From Edo to Post-metropolis: The Floating Space of Sakariba (盛り場)

Federico Farnè

doi:10.25038/am.v0i22.387

Authors

Federico Farnè

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i22.387

Keywords:

post-metropolis, Tokyo, rhizome, space, sakariba, architecture

Abstract

This paper will highlight suggestions and problems associated with representing Tokyo as the archetypical Far-East Asian post-metropolis, starting with the fascination of sci-fi and cyberpunk imagery. The two ideas operate differently within both European and Japanese urban space. This will be emphasized by the work of Deleuze and Guattarì, through their conceptions of tree and rhizome. The research will not limit itself to demonstrating the rhizomatic and fluid nature of Tokyo's urban space, which makes it a fully-fledged post-metropolis. It will also identify some of the rhizome's main nodes or junctions, thus highlighting its conformation in terms of efficient strength.

Article received: April 30, 2020; Article accepted: June 23, 2020; Published online: September 15, 2020; Review article

Author Biography

Federico Farnè

University of Bologna, Italy; Ritsumeikan University Kyoto,
Japan

Federico Farnè, Ph.D. in Philosophy, Science, Cognition, and Semiotics at the University of Bologna. He is a visiting researcher at the International Institute of Language and Culture Studies at Ritsumeikan University of Kyoto. In the 2016-17 academic year he was a lecturer at the laboratory of Iconology and Iconography in the Faculty of Psychology and Education of the University of Bologna. He has published articles of comparative aesthetics on cyberpunk and science-fiction in literature and cinema. Between his articles on the topic of the urban space, he published: “Tokyo, the versatile city” in the International Yearbook of Aesthetics (Vol. 19, 2017), and Gazes and atmospheres: different visions of Venice (2019).

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i22.387 DOI: https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i22.387