Aesthetics of Japanese Convenience Stores: From the Point of “Eating Alone”

Convenience stores in Japan have a history of over 40 years. It is thought that they have greatly influenced Japanese ways of life. However, convenience stores are rarely the subject of research in aesthetics. This may be because convenience stores are bright and transparent, incompatible with traditional Japanese aesthetics of shadow in close proximity to light. They are also accused of selling so-called "convenience food," one of the causes of unhealthy "solitary eating," or “eating alone.” From this point of view the food comics Hitori Gohan (Eating Alone) sold at convenience stores is interesting because the subject of solitary eating is the exact problem of convenience stores. Does Hitori Gohan show darkness or shadows of convenience stores? My hypothesis is that Hitori Gohan contains light, not just darkness of solitude. After testing this hypothesis directly against the manga and its readers, I conclude what the aesthetic stance is in today’s Japanese conven-ience stores in comparison to sabi, a Japanese traditional aesthetic value, and its contemporary version, mabusabi, which closely relate to the solitude

The Idea of Landing Sites and Its Inheritance through Tactileology

From the perspective of sustainability, empowering people to live positively without being dominated by death is an important issue. One thing we can do in this vein is to expand one’s own physical sensation, which is the basis for us to live. From this point of view, Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins’ idea of “landing sites” is very important. Landing sites are physical experiences that result from person–environment collaboration. In order to make as many people as possible aware of their physical sensations through landing sites, Arakawa and Gins created artificial environments such as “Site of Reversible Destiny Yoro” where people could gain new physical sensations. They wanted people to build new ethics and move toward social reformation based on their new physical sensations. However, at present, these artificial environments have some problems. It is the time to seriously consider how we can pass on the experience of landing sites to future generations. The aim of this paper is to provide an answer to the question by Yasuhiro Suzuki’s scientific research on tactile sense, called tactileology. I first introduce Arakawa and Gin’s text about the idea of “landing sites” and make clear its importance. Next, I point out that, now, “landing sites” present certain difficulties. I then confirm that tactileology inherits the idea of “landing sites”