Introduction : Rediscovering Tokyo's Vernacular -- Hiroba : The Public Square and the Boundaries of the Commons -- Yanesen : Writing Local Community -- Deviant Properties : Street Observation Studies -- Museums, Heritage, and Everyday Life -- Conclusion : History and Memory in a City without Monuments
Summary
Preserved buildings and historic districts, museums and reconstructions have become an important part of the landscape of cities around the world. Beginning in the 1970s, Tokyo participated in this trend. However, repeated destruction and rapid redevelopment left the city with little building stock of recognized historical value. Late twentieth-century Tokyo thus presents an illuminating case of the emergence of a new sense of history in the city's physical environment, since it required both a shift in perceptions of value and a search for history in the margins and interstices of a rapidly modernizing cityscape
Analysis
anthropology
asian history
city life
close knit communities
crowded cities
culture
engaging
gardens
historic architectural preservation
historic districts
historical value
japan
material culture
modernizing cityscape
neighbors
physical environment
politics
preserved buildings
public space
regional japan
repeated destruction
retrospective
social history
sociology
spaces and architectures
suburban
suburbs
theoretical
tokyo
traditional landmarks
urban life
urban
urbanism
vernacular architecture
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 167-199) and index
