ZINE/ZAKKA/FREE PAPER/GALLERY/RISO GRAPH
Joji Hayashi
SPECIAL INTERVIEW
JOJI HAYASHI
SPECIAL INTERVIEW
September 21, 2022 (Mon.)
Interview: Hajime Shimizu
Text: Rika Watanabe
Top image: Hajime Shimizu
Photo: Ryo Inoue
What would you call Joji Hayashi? He writes and draws illustrations. He's a researcher of Meiji culture and a street observer. In his youth, he refused to take over his family's clinic and impulsively enrolled in Musashino Art University. He met his wife on campus and decided to marry her without exchanging a single word, purely on instinct. He quit Sanrio, where he had just joined, to pursue his passions to the fullest. He truly is a man of inspiration. In short, Joji Hayashi was born to be Joji Hayashi .
Life is full of things that make you go "Wow!"
It contains something of my own,
Well, it's what you'd call a "shocked" moment (!).
There must be something in there.
The next thing that comes after that is a question mark (?),
If you keep this, this, and this in mind,
Life can be fun forever.
Many people probably associate Joji Hayashi with his "manhole covers." What is it about him that has drawn me to his work?
After leaving Sanrio, I became a freelance designer, but shortly after, my mother passed away at the young age of 58. My mother married into a doctor's family and had always been preoccupied with managing the household and the clinic. I'm sure she had things she wanted to do herself, but she couldn't. So I thought, "I have to hurry!" I don't know how long I'll live either. So I decided to live my life doing what I love.
I actually started taking pictures of manhole covers when I was a student. I found a page in a design book I bought at a used bookstore that had several pictures of manhole covers, and I thought it was interesting. I had always thought that I would one day compile the photos I had taken into a book, but I couldn't afford to be so leisurely. Because I might die before then. So, while continuing to work, I spent a year walking all over Japan and taking pictures all at once. I didn't take any time off at all. I didn't watch any television either.
To get the book published, I initially approached a large publishing house. But they all said, "Manhole covers? No way!" Then, a friend of mine from a small publishing house said, "That sounds interesting, let's do it. Let's get a manhole manufacturer to sponsor it." So, I went to Hinode Suido Kiki Co., Ltd., the largest manhole manufacturer in Japan, located in Kyushu, and it turned out that their department head was interested in the history of manhole covers. So, we decided to produce just 1,000 copies for promotional purposes.
It all started with "manhole covers," which sparked my interest in various things on the streets and led me to connect with different kinds of people.
When I was walking around taking pictures of manhole covers, I used a map to mark them so I wouldn't have to walk the same places repeatedly. But you know, there are other interesting things on the streets besides manhole covers. I tried not to get distracted, but there were things that just caught my eye. One of them was the "chicken television." There were chickens being kept inside a broken television, and since they were living creatures, I thought I should take a picture now before they died. So I pressed the shutter. That led to what we now call street observation.
"Chicken Coop TV" April 10, 1982, Kita Ward, Tokyo / Photo by Joji Hayashi
"Europe Collected on Shoe Soles," circa 1984. 100 Days in Europe (Not for Sale)
After that, I decided to walk around Tokyo following a map, and when I looked it up, I found that there are about 11,000 kilometers of walkable paths within the 23 wards, which means I could walk them all in about three and a half years if I walked 10 kilometers every day. However, in reality, I can't do that 365 days a year. I've probably walked about 80% of that distance now. But the purpose isn't just walking, nor is it just following a map. It's about finding something interesting and enjoying it. It feels like taking a detour. For example, when taking photographs, some people just take pictures of what they're told. There's nothing wrong with that, but if you want to find something different from others and express it, you have to look for something that attracts you. In the end, I'm not doing anything for anyone else; I'm doing it to make myself happy.
It was writer Genpei Akasegawa and architectural historian Terunobu Fujimori who took an interest in what I was doing for myself. One of the things that interested them was "Europe Collected from Shoe Soles," which started when I was walking around Europe and flicking out the pebbles stuck to the bottoms of my shoes to avoid hurting my feet. As I looked at the stones, I thought it would be a waste to throw them away. In fact, when I put them in a jar and displayed them, I could feel the color of each city, and it was quite beautiful. Come to think of it, I think it was Akasegawa who came up with the title "Europe Collected from Shoe Soles." Meeting Akasegawa was truly a stroke of luck for me. It made me realize that it's okay to continue doing what I want to do.
After that, you started serializing articles in "Sarai" and "Mainichi Graph." What kind of articles were you writing?
I guess I was just thinking about writing about whatever came to mind, things that nobody else had done. Before I got the magazine job, I had scribbled down a bunch of things I wanted to do in an idea notebook. So, actually, I just went through them in order. The first thing I wrote about was the cat from Natsume Soseki's "I Am a Cat." This was a cat that Soseki actually owned, and his wife wrote that it was a completely black cat. They kept it in Sendagi in Bunkyo Ward and took it with them when they moved to Waseda. It was originally a stray male cat, so I thought there might be some descendants in the area and went to look for them. Nobody else had done that kind of fieldwork. And then I found a completely black one, at a tofu shop nearby. I'm absolutely certain it's him (laughs).
August 1, 2001 Where's the Cat? / Published by Kosaido Publishing Co., Ltd.
Ultimately, it all starts with what you come up with. That flash of inspiration is the "beginning" in terms of the "introduction, development, turn, and conclusion" structure. That said, I'm not very good at making things logical, so it's always more like "introduction, development, turn, turn" (laughs). Thinking about how to make it interesting and expressing it through writing, photos, and illustrations is the "development" and "turn." If I had to say, the different ways people see it are the "conclusion." I want people who look at my work to interpret it in various ways, like "it can be seen this way" or "it can be seen that way."
I keep an idea notebook, and I think it's good for anyone who wants to express something to have something like that. When you record things, something of yourself is included in it. If you don't record things, you'll forget what you felt. Everyone sees things differently, and everyone focuses on different things, but you have to focus. If you look vaguely, it's just blurry, and there's no room for further exploration. Once you go through the process of focusing, you'll start to focus on what you like, and your enjoyment will expand.
"Travel Diary - The Joy of Postcards 3" is popular at SUT, so could you tell us more about postcards?
It all started when I sent a postcard to Hinako Sugiura, a manga artist who was hospitalized, to cheer her up. After that, I started writing postcards to my wife from my travels to let her know that I was doing well. I've probably sent her around 100 postcards. I figured if I was going to write them anyway, I might as well make sure my wife enjoyed them, and in that case, I'd enjoy my travels too.
From "Travel Diary - The Joy of Postcards 3"
What we call a "postcard" is usually a tourist postcard, right? That's fine, but instead of something amazing that everyone notices, I want to notice and share things that shine a little light in the background. Something that shows the way of life in that place, you know?
These days, I sometimes upload my work to social media, but those don't leave a physical trace like a postcard. I think that taking the time to actually move my hands and expressing myself, and putting my feelings into it, is absolutely different from digital images. I think that for viewers, this kind of tactile sensation is really interesting, and I believe it conveys something to them.
Photographed and interviewed at the studio on September 21, 2022 (planned for exhibition and sale).
Finally, I'd like to ask about your studio. I understand that as part of your end-of-life planning, you're digitizing the documents you've been organizing manually.
I'm not doing this end-of-life planning all by myself; my wife is helping me. No, not "helping," but "together." You could even say we're working as a team. When it comes to things like, "Um, that thing back then..." my wife probably understands it better than I do. I'm truly grateful for her. And I'm also grateful for my intuition back then (laughs).
For me, my studio is like a shelf where I categorize and organize the things in my head. It's like a large-scale idea notebook. So, I'm really glad that I can now process such a huge amount of information on my PC. I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of exhibition SUT will create, as they're going to recreate my studio for their event.
Currently, I'm in what you might call the "first phase" of preparing for the end of my life, and I've almost finished decluttering. Back in the days before PCs, I used to copy everything, classifying newspaper articles by putting one article per A4 sheet. This became so massive that I couldn't process it anymore. There were about 2,000 categories alone, and it kept getting subdivided, with even more elements being added. So, I started scanning and saving the data. Specifically, there are 180,000 newspaper articles by category alone, and 140,000 Meiji-era documents. Now, I can retrieve them anytime with a simple search. By saving everything on my PC, I was able to get rid of all the shelves in my room (laughs).
Photo taken and interviewed on September 21, 2022, at the studio with his wife, Setsuko.
Hayashi Joji
Illustrator, essayist, Meiji culture researcher, street observer, and more.
1947年 誕生・東京練馬区
1954年 小学校の頃より絵を描くのが好き
1960年 小学高学年では学友の趣味を調べるなど、
調査マニアの片鱗をみせる
1968年 武蔵野美術大学産業デザイン学科入学
カメラを携えた街歩きの楽しさを知る
1970年 古本屋で見つけた雑誌
「インダストリアルデザイン」で
マンホールの蓋と出会う
1970年 マンホールの蓋
初撮影『荒玉水道』（11月12日）
1972年 山口県萩市
何かにみえてしまうもの初撮影（2月29日）
1972年 サンリオ入社
スヌーピーのキャラクターデザインを担当
1977年 サンリオ退社 フリーとなる
1981年 母の死をきっかけに
マンホールのふたの出版を決意
1981年 1年間脇目も振らず
東京のマンホールの蓋を見て回る
1981年 父親から頼まれた調べ物をきっかけに
明治の新聞を読み始める
1984年 マンホールのふた〈日本編〉出版（3月30日）
1985年 藤森、赤瀬川、南氏らと出会う
1985年 1日で5県を歩く
アイデア帳「あれもこれもやりたい帳」に
登録（6月13日）
1986年 マンホールの蓋〈ヨーロッパ編〉出版
1986年 藤森、赤瀬川、南、松田らと
『路上観察学会』設立（昭和61年）
1988年 雑誌「毎日グラフ」にて
初の連載執筆（1990年まで）
1989年 雑誌「サライ」創刊と同時に連載（約10年間）
1995年 1日で5県を歩く
栃木県・群馬県・茨城県・埼玉県・千葉県（6月16日）
2002年 日本絵葉書会創立・参加
2005年 1日で東京の23区すべてを歩く（6月23日）
2006年 第10回ヴェネチア・ビエンナーレ建築展
日本館／路上観察 参加
2018年 林丈二の路上探偵 番外編：路上探偵in台湾
2018年 林丈二作品展「鬼はどこ？」
2019年 林丈二の路上探偵 Vol.10.3「伊豆探偵」
2019年 路上探偵ー啄木の事件簿ー
2021年 根岸及近傍図を読み解くトークイベント
2022年 林丈二のあれもこれも展 in 中目黒SUT
Joji Hayashi/Publications
1984年 3月 マンホールのふた（日本篇）
1986年12月 マンホールの蓋（ヨーロッパ篇）
1984年 4月 目玉の散歩ノート
1989年 9月 街を転がる目 玉のように
2005年 8月 路上探偵事務所
1994年 7月 がらくた道楽
1995年10月 ブリュッセルの招き猫
ヨーロッパ旅の絵本
2001年 8月 猫はどこ？
1998年 8月 型録・ちょっと昔の生活雑貨
2000年 9月 明治がらくた博覧会
2000年 6月 西洋アンティーク 絵葉書
2003年 3月 犬はどこ？
2016年 9月 文明開化がやって来た
2004年 3月 東京を騒がせた動物たち
2008年11月 猫やネコ 林丈二の101猫物語
1999年 3月 閑古堂の絵葉書散歩―東編
1999年 4月 閑古堂の絵葉書散歩―西編
1994年 3月 こんなに面白い上野公園
「歩けば」シリーズ
1992年 4月 イタリア 歩けば…
2001年 5月 イタリア 歩けば…
2004年 7月 パリ 歩けば…
2002年 5月 ロンドン 歩けば…
1993年 7月 フランス 歩けば…
2000年 2月 オランダ 歩けば…
Hayashi Joji Information
This and That Exhibition
Joji Hayashi, who holds many titles including street observer, illustrator, essayist, and researcher of Meiji culture, will be holding his first solo exhibition at Nakameguro SUT, showcasing a wide range of his activities.
That's a map, this is a map.
This exhibition showcases various "maps" that Joji Hayashi has created throughout his career . From contributions to magazines, to published books, to handwritten maps in his notebooks, and even maps from his mind—everything will be on display.