Crazy design of house sparks neighborhood protest
A cartoonist named Kazuo Umezu decorated his Tokyo house with red and white stripes and put a demonic looking head on the roof. The neighbors don't like it.
The video (Japanese) reveals Umezu to be a happy eccentric. LinkDespite previous setbacks, some local residents are still fighting in court to have the appearance of the house changed. Apparently its colors and face-shaped tower are offensive to the peaceful atmosphere of the neighborhood.
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But that's Wally from "Where's Wally"!
Looks like you found Waldo
Pretty wealthy as well as happy eccentric. That's a big house for Japan.
Is anyone else thinking of "The Big Orange Splot" now? I fully expect to hear back in a couple of weeks that all the neighbours have decided to paint their houses to look like their dreams too. *crosses fingers*
Awsome! It's like something out of a miyazaki film!
Umezu is a popular horror manga artist. This isn't the first time he's been on television.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpRVu0jMDmo
I like Umezu and eccentrics in general, and this house would be fine somewhere else, but it's totally inappropriate in a suburban Tokyo neighborhood. I hope the neighbors get him to tone it down.
In a country where school children are forced to dye their hair black so as not to stand out, I can't see him getting away with this.
In Japan it is usually not good to be different. Different can be inconvenient and even fatal.
But if you are VERY different, that is another matter altogether.
A big red head on your roof? You may get away with that. Being considered "arrogant" by your schoolmates because you don't profess to enjoy all that they do? BIG mistake.
"In a country where school children are forced to dye their hair black so as not to stand out, I can't see him getting away with this."
And rightly so. Japan only works because everyone (well, most everyone) participates in the wa. The last thing that I or any Japanese want to see is Japan turned into a junior US with its cult of the rebel, where a person's house can become a "fuck you!" to the neighbors. Trying to impose the Western value of public freedoms of expression upon Japan is really just cultural imperialism from an inferior empire.
And that's why you only see them expressing their craziest rituals only when there is a viable excuse: TV show, private hidden room, secret blog, Youtube and... GENOCIDES! (Alright, I just watched an episode of King of the Hill. Pardon me.)
Actually, here in the states you'd be frowned upon for something like that if you lived in one of those really uptight neighborhoods with codes that tell you what kind of lawn ornaments you can have.
I find nothing more offensive than someone else telling you what you should do with your own property. The house there is a bit extreme, but if I wanted to arrange an army of garden gnomes and flamingos reenacting the battle of Gettysburg in my front yard, then by jove I don't see why not.
"an army of garden gnomes and flamingos reenacting the battle of Gettysburg in my front yard"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjvVOtcv6MI&feature=related
"I find nothing more offensive than someone else telling you what you should do with your own property. The house there is a bit extreme, but if I wanted to arrange an army of garden gnomes and flamingos reenacting the battle of Gettysburg in my front yard, then by jove I don't see why not."
Written, I suspect, by someone who's never had to endure a neighbor whose tastes in "self-expression" have run too far counter to his own. But utterly irrelevant to the issue of neighbors and customs in Japan.
Trying to impose the Western value of public freedoms of expression upon Japan is really just cultural imperialism from an inferior empire.
That argument would hold more water if Meiji reforms hadn't swallowed Western culture hook, line and sinker. Hello Kitty Victorian Maid hookers aside, Japanese physical culture is in many ways far drabber than it was at the end of the Tokugawa era. Governmentally imposed wa only exists because real, internally acquired wa has flown the coop.
"That argument would hold more water if Meiji reforms hadn't swallowed Western culture hook, line and sinker. Hello Kitty Victorian Maid hookers aside, Japanese physical culture is in many ways far drabber than it was at the end of the Tokugawa era. Governmentally imposed wa only exists because real, internally acquired wa has flown the coop."
I don't think it's a case of one or the other, and I don't believe that Meiji reforms entirely displaced genuine, traditional wa. My wife's 97 year-old chadō sensei is a perfect example. Despite coming from a prosperous merchant family in Tokyo, having been born in Meiji Japan, and having emigrated to the US in the '50s, she wears wafuku every day, eats mostly washoku and speaks Nihongo more than English, although she's perfectly conversant in the latter.
Our friend Ai, who lives in Ibaraki, is another example; he's a "slow life" proponent who also wears wafuku and is self-sufficient on the family's old farm, even though he has a degree in economics from TU. The Japanese are the ultimate syncretists. The polity-wa didn't displace the cultural wa, nor did Westernization; they co-exist, to varying degrees. I think that we're starting to see the pendulum swing back in the direction of rediscovering "Japaneseness", now that the shock of the burst bubble has worn off. And from my Japanese friends still in Japan, I've heard very little about them wanting to import Western exports such as stridently eccentric domestic architecture and other overt expressions of individuality. They don't seem to need that to feel like they're somehow unique, the way that so many Westerners seem to.
Trying to impose the Western value of public freedoms of expression upon Japan is really just cultural imperialism from an inferior empire.
What are you talking about, Bricology? I thought Kazuo Umezu was Japanese. Is he a Westerner, imposing his alien values upon an adopted country?
Bricology is mostly right. The reason Japan is a nice place to live is the polite conformity. Compromise on a grand scale.
The reason, however, that it's a shitty place to live is the polite conformity, the compromise on a grand scale.
As for whether there is a return to "Japanese-ness" going on now or not... I don't know. I see these farmer dropouts on TV, living life more like their Edo-period ancestors, and have a tinge of envy.
That being said, to argue that that is a salient trend is, I think, overstating it a bit. Young Japan is becoming more Western/individualistic, I think, not going the other way. I cite my wife's 15 years' experience teaching high school, and her witnessed degradation of any ability to retain a sense of wa at the school at all. Many Japanese high schools are more chaotic, I think, than their US counterparts (certainly more than mine). The young have bought the "personal freedom" line, but, in my opinion--and god this makes me sound old--not the "personal responsibilty" part.
They want to screw around and bleach their hair and get tribal piercings and defy authority (all things that I did more of than most), but they also want to just waltz into some stable job that takes care of them forever like their parents and grandparents had. They don't see the flip side of having a culture where you can be different--and that is that you're on your own. You have to build yourself up.
The society has taken parts of the Western / North American mindset, but not all. Our societies work because we have balances. Japan is in a kind of transition state where they're not sure what to do. Teachers can no longer strike pupils who talk back. Hell, I found out long ago when I was teaching high school that they're not even allowed to just ask them to leave if they're being disruptive (that is denying them their education--despite the fact that their antics deny the entire room of theirs). The parents have been empowered in their children's education (a good thing, I think) but they still expect the school to do the grunt work of raising them and instilling values--all within 8 hours a day, and with no ability to discipline them.
My wife says it all the time: 日本は終わっている。Nihon wa owatteiru --Japan is finished. She doesn't mean the country's economy or importance or independence. She means that what Japan traditionally meant is gone. And I basically agree.
I teach a lot of Japanese history in my classes (I teach academic English via content), and do my best to illustrate, from an outsider's perspective, the really great things about Japan. These kids (and this might be a sampling error--they are studying at a foreign language university!) have grown up always looking out, always thinking being 国際的 kokusaiteki--"international" meant eschewing Japanese-ness, but that's just plain the last thing they need to be doing. All they have to do is not freak out or deny service when a gaijin walks into their business (heheh).
That being said, what is happening in my classes when I do that? Again, a Westerner is telling Japanese how to act! Eeek! But I continue regardless. I don't know what else to do.
Finally, though, I have a friend who is a musician who is in label negotiations, and they're telling her that there really isn't a market for singer/songwriters who sing in English anymore, and can't she write some songs in Japanese (which she doesn't want to do--her English is perfect and she's more comfortable writing in English)? So perhaps there is a move to more Japanese-ness. I guess I just don't think it's so simple and straightforward as a "pendulum."
The house is indeed atrocious, but I'd be delighted to have it nearby. It'd make giving directions to my apartment much easier.
Kyle Armbruster,
Do you really have tribal piercings? How about tattoos? I want pictures.
That was a very interesting comment. Your description of the schools and parental abrogation of responsibility sounds just like my schoolteacher friends' stories here in the US. Sometimes it seems as if syncretic cultures, including the US, frequently adopt only the silliest parts of the cultures from which they borrow.
"What are you talking about, Bricology? I thought Kazuo Umezu was Japanese. Is he a Westerner, imposing his alien values upon an adopted country?"
Sorry -- I presumed that my point was clear: the vast majority of posts here have been of the "how dare they not allow Umezu to build whatever he wants? -and damn the whiny neighbors!" variety. To break it down, they're promoting an America-centric value of unfettered expression and visible individuality, and criticizing the Japanese value of wa. But in doing so, they're the doppelganger of what they condemn: imposing one cultural value above another, as if expression and individuality were clearly superior to wa, when no such thing has been proved. It's just as rigidly enforced of a societal expectation as they're accusing the Japanese of being "limited" by. Ironic, hmmm?
...and Kyle Armbruster -- your views on the subject are interesting reading, and seem well-informed.
Except, Bricology, that most of the people making those comments were Westerners. Their complaints are part of the Western liberal ideal of free speech in support of the Western liberal ideal of individuality. Asking them to refrain from those complaints is an attempt to impose another culture's values upon them. Ironic, hmmm?
Furthermore, the comments in this thread have no power to alter the behavior of Kazuo Umezu and his neighbors. These commenters have no power to make the imposition you claim they've been making.
Bricology: But the concept of "wa" is stupidly flawed. I've had ridiculous concoctions such as "omuraisu" fed to me and been told they're "western" food. I've lived many places in the "west" and NEVER encountered anything like that outside of Japan. Yet Japanese people won't accept it as their creation because they're not comfortable with that. If "wa" had the ability to accept small changes over time and grow maybe it would survive, but the mindset that there's one correct way to do everything is bound to fail. No questions asked.
Just look at my country, America. ;)
Darrell,
I can tell that I'll be reading your blog for the next few days. It looks quite interesting.
this is the Kazuo who draws/drew the Makoto-kun (snot nosed, pecker flashing urchin) manga - righto?
The house is from that strip inn'it?
As for wa, Japan, just like where you live, has always had a place for the shit-disturber, the Fool, the one-so-strange-we-leave-it-alone-as-an-example- of-strange.
The immediate neighbourhood might rue the eyesore, Japan as a whole snickers knowingly.
Avram wrote "Except, Bricology, that most of the people making those comments were Westerners. Their complaints are part of the Western liberal ideal of free speech in support of the Western liberal ideal of individuality. Asking them to refrain from those complaints is an attempt to impose another culture's values upon them. Ironic, hmmm?"
Perhaps you would be so kind as to point out where I "ask(ed) them to refrain from those complaints". Of course I did no such thing; they're as welcome to make those comments as I am to disagree with them. My comments were critical of theirs, not censorious.
"Furthermore, the comments in this thread have no power to alter the behavior of Kazuo Umezu and his neighbors. These commenters have no power to make the imposition you claim they've been making."
See above.
"Bricology: But the concept of 'wa' is stupidly flawed. I've had ridiculous concoctions such as 'omuraisu' fed to me and been told they're "western" food. I've lived many places in the 'west' and NEVER encountered anything like that outside of Japan. Yet Japanese people won't accept it as their creation because they're not comfortable with that."
Sorry, but if that's your example, it appears that you don't understand what "wa" is.
"If 'wa' had the ability to accept small changes over time and grow maybe it would survive, but the mindset that there's one correct way to do everything is bound to fail. No questions asked."
You may have missed the fact that wa has indeed survived for at least a millennium, through invasions by the Dutch, Portugese, Chinese, Koreans, Americans and others. It's in no danger of "failing". You want proof? Take a look at the crime rate in Japan, compared to all other "first world nations". Now, America, on the other hand...
I remember watching this on tv when I was back in Japan last year. The clip is actually a 30 minute documentary. inside, instead of stairs he has a slide that he uses to get from the top floor to the bottom. and if I remember correctly he has a few lizards - like iguanas, several other weird pets and a wife.
a wife?? is he mad?
Every time I look at the picture above I see Woodsy Owl (vintage Woodsy).