Fights and Fires are the Flowers of Edo

Abstract

ABSTRACTIt has been common in post-enlightenment Western society to view binary pairs as oppositional in nature. I wish to interrogate how the narratives of our society determine our evaluation and response to disaster and events which create disorder in our lives. What is the role of design when cities are re-built and re-constructed, after ‘disaster’ (natural and man-made) alters the material and physical ‘face’ of the urban environment? By changing our relationship to binary pairs from an oppositional view, can we transform the design and inhabitation of the urban landscape? This is an environment that is increasingly perceived, particularly by Western thought, as alienating, hostile and sterile.The locus of my research is the city of Tokyo, and how it has transitioned from the Edo of the Tokugawa Regime 1600–1863. This was a city with a built materiality of wood and paper, which through repeated destruction, has re-emerged as contemporary Tokyo – a city of concrete and glass. This will be illustrated firstly, by the way in which the various ‘mappings’ of the urban environment are a visual expression of its metaphysics; and secondly, by how they underpin urban planning and design.'Fights and Fires are the Flowers of Edo’ is an expression that was popular during the Tokugawa Regime. This period was a time of constant conflagration and upheaval as the result of repeated earthquakes. More recently, events have included flooding and firebombing. However this upheaval always preceded a resurgence of life. The term ‘Fights and Fires are the Flowers of Edo’ is indicative of the process of renewal and creation as an integral part of destruction. This paper specifically examines the way in which narratives – written, oral and visual – determine our relationship to binary pairs and the way in which they provide the conceptual framework for design and urban planning. The paper will also interrogate whether these narratives of resilience have permeated the new materiality of concrete and glass. The conclusion will demonstrate the consequences this has for design and urban planning.The theoretical perspectives that this paper calls on are the interface of science and metaphysics through the Poetics of Space as significant for meaningful inhabitation within the built environment. The organising principle of this multidisciplinary approach is Narrative Inquiry which will be employed to examine the role that the myths, cosmologies, maps and metaphysics of Japanese culture play in the design and reconstruction of the urban environment.