stepped down from the design of the new Imperial Palace from the perspective of a newly hired apprentice staff member, as a completely fictional story. However, once he began writing, he was forced to realize that the story set in the 'Summer House' and the story of the new palace had to be written separately." (From the afterword to the paperback edition of At the Foot of the Volcano)
While revealing that Junzo Yoshimura was the model, he also mentioned that the story of "New Palace" was already in his mind as a seed more than 20 years ago.
The Meiji Palace was destroyed in an air raid towards the end of World War II. In 1960, Yoshimura Junzo was commissioned to design a new palace. According to the memoir "Architect Yoshimura Junzo's Bag Carrier" by Fujii Akira, an architect who worked at the Yoshimura Junzo Design Office, it took three and a half years from the time the commission was received in 1960 until the basic design was completed. During a training camp in Nara, where the Tokyo University of the Arts branch, where Yoshimura was a professor, was located, they "visited large-scale buildings" such as Todaiji Temple and Kofukuji Temple, and the next training camp was held at "the newly completed Yoshimura villa in Karuizawa."
In June 1963, after the basic design was completed, he wrote, "We actually erected a full-scale roof model on the construction site, and we produced and installed the height, slope, and even the size and shape of the ridgepole ornaments to actual dimensions for consideration." The detailed design had also begun, but he said, "During these two years of detailed design, I was often disappointed, and I came to the point of considering withdrawing."
"The main reason for his refusal was believed to be the conflict between the world of design in which one architect designs and coordinates everything, and the world of design in which a group of people with assigned roles organized by the Imperial Household Agency" (from "Architect Junzo Yoshimura's Bag Carrier").
Matsuie's new book, "Where Even Angels Fear to Tread," is over 1,000 pages long and is based on the motif of "The Story of the New Palace." It is told from multiple perspectives, including that of an architect and an official from the Imperial Household Agency. Even though it is fiction based on historical fact, it must depict not only the struggles of one architect but also the dynamism of the Showa era, which is probably why it took 23 years since his debut work, "At the Foot of the Volcano."
"The professor believed that the role of an architect was for one architect to be responsible for all the designs." (ibid.)
These words resonate as a constant throughout the novel "Where Angels Fear to Tread," and you will surely enjoy reading about its "architecture."
