Prehistory（With Geddes and Sesshu）


The encounter of Edinburgh, an old city in Scotland, with Yamaguchi, a small Japanese city similarly boasting a long history, was colored by an utter coincidence. Reflecting backward, the encounter can date back to 1984.
It was that year when an exclusively contemporary art gallery opened in Yamaguchi. Since then, a number of artists and curators taking active part on the cutting edge of contemporary art have visited both from home and the west. Though it is a local city, Yamaguchi became a site where the latest contemporary art originated and spread to the rest of Japan. Though there were no resident artists yet, the activity that could be called its forerunner began to be developed on a daily basis. Except for Berlin in the late 1970s, it was a considerably new trend in the world. Many artists were not merely transitory travelers. They stayed in Yamaguchi for one or two months, lived life with us and continued producing works in front of our eyes. People in Yamaguchi had never experienced such an attractive stimulus before. "What is contemporary art?" "What on earth are they going to do?" Our simple questions were increasingly deepened. In these circumstances, it was only natural that study meetings, reading meetings and workshops about contemporary art were launched. The resulting achievement cannot be detailed here, but, even today, holding the exhibitions of "Thomas Struth" in 1986, "Dan Graham" in 1990, "Niele Toroni" in 1992 have been evaluated highly both at home and abroad in terms of pioneer spirit as the accomplishment of the late Mikio Takada, a curator of the then Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art. The workshop was the parent body of "Yamaguchi Institute of Contemporary Arts" (popularly known as YICA), which played a role in this exhibition.

Alan Johnston, an artist in Edinburgh, was one of the key members for the opening exhibition of the gallery, established in 1984. After that, he visited Yamaguchi many times to keep inspiring us. He loved the marvelous climate of Yamaguchi, and it was his utmost pleasure to visit Sesshu Garden at Joueiji Temple.

In 1994, ten years later, "Preparatory Meeting for Establishment of Yamaguchi Institute of Contemporary Arts" was launched. The name YICA, a popular name in English, is based on the suggestion of Alan Johnston. After World War II, "ICA in London" was established by Herbert Read, who played a central role, as well as others aiming at emergence of a new art scene in London falling. ICA is an abbreviation of Institute of Contemporary Art. Read urged establishment of ICA in Yamaguchi. It is not necessarily an imitation of its predecessor, but he said YICA had a nice ring to Ikka (a Japanese term meaning a family circle).

In 1995, following a preparatory period of one year, a plan came to fruition, that is, the event
" Edinburgh/Yamaguchi '95," held at various places in Yamaguchi City for three days from September 29th to
October 1st.
Four lecturers visited Yamaguchi from Edinburgh.
On the first day, two sessions were held at Multi-Purpose Theater, New Media Plaza Yamaguchi. First, professor Murdo Macdonald of the University of Edinburgh (currently a professor at University of Dundee) gave a lecture entitled "Visual Thinker: Patrick Geddes." Next, Mr. Duncan Macmillan, an art historian at the University of Edinburgh and director of Talbot Rice Gallery, where the university's collections are housed, gave a lecture entitled "We live on abundantly growing leaves----for every ecology." Vigorous discussions were conducted respectively with the participants.

The key person centered in these two lectures was Patrick Geddes (1854-1932). " By Leaves We Live" are the words of Geddes. For one year, we held Geddes reading meetings, learning to understand his difficult sentences. In Japan, "Cities in Evolution," one of his main works, was translated and published by Kashima Institute Publishing Co., Ltd. in 1982 (In Taisho or the early Showa days, the biologic general information manual (collaboration) was translated), but in those days Geddes was hardly known. The situation was similar in Edinburgh. It has not been very long since Geddes' special feature issue was compiled in "Edinburgh Review" (No. 88) and reevaluation started.

The four lecturers who came to Yamaguchi were the central players in promoting such positive reevaluation in Edinburgh in those days. It is very difficult to explain in who Geddes is in words. He is called many different things. He is given uncountable labels as a green pioneer, a designer of idealistic gardens, the first scientific city planner, an anarchistic evolutionist, the first general art director who planned an artistic event rallying various artists, an advocate of eutopia (The term "utopia" is a modern Latin word coined from a Greek work meaning "no place" by Thomas Moore. Geddes reinterpreted utopia as "eutopia" by combining "eu,” which is good, instead of "u," a negative, and “topos” which means “place."), an aristocratic snob, a Platonist, a visual thinker, a generalist, among others.

The term, "generalist" is also difficult to translate. Leonardo da Vinci was called "Uomo universale." Geddes is not such a person. In terms of a researcher covering multiple disciplines versus a specialist who masters one discipline, he could almost be called an "interdisciplinary person." But, it seems that Geddes has denied the form of a specialty separated from others. He says that the study of human nature segregated from places and people is like studying corpses rather than humans. The woven strings in the "web of life" should not be cut off. (Duncan MacMillan emphasized this point in his lecture.) In that sense, he might be called a challenging generalist overstepping the boundaries of generalists as old, good and traditional intellectuals.
In light of understanding Geddes in connection with contemporary art, the label of a "visual thinker" was mysterious but attractive. Then, we asked Murdo Macdonald, who has been studying Geddes' thoughts as a philosopher, to talk about Geddes from the aspect of "visual thinking." Even now, the manuscript for that lecture is the best guide to Geddes.

On the second day, the remaining two sessions were held at a new site, "Former Assembly Hall, Yamaguchi Prefecture Administration Reference Center." Alan Johnston gave a lecture entitled "Sesshu, an artist at the outer side of academy: Naught that exists, an Arcadian in Japan" with the subtitle "Contingent influence brought by Richard Tuttle and Jon McLaughlin, an artist and Japanologist, for the first time. Memorandum for Lecture in Yamaguchi given by an Athenian artist of the present day." By modeling Sesshu to a resident at Arcadia, a utopia in ancient Greece, and himself to an artist living in Athens today, the ancient city, Alan Johnston suggested that the source of his artistic inspiration dates back to Sesshu. The lecture, woven with metaphors and quotations, was an artistic lecture through which he expressed his emotions, confessing that Yamaguchi was his second hometown.

The last session dealt with the core theme of " Edinburgh/Yamaguchi '95.” The subtitle was "Yamaguchi, a city of art, and its environment." First of all, James Gray, an instructor of Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art and also a key member of International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design (ILAUD) led by John Carlo, clarified the current problems of Edinburgh, introducing Geddes' thoughts under the title of "Reading Edinburgh Urban Planning." In response, Masahiko Harada from "City Planning Study Group, Sou" presented "City Planning in Yamaguchi? City Structure and Landscape in Yamaguchi" and introduced some of Sou's activities for comparative validation of both cities.

On the final day, "Ichi-no-saka River Workshop" was held by "Machizukuri-no-Mori (Forests in City Planning)"
at Yamaguchi Hometown Dissemination Center. General citizens and children observed the cityscape and landscape, and with a rice ball in one hand, extended a "sensory antenna," making specific proposals about the ideal future image of Yamaguchi.

The encounter of the cities of Edinburgh and Yamaguchi was originated as mentioned above.

The promise to see Edinburgh next time was fulfilled in the opportunity of the festival "Japan Year 2001" to celebrate Japanese culture in England.

Several years have passed since then, but exchanges continue.

Every year we hold the event "Art-full Yamaguchi," which started the year after "Edinburgh/Yamaguchi '95." We invite guests and artists both from home and abroad and have "Art Workshop" for children along the Ichi-no-saka River. In the initial stage, an "Art Workshop" of this style may have seemed strange, particularly for foreign artists, because, in most cases, art workshops they hold are for students of art colleges. But, through contacts with utter amateurs or children, the artists are often inspired, while feeling hesitation. Alan Johnston highly appreciated such an attempt. We could say that the idea that underlies "Edinburgh/Yamaguchi '95" percolated through Yamaguchi quietly.

"Art Workshop" of the original style was held, too, at Akiyoshidai International Art Village. In 1999, Alan Johnston and Shinichi Ogawa, an architect, held an architecture seminar, "The Cube/Akiyoshidai Project," under the theme of a cube. In 2000, the following year, a seminar "Space across the Border" was held by Edinburgh-based "Gross Max" that was founded in 1995. Eelco Hooftman, who presides "Gross Max" with Bridget Baines, calls their new architecture concept "Landscape Architecture," and positions it as a contemporary development of thoughts of Geddes.

The plan, "Edinburgh/Yamaguchi '01" launched for "The Japan Year 2001" was forced to halt due to unavoidable reasons. The main theme of this plan was to introduce Sesshu to Scotland or Europe in full-scale for the first time. But, in Japan, a plan for a large-scale exhibition of Sesshu was in progress in Tokyo and Kyoto. It was impossible to take Sesshu's works out of Japan at that time. So, the plan was postponed until the works could be available. Putting it aside, working to materialize the plan of "Edinburgh/Yamaguchi '01" was continued on both sides. "Art in the Home" is the fruit of such labor.
In this sense, this plan can be positioned as the second "Edinburgh/Yamaguchi."

The concept of "Art in the Home" has been stated separately, so I will not repeat it here. But I should point out that Geddes' thoughts are continuously inherent here.

The study of Geddes in western countries has at last entered a new era. "Biopolis" by Welter Volker
caused a sensation upon publication in 2002. It offered a new horizon for the study of Geddes. Murdo Macdonald
promptly contributed a book review to Scotland Art History Society magazine and expressed great appreciation with some reservation. I hear that he is also compiling his accomplishments of longtime research.
2004, the next year, is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Geddes. In terms of the Japanese traditional era name, he was born in the first year of Ansei Era and took an active role in Meiji Era. Does the view that Geddes' pioneer spirit has something common with that of the youngster in Choshu in those days read too much into
the matter? Meiji Era was also the young days of "aesthetics." Amane Nishi and Ohgai Mori, who came from Tsuwano, transplanted German idealistic aesthetics into Japan, and the youth of the next generation (e.g. Hogetsu Shimamura who came from Shimane Prefecture and studied in London around at the same time as Soseki did.) introduced British and Scottish traditional sensitivity-based aesthetics and mixed with the German one to provide the theoretical foundation to practical art activities. It was the days when "aesthetics" were not mere cathedral philosophy but the one keeping great leverage over actual art scenes. It would not be a coincidence that Soseki refers to Geddes in his writing (as pointed by F.H. Emmde(?), Researcher of Soseki at Yamaguchi University).

The 150th anniversary of Geddes will be celebrated on a large scale. As part of its, "Edinburgh/Yamaguchi 2004" is being planned. I do hope a marvelous new encounter will be achieved by bringing together the wisdom of people.
In this "Art in the Home," young voluntary staff did a great job. Some of them are senior high school students.
It is encouraging to learn that a remarkable rejuvenation from our generation that supported "Edinburgh/Yamaguchi '95" has been attempted.

In 2004, an international symposium under the theme of Geddes will be held. In Yamaguchi, too, a new art scene will appear making Geddes act as a bridge over two cities or creating a momentum with Geddes.
Kiyoshi Okutsu


(Gedesu in Japanese was spelled conforming to customary practices--the spell in "Cities in Evolution." In the days of "Edinburgh/Yamaguchi '95," it was spelled as Gedisu, which is also used in "Urban Naturalist, Geddes," the doctoral dissertation of Satohiko Ando. If the pronunciation in the dictionary is exactly followed, it is Geddisu. After this, it should be unified to Gedisu. Titles are omitted from names in the text.)