Designing Japan

Designing Japan: A Future Built on Aesthetics presents renowned designer Kenya Hara’s vision of how his industry can support Japan in crafting a future founded on a unique philosophy of beauty as well as crowd-sourced wisdom from around the world. The book spans history from the beginnings of professional Japanese design in the sixteenth century to the impact of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, but Hara’s focus is the future. A master collaborator, meticulous organizer, and globally conscious innovator, he draws on more than three decades of participation in design work and exhibition curating, as well as deep professional interaction with creators from many fields. Designing Japan serves as a foundation course on the essence of Japanese aesthetics while maintaining a practical approach to Japan’s circumstances and future possibilities. Hara reveals the methods by which designers in Japan continue to work in tandem with government and industry to form publicly accessible aesthetic inquiries into how this island nation will proceed as its population ages, other nations take over manufacturing, and technology develops. Illustrations and examples recognize successful problem solving through design, proving that it is a living, changing industry that remains relevant not in spite of, but as a partner to, advancing technology.

HARA Kenya

Kenya Hara (b. 1958) is an internationally acclaimed graphic designer and professor at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. He has been MUJI’s Art Director since 2002. Hara creates design that elicits experiences, as well as designing objects. He developed RE DESIGN: Daily Products of the 21st Century, an exhibition that re-examined the meaning of the word “design.” RE DESIGN toured internationally, receiving both the Icograda Excellence Award and the Icsid Design Excellence Award at the 17th Biennial of Industrial Design and the Mainichi Design Award 2000. Hara went on to develop and tour HAPTIC: Awakening the Senses and SENSEWARE, through which he advocated for keywords that update existing value systems.

He developed designs deeply rooted in Japanese culture for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, and for the promotion of Expo 2005, held in Aichi prefecture. Hara handled product design for such corporations and designers as the beverage company AGF and KENZO, and visual identity campaigns for the renewal of the Matsuya Ginza department store, the MORI Building, the bookstore Tsutaya Shoten, and GINZA SIX. Since 2015 he has been the General Producer of the JAPAN HOUSE project, an initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Hara is the recipient of the Tokyo Art Directors Club Grand Prize (2003) for his MUJI advertising campaign, the Kodansha Publishing Culture Award, and the Japan Inter Design Forum Prize, among others. His book Dezain no Dezain (Iwanami Shoten, 2003) received the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities. After being translated into Chinese, Korean, and Taiwanese, it was expanded and published in English as Designing Design (Lars Müller Publishers, 2007), gaining a broad international readership. Hara’s other books include White (Lars Müller Publishers, 2009) and Architecture for Dogs (TOTO Shuppan, 2013).

*information as of time of publication

Japan Library series
Art & Design

Publisher:
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Hardcover
¥3,000 + tax
ISBN 9784866580159
188 mm x 128 mm / 208 pp. / March 2018

Preface to the English Edition / Preface / Introduction: Aesthetics as a Resource / 1. Movement: A Design Platform / 2. Simplicity and Emptiness: The Genealogy of an Aesthetic / 3. Houses: Refining the Home / 4. Tourism: Cultural DNA / 5. Future Materials: Designing Experience / 6. Point of Growth: Design for a Future Society / Postscript / Photo Credits / About the Author and the Translators

まさしく歴史的な転換点に立つ日本。大震災を経て、とりわけ経済・文化活動のあらゆる側面において根本的な変更をせまられる今、この国に必要な「資源」とは何か？マネーではなく、美を、幸福を、誇りを得るために、立ち戻るべきは「感受性」である──。つねに「ものづくり」の最先端をリードしてきた著者が、未来への構想を提示する。

原 研哉
1958年生まれ。グラフィックデザイナー。武蔵野美術大学教授。2002年より、無印良品のアートディレクションを担当。
「もの」のデザインと同様に「こと」のデザインを志向している。
デザインという語の意味を問い直しながら世界各地を巡回し、広く影響を与えた「RE-DESIGN:日常の21世紀」展（世界インダストリアルデザインビエンナーレ、インダストリアル・グラフィック両部門大賞、毎日デザイン賞受賞）をはじめとして、「HAPTIC」「SENSEWARE」など既存の価値観を更新するキーワードを擁する展覧会を制作し世界に巡回。また、長野オリンピックの開・閉会式プログラムや、愛知万博のプロモーションでは、深く日本文化に根ざしたデザインを展開した。AGF、JT、KENZOなどの商品デザインのほか、松屋銀座リニューアル、森ビル、蔦屋書店、GINZA SIXなどのVIを手がける。2015年より外務省「JAPAN HOUSE」総合プロデューサー。一連のデザイン活動によって日本文化デザイン賞ほか受賞多数。著書『デザインのデザイン』（岩波書店、2003年）はサントリー学芸賞を受賞。同書は中国・韓国・台湾語に翻訳された後、大幅な増補を加えた英語版『DESIGNING DESIGN』（Lars Müller Publishers, 2007）として出版され、世界に多くの読者を持つ。他に『白』（中央公論新社、2008年）、『日本のデザイン』（岩波書店、2011年）等がある。

＊著者略歴は書籍刊行時のものを表示しています。