Bulletin of the Faculty of Letters, Hosei University

公共空間

西洋文化

都市景観

近代東京

Statue

Public Space

Western Culture

Urban Landscape

Modern Tokyo

Japanese society has been greatly influenced by western culture since the end of the 19th century. Western culture can still be seen in modern Tokyo where there is an abundance of statues, museums, expositions, and other cultural and artistic activities in public spaces displaying western culture. This experience brought about a new way of looking at the landscape for the people. The purpose of this study is to clarify the actual situation of the location of statues in the urban spaces of Tokyo and to discuss the relationship between the statues and the urban landscape of Tokyo. The study analyses the data from the photo collection of statues, “Portrait of Great People.” Previous studies have noted that the proliferation of statues in Tokyo led to disharmony of its urban landscape. The study focuses on two points — first, the character of the urban space in which the statues were placed, and second, the landscape in which the statues were placed, as perceived by the people of the time. In Tokyo Prefecture as a whole, the statues are concentrated in the Yamanote district in Tokyo City, and majority of the statues are located in public places such as squares, parks, precincts of shrines and temples, and schools. In many cases, the statues are erected later and their locations are not decided at the beginning nor made in harmony with the location. The study concludes that, despite the criticism of Tokyoʼs statues by newspapers and intellectuals, the primary purpose of creating statues was to honour great men and not to harmonise with the surrounding landscape.

102 文学部・人文科学研究科 ＞ 紀要 ＞ 法政大学文学部紀要 ＞ 84