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2018. 04 - 07

Kosaka Daimaou ×　Kyoko Jimbo (Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum)

“Walls that Talk” – Annual exhibition looking back on 80 years of the art deco building’s history

  • Jimbo　 My name is Kyoko Jimbo and I will be your guide today at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. This building, a masterpiece of the art deco style, was built in 1933, originally as the residence of Prince Yasuhiko Asaka. The Prince and his wife visited an art deco exhibition in Paris in 1925, and the building is a collective effort of French art and Japanese engineering of international architectural importance.
  • Kosaka　 Oh really? But what is art deco, anyway? A kind of art style?
  • Jimbo　Yes. It’s a style that was popular from the 1910s to the 1930s, with streamlined, simplified designs as its main features. I think you can get an idea from the repeating motifs of geometric shapes, like circles and straight and jagged lines.
  • Kosaka　Though the building is over 80 years old, it still looks good, doesn’t it? It kind of has that slightly futuristic feel, like Ultraman.
  • Jimbo　That may be so. This is the first time I’ve been told there’s a connection between Ultraman and art deco (laughs). At a time of mechanisation and rationalisation, where decoration was being dispensed with, art deco preserved that love of and desire for beauty. The “Perfume Tower” here is one of the highlights of this building. The name comes from the practice of applying perfume to the lighting fixture at the top, causing the scent to spread around the room.
  • Kosaka　It’s a pretty big aroma pot!
  • Jimbo　It really is. Also, you can see the motifs of water and plants on the walls in each room, and the lights in the great dining hall are also really interesting.
  • Kosaka　Ah! There’s a pineapple motif, isn’t there? If I look for an apple as well, will I find one, I wonder (laughs)? But I digress – the building itself really is a work of art, isn’t it?
  • Jimbo　Yes, it is. With the “Walls that Talk: from the Former Prince Asaka Residence” exhibition, while introducing the building’s history, we also want to introduce the people who came and went over the years. For example, the building was Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida’s official residence, and the photo of him taken in the study on the second floor is quite famous.
  • Kosaka　I’ve seen that photo before. Seeing that study again, it really does look cool!
  • Jimbo　It’s among the best examples of art deco design in the building.
  • Kosaka　It’s really fun wandering around while hearing these explanations. Another thing – while the grounds are so large here, some of the rooms are really small, and it made me think, “That’s so Japanese!”
  • Jimbo　The sense of scale is quite Japanese, yes. The combination of Japanese and Western influences is what makes this building so interesting, I think.
Walls that Talk : Stories form the Former Prince Asaka Residence

Photo Gallery

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ART NEWS TOKYO