Journal of East-Asian Urban History
East-Asian Society for Urban History (EASUH)
- Semi Annual
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- 2713-9484(eISSN)
Volume 1
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A. J. Toynbee published a book called Travel to China(1931) after traveling around the Asian continent in 1929. The book mostly focuses on Japan, China and the relationship between the two countries. Toynbee visited major cities in Japan and China by train. Most of the Japanese cities he saw were turning into modern cities in the process of spontaneous modernization mixed with its tradition. On the other hand, Chinese cities that he visited showed him various characteristics, including traditional, colonial, or semi-colonial cities. The modern cities of Japan and China in the late 1920s were transformed into various aspects under the influence of tradition, spontaneous modernization, colonial or anti-colonial modernization. How did Toynbee look at cities in East Asia? How did he recognize the relationship between tradition, modernization and colonization while visiting this area? Toynbee emphasizes the weight and influence of tradition especially in the development of modern cities in Japan and China. So, are modern European cities born out of their own traditions? Modern cities everywhere in the East and West were newly developed under the influence of tradition. Toynbee's attitude, which emphasizes especially its tradition in the modern cities of East Asia, seems to reflect his Orientalistic view.
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Kyoto, which was Japan's political and cultural capital for more than a millennium before the dawn of the modern era, shows distinctive characteristics formed in the process of urban modernization. A citizen plaza perfectly fit to a modern city is lying on the east side, but a delayed urban reconstruction in the city center due to a strong conservative self-government awareness, as well as a delayed modernization of tax system, caused disorderly urban sprawl to appear in the suburbs. Thanks to the enactment of urban planning law enacted in 1919 by the government (Ministry of Internal Affairs) and an increasing awareness about the necessity and rationality of urban planning projects, urban renovation took place at a rapid pace. In the meantime, new ways of urban design were sought for and experimented to conserve it as a historical city against the city' quickly changing landscape.
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The New Culture Movement marked the dawning of a turbulent era in China. By the time of May Fourth Movement, the cultural contradiction and confliction grew into an extensive and enduring social movement extending deep and far-reaching influence on the Chinese society. The huge difference and contradiction existing between the Beijing and Shanghai cultures contributed to the outbreak of this social movement. To be specific, there was an active human and information exchange involving the two leading Chinese cities and at the same time the old and new cultures, thoughts and moralities constantly acted upon each other.
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This paper attempts to rethink the ancient Emperor's Capital transition process from the viewpoint of territorial history. Emperor Tenmu, who planned first capital as Fujiwara-kyo in Asuka region, had a grand plan to put multiple cities in Japan. At that time the important cities were situated along east-west axis. However, since relocation of the capital from Fujiwara-kyo to Heijyo-kyo, the axis had turned towards north-south direction. The last ancient capital Heian-kyo was clearly organized utilizing north-south water systems in territorial sense.
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In the Edo period, there were many samurai residences with gardens in Edo. In the 20th century, some of these gardens were inherited and new gardens were also cultivated in Tokyo. Because of this, Tokyo in the 20th century has been a garden city since the Edo period. This study shows the characteristics of gardens inherited today from the 20th century and the succession process of these gardens in the 20th century.
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This paper reveals the influence of urban and social contexts on the early building layout of Japan Women's College (JWC), one of the first women's colleges in Japan. According to the unpublished plans, the main building and other major structures, at the first stage, formed a three-sided quadrangle with site-wide organization, which was similar to contemporary National colleges. This impressive design, however, disappeared in the final plan. Although the school is the largest in student number and in campus ground size compared to other contemporary private colleges at its establishment, the subdivided land acquired in the private land market forced JWC to give up the organic composition of buildings. Under the framework of donation-based finance, it needed to start construction quickly for further support from the public, which prevented the school from acquiring enough time to adjust land ownership. These constitute the major differences with national schools. The founder's emphasis on the physical exercises, which reflected the public interest in physical strength of mothers in the time of wars, gave preference to securing sufficient open space over the order of buildings.
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This paper showed that the policy power of the Chinese government in the 1950s was directly linked to the development of housing construction. The author of this study conducted on-site surveys of several collective houses built from 1949 to 1960 that are still standing to photograph and investigate the status of these residential buildings.