Isamu Noguchi's Legacy Lives on at Mita
Jan. 31, 2022
Isamu Noguchi was one of the twentieth century's most critically acclaimed sculptors.Isamu Noguchi: Ways of Discoverywas held until August 29, 2021, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, where impressive sculptures and Akari light installations enthralled visitors. Connected to Keio University through his father, the Japanese-American Noguchi had a turbulent past. In this feature, we share how his family connection influenced the construction of the Ex-Noguchi Room that still stands near the South Building on Mita Campus.
A Life Torn Between the U.S. & Japan
Isamu Noguchi was born in Los Angeles in 1904 to mother Léonie Gilmour, an American writer, and father Yonejiro Noguchi, a poet and graduate of the Department of Literature at Keio University, where he would later teach. His father returned to Japan soon after Isamu was born, and Noguchi's mother took him to Japan to live with his father in 1907. Sadly, Yonejiro had already started a new family with a Japanese woman by this time, and Noguchi went to live with his mother, who chose to stay in Japan.
It would be more than a decade before Noguchi traveled back to the United States. In 1918, he returned to the U.S. at his mother's discretion with dreams of becoming an artist while serving as an apprentice to a prominent sculptor, but unsure of his future, he entered the Columbia University Pre-Med program in 1923 to explore a career in medicine. During this time, he made the acquaintance of prominent Japanese bacteriologist Hideyo Noguchi, who had met Isamu's father on a lecture tour of the U.S. They quickly became friends over their shared surname, and Hideyo was happy to treat Isamu as kindly as he had his father. It is rumored that when Isamu consulted Hideyo about whether to become a doctor or an artist, Hideyo told him that the artist was more admirable and encouraged him to follow in his father's artistic footsteps.
In 1924, he began to study sculpture in earnest at the Leonardo da Vinci Art School in New York, and the following year, he held an exhibition that helped him establish himself as a professional sculptor. In 1927, he received a Guggenheim scholarship to study in Paris. Later, after producing stage sets in the U.S. and murals in Mexico, he gradually rose to prominence as a promising international artist. However, Noguchi did not set foot on Japanese soil again until 1931, when he was reunited with his estranged father.
Father-Son Bond Begets a Masterpiece at Keio
In 1949, Noguchi visited Europe, Egypt, India, and Indonesia under the auspices of the Bollingen Foundation, only returning to Japan for the first time in almost twenty years in 1950. He was embraced by Japanese artists and architects alike, participating in numerous projects during the postwar reconstruction era. One of the projects was to design a lounge and conversation space for the new Second Faculty Building on Mita Campus.
Three years earlier, in 1947, on the 90th anniversary of its founding, then-President Kōji Ushioda commissioned architect Yoshiro Taniguchi to reconstruct the school buildings on Mita Campus, which had been severely damaged by air raids during World War II. One building to be rebuilt was the Banraisha, first built in 1876 as a place for free exchange between anyone and everyone on campus. Taniguchi aimed to revive the spirit of Fukuzawa through his architecture when designing the Second Faculty Building, its garden, and social lounge as the successor to the Banraisha, which had sat in the same spot adjacent to the Mita Public Speaking Hall. Taniguchi entrusted the design of the lounge space to Noguchi, who was introduced to him by President Ushioda as the son of Yonejiro.
Noguchi sympathized with Taniguchi's concept of constructing this new Banraisha and quickly set to work, feeling it could also be a space to commemorate his late father, who had passed away in 1947. After its completion in 1951, the space's innovative design attracted considerable attention for incorporating a variety of materials that include concrete, stone, wood, and steel, and the three sculpturesMu(Nothingness),Wakai Hito(Young Man), andGakusei(Student) installed in the adjacent garden. The space eventually earned a reputation as a masterpiece of modernist design, and though it was officially named Shinbanraisha, it was more commonly known as the "Noguchi Room."
Ex-Noguchi Room Restored as a Cultural Property After Preservation Conflict
Just over a half-century later, in 2002, the decision was made to demolish the Second Faculty Building to make way for construction on the South Building. At the time, a debate arose both inside and outside the university, drawing attention from numerous parties, including the Isamu Noguchi Foundation in New York, over the preservation of the Noguchi Room.
When the Second Faculty Building was eventually demolished, Keio tapped architect Kengo Kuma, then a professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology, to restore the Noguchi Room as an entirely new space. Renowned environmental designer Michel Desvigne was asked to design the garden outside. In 2004, the Ex-Noguchi Room building and Noguchi's sculptureMu(Nothingness) were installed on the roof terrace on the third floor of the South Building, while sculpturesWakai Hito(Young Man) andGakusei(Student) were exhibited on the first floor.
The relocated space is now known as the "Ex-Noguchi Room." While the building is usually closed to the public, public events are held regularly to provide visitors with the opportunity to experience Isamu Noguchi's art.
360-degree panoramic views of the Noguchi Room Archive are now available online.
The Keio University Art Center took note of the artistic and cultural value of the Noguchi Room long before plans for its relocation and started the Noguchi Room Archive project. The website offers 360-degree panoramic views of the original interior and garden before relocation.
The free online course "Invitation to Ex-Noguchi Room: Preservation and Utilization of Cultural Properties in Universities" is now available on FutureLearn!
In this course, FutureLearn frames the Ex-Noguchi Room as a case study to consider the possibility of visualizing, preserving, and utilizing cultural properties at universities.
*This article originally appeared inStained Glassin the 2021 Autumn edition (No. 312) ofJuku.