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Diplaying at the Brompton Design District for London Design Festival 2021, Tokyo1964: Designing Tomorrow shares often untold stories, artefacts, and designs from the 1964 Olympic Games. The exhibition explores how Japan realised the opportunity of the Games to tell a fresh story to the world following the Second World War through ground-breaking design and architecture that still influences today. Visitors can discover a number of world firsts, including the pioneering use of the pictogram as a universal language for a global event, the bullet train (Shinkansen), the emergence of ‘hi-tech’ infrastructure, colour broadcasting and the first use of the word ‘Paralympic’. Curated by Japan House London in collaboration with Yamashita Megumi and David Phillips and produced in collaboration with the Prince Chichibu Memorial Sports Museum & Library of the Japan Sports Council.
The exhibition shares stories and artefacts never seen before in the UK and runs until 7 November 2021.The 1964 Games were Japan’s first, large-scale engagement with the world after the Second World War. They presented a chance to tell a fresh story and showcase Japanese creativity and design thinking across the globe, an opportunity elevated by the 1964 Games being the first to be broadcast in colour on TV to a world-wide audience via satellite.
Exhibits on display include:
-Original 1964 posters designed by Kamekura Yūsaku and the award-winning team of post-war designers, marking the frst time that photography was used to promote an Olympic Games.
-Tickets, posters and the design guide itself which, for the first time in a worldwide sporting event, set out the visual brand including logotype, typography and the set of newly created pictograms.
-Architectural models showcasing the pioneering design of buildings such as the Olympic Memorial Tower by Ashihara Yoshinobu and and the Yoyogi National Gymnasium by Tange Kenzō, the latter gaining the coveted Pritzker Architecture Prize for its vast suspension roof design.
-The majority of objects in the exhibition are generously loaned from the Prince Chichibu Memorial Sports Museum & Library in Japan – many of which will be displayed for the first time in the UK.
“I am very pleased that we have this opportunity to share our collection in the UK in partnership with Japan House London. Please enjoy our major exhibits including the original posters designed by Kamekura Yūsaku and the models of Yoyogi National Gymnasium designed by Tange Kenzō,” says Hiroyuki Kawamura Hiroyuki, Director, Prince Chichibu Memorial Sports Museum.
“This exhibition shows how the design project for the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games, the first to be held in Asia, was revolutionary in creating a unified language by which to communicate the Games. It became the blueprint for subsequent major international sporting events. It illustrates Japan’s powerful emergence on the world stage after the dark years of the Second World War and how this Japanese design vision has influenced, and still influences, so much of what is now,” shares Simon Wright, Director of Programming, Japan House London.A dedicated programme of events accompanies the exhibition including a look at the remarkable volleyball win by the ‘Witches of the Orient’.
Tokyo 1964: Designing Tomorrow is curated by Japan House London in collaboration with Yamashita Megumi and David Philips and produced in collaboration with the Prince Chichibu Memorial Sports Museum & Library of the Japan Sport Council.
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