Tokyo's 1964 Olympic design as a ‘realm of [design] memory’

Abstract

This essay examines the graphic design of the Tokyo 1964 Games as a symbolic site through which Japan's postwar identity was re-articulated in relation with both the realm of internationalization and tradition. The visual language utilized by the Tokyo Games adhered to the anti-historical approach of modernism, while it also encoded the visual composition of crest design, established in medieval Japan. In encoding their tradition in not directly decipherable means, postwar Japanese designers found an important resource for distinguishing their identity in the international arena, and for establishing a continuity with their past. In the years following the Olympics, their designs were recognized as instigators of an international design scene, becoming also reminiscent of the 1964 Olympic glory days. On the other hand, they also encapsulated memories of the nation that acted on a visceral level, echoing Japanese society's fluctuation between tradition and modernity, nationalism and internationalism, past and future.