Tama Art University Library, Tokyo, Japan.

Tama Art University, considered one of the best art schools in Japan, was first founded in 1935. Its Hachioji campus is located in the western part of Tokyo. The Hachioji Library was designed by Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects. It owns about 77,000 Japanese books, 47,000 foreign language books, and 1,500 periodicals. The collection specializes in art, design and architecture, including reference books, exhibition catalogues, and related materials. The two-story library was designed and built from 2004 to 2007 from steel and reinforced concrete. Toyo Ito & Associates sent this description to an architectural website:

Passing through the main entrance gate, the site lies behind a front garden with small and large trees, and stretches up a gentle slope… To let the flows and views of these people freely penetrate the building, we began to think of a structure of randomly placed arches which would create the sensation as if the sloping floor and the front garden’s scenery were continuing within the building. The characteristic arches are made out of steel plates covered with concrete. In plan these arches are arranged along curved lines which cross at several points. With these intersections, we were able to keep the arches extremely slender at the bottom and still support the heavy live loads of the floor above… Shelves and study desks of various shapes, glass partitions that function as bulletin boards, etc., give these zones a sense of both individual character and visual as well as spatial continuity. On the sloped ground level, a movie-browser like a bar counter and a large glass table for the latest issues of magazines invite students to spend their time waiting for the bus in the library. Climbing the stairs to the second floor, one finds large art books on low bookshelves crossing under the arches… The spatial diversity one experiences when walking through the arches different in span and height changes seamlessly from a cloister-like space filled with natural light, to the impression of a tunnel that cannot be penetrated visually. The new library is a place where everyone can discover their style of “interacting” with books and film media as if they were walking through a forest or in a cave; a new place of arcade-like spaces where soft mutual relations form by simply passing through; a focal centre where a new sense of creativity begins to spread throughout the art university’s campus.

Some fans of architectural were surprised by the strongly Italian look of the library building. One blog

compared the superficial appearance of its different sized arches to Romanesque buildings in the Piazza dei Miracoli, Pisa, Italy. Others find the design recalls the Palazzo Rucellai, a townhouse built in the 1400s in Florence, Italy. Or the grand designs of the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson who was a leading creative spirit in the late 1800s. Upon actually visiting the library, the blogger noted that the library was closer to a cave than any reminder of old European architecture. Apparently the architect was thinking of caves, and originally wanted to build the library entirely underground. The ground floor level would have been reserved for students to meet and art to be exhibited. It turned out that to dig deep enough to build a cave-like library underground would have been too costly. So the architect decided to place the main area of his library on the building’s second floor. Even now, arches appear through the building, reminding some visitors of stalactites, the icicle-shaped formations hanging from the ceilings of caves, made by minerals in water dripping through cave ceilings.

Thailand and Japan

The relationship between Thailand and Japan goes back some 600 years. Over the past half-century, Japan has provided the most significant foreign investment in the Kingdom. On the website of the Embassy of Japan in Thailand, His Excellency Ambassador Shiro Sadoshima, who became Japanese Ambassador to Thailand last year, observes:

Taking a look at the streets of Bangkok, we can see plenty of Japanese food and products and are aware of their great popularity among the people of Thailand. I believe that this popularity results from the long-standing and untiring efforts of our Japanese predecessors who have walked with the people of Thailand. The relationship between Thailand and Japan has long been cordial and intimate at the government, public sector, and grass-roots levels, to say nothing of the bond between our royal families. The number of Japanese residents in Thailand has reportedly reached around 64,000, and it is said that Japanese companies in Thailand total approximately 4,000 to 5,000. For a long time Thailand has been one of the most popular holiday destinations for Japanese people. Many of them, myself included, have repeatedly visited Thailand. In recent times, the number of visitors from Thailand to Japan has been increasing on an annual basis, and in 2014 reached around 660,000 thanks to the weak Japanese yen and the consumption tax exemption and visa waiver policy for short term visitors by the Japanese Government. Since April 2012 the number of Thai visitors to Japan has consistently hit record levels for 34 months in a row. Our Embassy would like to make the utmost efforts in further expanding these friendly and close relations between our two countries.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Nation last year, the ambassador suggested that Thailand focus on research, development, and high-quality infrastructure projects. These include the high-speed-rail project between Bangkok and Chiang Mai and the East-West Economic Corridor from Sa Kaew province near Cambodia to Kanchanaburi province, linking to the Dawei deep-sea port and industrial-estate projects. So-called soft infrastructure links are also vital, such as university cooperation and student exchanges among ASEAN countries.

Trade development

Last year The Nation reported that Thailand and Japan had agreed on stronger trade and economic ties:

Thailand and Japan have moved towards stronger economic cooperation by focusing on two-way investment and more bilateral trade, while the Kingdom will serve as a springboard for Japanese investors to boost trade to third markets. The two nations also will cooperate in technology transfer in farming and manufacturing… For its part, Japan will no longer be only an investor in the Kingdom, but Thai investors foresee more opportunities to do business in Japan under its open economic policies…Japan will participate in Thailand’s high-speed-rail project linking the Northern, Eastern and Central regions with 1,200 kilometres of track…Thailand has urged Japan to import more rice, processed and frozen chicken, fruits, rubber, sugar, and spa products and hotel amenities as Japan is one of the world’s biggest consumption markets… Industries in which Thailand and Japan should cooperate in developing production standards are food, lifestyle, cosmetics, spa and healthcare products, and products to serve ageing societies.

In February, the progress of these plans became evident when Japanese investors encouraged Thailand to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to attract Japanese investment needed to develop the Kingdom’s infrastructure. Japanese investors in Thai railways, energy and telecommunications would follow such past projects as power plants and deep-water ports. Also in February, as a sign of Thai investment in Japan, Bangchak Petroleum PCL, a Thai company dealing in refining and marketing petroleum products, including: gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas, fuel oil and natural gas, announced it was acquiring SunEdison Japan, a solar power company in Japan, for Bt2.92 billion as part of a plan to expand power plant capacity.

In March among other developments, the board of Thai Solar Energy PCL, whose goal is to produce clean renewable energy, approved investment in solar power plants in Japan, as a further sign of seeking alternative energy sources.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and flickr.com)