An Icon of Metabolism: The Miyakonojo Civic Center

While in Miyakonojo I stopped by a strange piece of architecture, the Miyakonojo Civic Center.

It was built in 1966 and was designed by architect Kiyonori Kikutake.

Kikutake was part of an architectural movement called Metabolism that operated in the 1950's and 60's, and was almost a purely Japanese movement. It claimed to be a reaction to Western modern architecture that it said was too much based on the machine.

Quite a few of the top architects of late 20th Century Japan were part of, or influenced by, Metabolism, but in reality not a lot got built, rather utopian designs for cities and towns were the main focus.

World Expo 70 in Osaka was perhaps the peak of metabolism with many of the architects and designs being featured there.

I'm sure that when it was constructed, with fresh white concrete, it must have looked quite impressive.......

Getting to the Kyushu National Museum

The Kyushu National Museum is located in the ancient western capital of Dazaifu in Fukuoka.

It's built on a hill overlooking Dazaifi Tenmangu, the temple built around the last resting place of Sugawara Michizane that became a shrine in the Meiji Period, and probably the most major tourist spot in Dazaifu.

To get between the two there is a series of escalators and moving walkways. The museum was designed by the famous Metabolist architect  Kiyonori Kikutake, and I suspect the escalator and walkway too.

What makes it worthy of note and inclusion in my occasional architecture postings is the light show. A sequence of different colors shoot down the tunnel as you travel along, as well different colored lighting along the wall.