Zakka. Goods and Things

On the exhibition “Zakka Goods and Things” see also Domus 998 January 2016.

Japanese economy is considered to be facing a recession. Contrarily, cities as Tokyo are still enjoying one of the most affluent economies in the globe with all the pleasures – and displeasures – that such a frenetic consumption oriented society may experience.

A vast collage of goods coming from all around the world are available for the Japanese consumer today, but this is only the outcome of “current historical circumstances” according to Tatsuya Maemura, organizer of the ongoing exhibition at 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo “Zakka Goods and Things.” The word Zakka in Japanese language could be roughly used in English to refer to “goods and things,” however the Chinese characters (kanjis) denote a more complex meaning. Zatsu (雑) refers to “things that cannot be categorized” or “things that are mixed together with great variety”. Hence the exhibition confronts the visitor with different interpretations of the concept of zakka, triggering possible hints to understand what makes things zakka today along with other aspects that we experience as consumers when we choose goods.

Maemura together with exhibition’s infographics designer So Hashizume recounts the radical changes that the country has experienced from Meiji period, once Japan started to import goods from abroad. A rapid industrialization process mixed up local culture with foreign, transforming directly the lifestyles of common people. They point out the big contrast back in the 16^th Century during the period of national isolation policy known as “sakoku”, when the only possibility for people to have access to foreign items was through a narrow gate in the port of Nagasaki at the island of Dejima.    

The venue, originally designed by Tadao Ando, organizes the spaces around a sunken triangular patio. The exhibition curator Naoto Fukasawa and his team envisioned three main rooms to display a show where the visitor can experience a chronological evolution of the concept of zakka. The first Room opens introducing a reproduction of a peddler cart from the end of Edo period to Meiji era crammed with diverse objects of daily use such as brooms, baskets and other necessities. The illustrations of Ryoto Miyake also portray a chronology of the mutual effects between items and lifestyles and how both have evolved together as product of human civilization. The third work displayed deals with the complexity and ambiguity of the Chinese character “zatsu” in Japanese language, also used in several others words that imply things that cannot be categorized. For Maemura this ideogram is relevant since it also has certain “atmospheric uniformity” that people can find in a “zakka shop”, an amenity that could be described in English as a gentle version of a hardware store. The concept of “emporio” in Italian language could also give an idea of these kind of places distilling a very unique atmosphere defined by the mixture of goods at it houses.

The second room has a relaxed atmosphere displaying all the works on white walls, liberating the space and leaving some few benches to allow visitors to sit and examine the content whether reading carefully or from a distance. The wall at the entrance shows the work Roots of Zakka, which describes in detail how Japanese adopted and assimilated foreign ways of living. From the first trades with the Dutch in Dejima to contemporary desire culture nurtured by magazines and media from the 70’s, the recount goes through the influence of Bauhaus and Scandinavian design and Mingei movement in the 20’s, and standardization of industrially-produced goods in the 50’s to mention few. Two other walls show the work of Hidenori Ikeda and Saiko Ito’s A Never Ending Loop of Thoughts, a diagram that aims to unveil the mental processes that consumers might experience through the act of choosing and buying goods in relation to how these decisions affect their lifestyles. A fourth wall introduces some of the drawings of folklorist and architect Wajiro Kon, whose practice and methods named “modernology” registered in detail the lifestyle of common people during early showa period.

The largest and main room is more cramped than the two previous, conceived with the spirit of a downtown shopping district or small urban alleys. Divided through slender black tubular divisions, it compresses the work of 12 people from diverse disciplines such as design, architecture, art and filmmaking. Each one of them was asked to make an interpretation of the concept of zakka putting together a selection of items that best describe their particular approaches to the topic. Some of them are more ludic and humorous, and others convey better the atmospheric uniformity that Maemura mentioned above. We learn here that the concept of zakka has changed through history. For the younger generation it is associated today with well designed  and selected goods, while for the older it recalls the nostalgia of time and bygone goods.

Space, people and objects are intrinsically connected in our everydayness. If our spatial experience is organized by the proximities and intimacies that we establish with the diverse objects around us, it is worth to reconsider how we choose from a myriad constellation of them, whether to fulfill a specific need or simply triggered by mere desire. As technologies and values evolve, contemporary rituals of consumption will continue shifting our relationships with these objects, making of them extensions of our own lifestyles and becoming archeological relics of our deepest desires.

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until 5 June 2016
Zakka. Goods and Things
21_21 Design Sight
Tokyo Midtown Garden, Tokyo