幾本日文書勾起的雜想

最近準備考試壓力大，早上五點半就起床。這種狀況下特別容易產生強迫性的偏執行為，例如：費了好大的勁去回想一位記憶模糊的日本作者姓名。這人寫了兩、三本書，當初在京都的書店看到沒有立刻買下來，過了不到兩個禮拜不但忘記作者姓名，竟然連書名都想不起來，只好用關連的功能到日本亞馬遜去大海撈針。經過幾番曲折，才從「細馬宏通」寫的關於風景明信片那本書的關聯商品找到「橋爪紳也」這個名字，搜尋到的兩本書分別是：あったかもしれない日本―幻の都市建築史(Unbuilt Japan—Illusionary Urban and Architectural History)和モダニズムのニッポン(Modernism Japan) 。當初沒有立刻買下他們是基於節儉的美德，同時也想馴服知識的慾望。況且和細馬宏通相較之下，橋爪紳也的取材似乎比較任意，描述多分析少。但是這些材料實在太有趣了，例如京都的琵琶湖疏水道、丹下健三參與的大東亞共榮圈、日本民生用品電氣化過程等等，離開日本之後仍舊在腦中徘徊不去，還是把他們都加入我的 wishlist裡面。這次在京都的行程匆促，但是隨意逛了幾家書店，加上研討會現場的書展，還是買了幾本有趣的書。例如前述的細馬宏通是極為有趣的一位作者，他寫的兩本書：淺草十二階、和絵はがきの時代，加上橫山俊夫編輯的視覚の一九世紀―人間・技術・文明，廣泛而深入地討論了日本現代化過程中各方面的視覺文化，看來可以輕易的連上Hal Foster和 Martin Jay等人的視覺文化研究與視覺理論。另外最近在台灣看到一些關於同潤會的討論(例如此處)，非常吸引人，我找到一本似乎不錯的概論，内田青蔵寫的「同潤会に学べ―住まいの思想とそのデザイン」。值得注意的是後藤新平也是其會員之一，因此若要說台灣有些日治時期的住宅規劃受到同潤會思想的影響也不是不可能的。令人驚喜的是我也買到青井哲人先生的殖民地神社與帝國日本，並且幸運地在研討會會場得到他的贈辭。

整體感覺上日本的建築史出版界還是比中文活潑豐富許多，除了上述幾位作者之外，當然還有令人乍舌的百科全書式的作者，藤森照信、村松伸、布野修司、鈴木博之等人，以及可以想像我還不認識的眾多作者。日本的翻譯事業也是聞名已久，不過當我偶然走入河原四条區域的淳文堂量販書店時，光看到架上已經翻譯成日文的建築知識還是感慨不已。這並不是崇洋與否的問題，我看到的是對於知識的追求與執著，以及吸收外來知識的紮實功夫。附上感動之餘抄下的書單：

Informal-Cecil Balmond; Modern Architecture Through Case Studies-Peter Blundell Jones; Delirious New York-Rem Koolhaas; Theory and Design in the First Machine Age-Reyner Banham; Words and Buildings-Adrian Forty; Frank Lloyd Wright/Lewis Mumford-Thirty Years of Correspondence; Studies of Tectonic Culture-Kenneth Frampton; Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings-Edward Morse (two versions!!); Garden Cities of Tomorrow-Ebenez Howard; Wrapped Space-Anthony Vidler; Architecture and Disjunction-Bernard Tschumi-Skateboarding, Space and the City-Ian Borden; Bucky Works: Buckminster Fuller’s Idea for Today-J. Baldwin; Invisible Gardens-Peter Walker and Milenie Simo

語言是否透明？若否的話，相信世上有翻譯這檔子事不就是天真到無可救藥？我寧願相信在認真的翻譯過程中，譯者也就進行了咀嚼消化的工作，讀者受益了，譯者的收穫相信更多。期待更多的有心人士之餘，我也好奇日本建築研究出版的蓬勃，是否因為其機制有特殊可取之處，亦或是單純的市場大小問題？以此疑問作為今早呢喃自語的結尾。(另外還要勉勵自己的日文要多加油！)

Ruskin

“About the river of human life there is a wintry wind, though a heavenly sunshine; the iris colors its agitation, the frost fixes upon its repose. Let us beware that our rest become not the rest of stones, which so long as they are torrent-tossed, and thunder-stricken, maintain their majesty, but when the stream is silent, and the storm passed, suffer the grass to cover them and the lichen to feed on them, and are ploughed down into dust.” [5]

“[S]o long as it can be supposed that the reason has acted imperfectly owing to its own imperfection, or to the imperfection of the premises submitted to it, (as when men give an inordinate preference to their own pursuits, because they cannot, in the nature of things, have sufficiently experienced the goodness and benefit of others,) and so long as it may be presumed that men have referred to reason in what they do, and have not suffered its orders to be disobeyed through mere impulse and desire, (though those orders may be full of error owing to the reason’s own feebleness,) so long men are not held intemperate. But when it is palpably evident that the reason cannot have erred but that its voice has been deadened or disobeyed, and that the reasonable creature has been dragged dead round the walls of his own citadel by mere passion and impulse,—then, and then only, men are of all held intemperate.” [13-4]

~ John Ruskin, Modern Painters: Volume II. Of the Imaginative and Theoretic Faculties

Kyoto Station – Hiroshi Hara

It takes a second (or perhaps a third or fourth) visit to realize Hiroshi Hara’s achievement at the Kyoto Station. In contrast to the denigrating Kyoto Tower, this new station is well-considered in terms of the circulation of crowds, the connection to the surrounding urban context, and to the underground shop fronts. The underground shopping malls are well-paced, with spacious “courtyards” in-between, accommodating changing programs. One of the impressive characteristics of this building is that, while the exterior of the building looked humongous, once step inside, you don’t feel this tremendous monstrous building as a “mass,” rather you feel yourself wrapped inside a comfortable husk, a thin layer that is called a station. The building itself is also “hallowed out” at the major urban axes—for example, you see a huge cubic void in the middle of the building when you confront the Higashi-Honganji Temple on the the major urban axis Kawamura Street. With this building, “form” or “style” may not be the main concern of the architect, but in every aspect the details are well-thought and the articulation of steel trusses is very powerful. It is as if this busy bustling station building has a live of its own.

Yakushiji 藥師寺, Nara

No photo. Forgot to charge my battery the previous night. Sorry!

Honen-in 法然院, Kyoto (II)

Honen-in 法然院, Kyoto (I)

December

This planet we call earth

The ground cold and weakening

I shivered, walking across the land

Silenced by the disinterested interest

Or is it

Purposefulness without purpose

 

This place we call home

The husk warm and supporting

I reeled, craving without content

Sealed by the smile of the oracle

Or is it

The unfulfilled promise of parctice

 

This prank we call self

The bone cool and bemoaning

I queried, staggering over the hypotheses

Content with the next slice of existence

Or is it

Turtle all the way down

Storyteller

Again and again I am awed by the attention American people pay to the usage of words, both in spoken and written form (what Saussure distinguished as parole and langue). In terms of speech, with this presumed quality of presentation, students are benefited by a more engaging form of lecture in the classroom. To an international student, there is no problem of being assimilated or Americanized when it comes to words. The process of preparing for the coming presentation in Kyoto has proved to be painful but fruitful. With the help of several generous friends, I am able to rehearse again and again the 10-minute presentation of a ten page paper. I tried two extremes: read the paper and create a very dry atmosphere (the langue way), and speak to the slides and engage the audiences without looking at the notes (the parole way).