Graffiti by Keio students at the Time of Student Mobilization

2024/06/18

It was in 2009 that I first noticed that graffiti. The Kishukusha was completed in 1937 based on a design by architect Yoshiro Taniguchi. A modernist structure consisting of three dormitory buildings—the South, Middle, and North Dorms—and a separate communal bathhouse, it was hailed as the finest student dormitory in the East. In an era where shared rooms were the norm, it featured private rooms, built-in beds, floor heating, and Western-style flush toilets. It housed 120 selected Keio students and became a cultural hub where Keio students frequently gathered. However, toward the end of the war, it was leased to the Navy and later requisitioned by the US military, leading to renovations and destruction. After the war, only one building resumed operation as a dormitory, but the need to secure housing for students turned them into three-person rooms. It eventually became a place known only to those in the know, with few people stopping by.

In the dormitories of other schools that were hubs of 'bankara' (rough-and-ready) culture, there was a strong tradition of graffiti covering every wall. However, at Keio University, where such a culture was not in vogue, students apparently thought to leave modest traces more discreetly on the back of the built-in wardrobe doors. Shortly after the dormitory opened, there were a few instances of graffiti consisting of little more than the first occupant's name written in block letters. However, just five years later in 1943, the dormitory faced the 'Student Mobilization' where many students left the dorm, and the following year, they were forced to vacate for the Navy's occupancy. The students entrusted their thoughts to graffiti. Memories of this graffiti are recorded in the 50th-anniversary commemorative magazine of the Kishukusha.

"I wrote this with the help of a little alcohol on a night spent counting how many days I had left in the civilian world. Each person must have had their own deep thoughts. But they were likely not so simple that an outsider could truly understand them."

The two shown here are particularly memorable. What does the intense brushwork of 'Oh, I hear the footsteps of the century! My beloved room, the home of my heart, may you prosper!' represent? The German scrawl 'Was in der Jugend unsverirrter Alltag ist, erscheint uns später wie ein Märchentraum' means 'The daily life of our youth becomes a fairy tale as time passes.'

The seniors who experienced the war have almost all passed away, but what can the objects left behind convey to future generations? A special exhibition reflecting on this, 'Keio University and the War: From Objects to People,' will be held at the Keio History Museum (Period: June 18 – August 31).

The wardrobe graffiti still remains inside the dormitory today.

(Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor, Keio University Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies)