Stories of boys and buildings: Ishida Ira's 4-Teen in 2002 Tokyo

Abstract

During the past few years, the construction of luxury residential and commercial towers in neighborhoods along the Sumida River has accelerated dramatically, altering the social composition and cultural images associated with downtown Tokyo. The new buildings stand in contrast to the sinking economy and are markers of the growing gap between rich and poor. They also reflect the pattern of urban construction and destruction as well as the unobtainable desires promised by commodity capitalism. Concurrently, the Japanese media have featured articles on the escalation of youth crime and discontent, as well as the many forms of corruption that teenagers are exposed to in transformed downtown Tokyo. The 2002 Naoki literary prize was awarded to a book that reacts to both urban development and the problems facing Tokyo adolescents – Ishida Ira's 4-Teen. Ishida shows the effects of Tokyo's transformations on teenage social norms and uses descriptions of urban places to reveal contradictions embedded in these roles. Ishida's eighth graders show hope despite an estranging cityscape, poor economic conditions and violence. In this article, I combine literary analysis and architectural history to examine the context of 4-Teen's publication and the awarding of the Naoki Prize. I explore how stories that mix fiction and historical experience provide new ways of viewing the changes in Tokyo.