Modernity, space and national representation at the Tokyo olympics 1964

Urban History

Volumn 37, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 289-300

  Tagsold, Christian ^a  

^a HEINRICH HEINE UNIVERSITY   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; MODERNIZATION; OLYMPIC GAMES; POST-WAR; PUBLIC SPACE; URBAN DEVELOPMENT; URBAN HISTORY;

HONSHU; JAPAN; KANTO; TOKYO [KANTO];

EID: 77954545799     PISSN: 09639268     EISSN: 14698706     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0963926810000362     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. H. Seki, Sengo Nihon supotsu seisaku: Sono kosoku to hatten (Japanese Sports Politics after the War: Its Inconsequences and Developments) (Tokyo, 1997).
2. C. Tagsold, 'The Tokyo Olympics as a token of renationalization', in A. Niehaus and M. Seinsch (eds.), Olympic Japan. Ideals and Realities of (Inter) Nationalism (Würzburg, 2007), 111-32.
3. B. Chalkley and S. Essex, 'Urban development through hosting international events: a history of the Olympic Games', Planning Perspectives, 14 (1999), 369-94.
4. H. Liao and A. Pitts, 'A brief historical review of Olympic urbanization', International Journal for the History of Sport, 23 (2006), 1232-52.
5. Juridically, the tennô did not act as head of state when speaking the opening formula, as this might have caused counter-reactions by the socialists or communists. He was simply acting as patron of the Olympic Games. But this subtle differentiation was most likely not understood by the audience in Japan or worldwide, who surely were affirmed that the tennô actually was the head of state when watching the opening ceremony. See Tagsold, 'The Tokyo Olympics as a token', 116.
6. These keywords were taken from J. Gold and M. Gold (eds.), Olympic Cities: City Agendas, Planning and the World's Games, 1896-2012 (London, 2007).
7. Some of the other main facilities, like the Komazawa Stadium in Setagaya, were set up in other wards of Tokyo because the Shinjuku/Shibuya area did not provide enough space for all venues. Still most major events like the opening and closing ceremony of the Games took place in Shinjuku or Shibuya.
8. For a good account of this, see H. Hardacre, Shinto and the State: 1868-1988 (Princeton, 1991).
9. K. Irie, 'Kindai no tennô-sei to meijijingukyôgitaikai' (The modern Tenno-system and the Meiji Shrine Sports Days), in K. Yanô (ed.), Undôkai to nihon kindai (Sports Days and Modern Japan) (Tokyo, 1999), 157-98.
10. K. Irie, 'Kindai no tennô-sei to meijijingukyôgitaikai' (The modern Tenno-system and the Meiji Shrine Sports Days), in K. Yanô (ed.), Undôkai to nihon kindai (Sports Days and Modern Japan) (Tokyo, 1999), 157-98. Ibid., 164.
11. A. Ikuo, Y. Kiyohara and K. Nakajima, 'Facism, sport and society in Japan', International Journal of the History of Sport, 1 (1992), 1-28.
12. S. Collins, The 1940 Tokyo Games: The Missing Olympics. Japan, the Asian Olympics and the Olympic Movement (London, 2007), 112-23.
13. See also The Organizing Committee of the XIIth Olympiad Tokyo 1940, Report of the Organizing Committee on its Work for the XIIth Olympics Games of 1940 in Tokyo until the Relinquishement (Tokyo, 1940), 51-81.
14. T. Furukawa, Kôki - banpakku - orinpikku: Koshitsu burando to keizaihatten (Tennô-festivities - Worldfair-Olympics: The Brand Tennô and Economic Development) (Tokyo, 1998), 180-5.
15. While Mexico City and Seoul have been scarcely touched upon in various books and papers regarding space and architecture, Beijing has been so well documented that listing all references would extend to writing a bibliography. One of the most insightful accounts is given by S. Brownell, Beijing's Games: What the Olympics Mean to China (Lanham, 2008), 97-128.
16. For a rare account of Mexico City see M. Barke, 'Mexico City 1968', in Gold and Gold (eds.), Olympic Cities, 183-96.
17. Tagsold, 'The Tokyo Olympics as a token', 125.
18. Kami is often translated as 'god'. But this would evoke false connotations, especially when speaking of a living tennô, who is also a kami, as a 'living god'. A kami is a kind of divine ancestor, whose benevolence is important for shaping presence. In the case of tennô, as spiritual head of shintô religion and - from the mid-nineteenth century to 1945 - Father of the Nation, they are already kami alive.
19. W. H. Coaldrake, Architecture and Authority in Japan (London, 1996), 261.
20. Chalkley and Essex, 'Urban development', 374.
21. Ibid.; Liao and Pitts, 'A brief historical review'.
22. T. Sakurai, Shisô toshite no 60-nendai (The 60s as Ideology) (Tokyo, 1993), 32.
23. Igarashi came to a similiar conclusion on the symbolic meaning of urban developement regarding selfpurification: Y. Igarashi, Bodies of Memory: Narratives of War in Postwar Japanese Culture, 1945-1970 (Princeton, 2000), 150-3.
24. K. Yabuki (ed.), Tokyo to Yokohama: Saishin ryokô annai 5 (Tokyo and Yokohama: Latest Guide-Books 5) (Tokyo, 1963), 3.
25. The Organizing Committee for the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, The Official Report of the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, Tokyo 1964: Volume I (Tokyo, 1966), 48.
26. The Organizing Committee for the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, The Official Report of the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, Tokyo 1964: Volume I (Tokyo, 1966), 48. Ibid., 76.
27. E. Modrey, 'Architecture as a mode of self-representation at the Olympic Games in Rome (1960) and Munich (1972) ', European Review of History, 15 (2008), 691-706.
28. For a detailed account of the Foro Italico pertaining to the Rome Olympics, see ibid. Modrey has shown how inscription of the fascist area posed problems for the organizing committee, especially after the communist party had protested in the Italian parliament in 1959. A public discussion on the issue followed but the inscriptions remained. Reminders of Mussolini were swept under the proverbial carpet in at least in some cases: for example in the assembly hall of the National Olympic Committee, where a green carpet hid a piece of artwork entitled 'The Apotheosis of Fascism' celebrating the Duce. See D. Maraniss, Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World (New York, 2008), 80.
29. G. Ciucci, 'The classicism of the E 42. Between modernity and tradition', Assemblage, 8 (1989), 82.
30. Nikkei-shinbun, Monthly Reprint Volume July 1964, 59.
31. U. Balbier, Kalter Krieg auf der Aschenbahn: Der deutsch - deutsche Sport 1950-1972: Eine politische Geschichte (Cold War on the Cindertrack: East/West German Sports 1950-1972: A Political History) (Göttingen, 2006), 209-13.
32. See their contribution to this issue. See also C. Young, 'Munich 1972. Re-presenting the nation', in A. Tomlinson and C. Young (eds.), National Identity and Global Sports Events. Culture, Politics, and Spectacle in the Olympics and the Football World Cup (Albany, 2006), 117-32
33. and Balbier, Kalter Krieg, 230-5.
34. H. Hiller, 'Post-event outcomes and the post-modern turn: the Olympics and urban transformations', European Sport Management Quarterly, 6 (2006), 317-32.
35. H. Lefebvre, The Production of Space (Malden, 1994), 38-41.
36. R. Cybriwsky, Tokyo: The Changing Profile of an Urban Giant (London and New York, 1991), 191.
37. Shintarô Ishihara started as a novelist before turning to politics in the late 1960s. As a hawk in international affairs he advocated a Japanese boycott of the Beijing Olympics 2008.