Jan 4, 2021

Four Facets of Contemporary Japanese Architecture: City

This is the third course in the “Four Facets of Contemporary Japanese Architecture” series, which focuses on the third facet: city. After the 1970s, Japanese architects are said to have stopped conceptualizing cities and instead focused on designing the individual buildings that make up the cities. However, as cities continue to undergo significant transformations in response to globalization, the advent of information technologies, and so on, Japanese architects are once again engaging the city, and doing so in unique ways. This course on “City” will review the works of those architects who have attempted to conceptualize cities through their architecture and examine the changes over the last half century as well as the issues for the future. Fumihiko Maki, Itsuko Hasegawa, Riken Yamamoto, Kengo Kuma, Jun Aoki, and Atelier Bow-Wow (Yoshiharu Tsukamoto & Momoyo Kaijima) visit their buildings to discuss the ideas behind their respective works.

KUMA Kengo (University Professor, Office of University Professor, The University of Tokyo) OBUCHI Yusuke (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo)

Jun 6, 2024

The Power of Words

This course examines how words retain power amidst crises, focusing on Japanese and English literature. It explores how words aid in resilience and self-renewal. Emphasis is placed on understanding the role of form in texts and socia interactions to deepen comprehension of expression mechanisms. Students of this course can learn the history of English and Japanese literature, particularly in terms of form as well as how the forms work in written texts and human relationships.

Oct 10, 2015

Visualizing Postwar Tokyo, Part 2

The history of postwar Tokyo reveals an essential feature of the modern city, i.e. the city as a place of visualities. In postwar Tokyo, countless gazes fell upon others; gazes from and upon Americans and the Emperor, gazes going up skyscrapers or rushing aggressively through the cityscape, and gazes twining and wriggling among classes, genders, and ethnic groups in downtown Tokyo. In Part 2, we will focus on the geopolitics of these gazes in modern Tokyo. What kinds of gazes fell upon the war orphans, the poor, and the marginalized groups in Tokyo? How did students themselves, who represented the vast accumulation of knowledge in Tokyo, perform in front of these gazes? Moreover, how did cinema or television shows, as media for these gazes, implicate the whole city? In answering these questions, we will identify the geopolitics historically involved in the practice of “visualizing postwar Tokyo.”

YOSHIMI Shunya (Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo)

Apr 6, 2021

Interactive Teaching

This course consists of three parts: Knowledge sessions, Skill sessions, and Story sessions. In Knowledge sessions, you can learn how to use pedagogical knowledge to promote students’ interactive learning. In Skill sessions, you can learn techniques for creating an environment for active learning from a theatrical and expressive perspective. In Story sessions, leading researchers and practitioners in their respective fields will share their teaching practices and experiences. This course is intended not only for graduate students and university teachers, but also for primary and secondary teachers and people in human resource development departments of companies. This course provides a meaningful opportunity for all the people engaged in “teaching.” For more information about the course, please see the following video "Course Outline & Learner's Guide". https://www.coursera.org/lecture/interactive-teaching/jiang-zuo-nogai-yao-toshou-jiang-fang-fa-course-outline-learners-guide-eUoJ2

KURITA Kayoko (Professor, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo)