Akasegawa Genpei is a hero of mine. I find his work hugely inspiring and he often influences how I perceive urban streetscapes. Akasegawa was born in Yokohama in 1937 and died in Tokyo in 2014. He was an artist and prize-winning author who emerged into the Japanese art scene in the 60’s as part of the “Anti-art” movement before gaining involvement with the Neo Dada Organizers and the Hi Red Centre. His incredible “Model 1,000-Yen Note Incident” (1963-1974) cemented him as an inspired conceptualist.
Akasegawa spent the following decade absorbed a meticulous study of mundane objects and activities. It was during this time that Akasegawa and his friends began noticing and documenting what they referred to as “ Hyper-Art” (chōgeijutsu). Hyper-Art encompassed ordinary but useless street objects that unintentional resembled conceptual artwork. What begun to stand out to the group were the overlooked “architectural objects around the city which though maintained served no apparent purpose, aesthetic or otherwise”. They called these objects “Thomassons” .
WHAT IS A THOMASSON?
Thomasson are essentially useless architectural remnants left behind as our cities evolve and expand. At times these Thomasson are oddly well maintained and other times, they are left to deteriorate. Here are a few examples:
Useless staircases
Bricked up windows and doors
Utility poles with no wires
Bannisters for stairs long gone
Redundant walls and architectural supports
Outlines of former buildings that remain as patchy silhouettes on walls. I think you get the idea, right?
Arboreal Thomassons - trees in public areas that seem to be consuming a fence or a wall etc
Useless bridges
Through a series of articles in a countercultural magazine column, Akasegawa called on the general public to seek out, photograph and submit reports of the Thomasson they found. The project was a resounding success and became a popular, participatory exploration of urban environments that went on to become a cult hit with people sending in Thomasson observations from all over Japan and even Europe and USA..
“Gary Thomasson was a major-league ballplayer in the United States, before the Yomiuri Giants lured him over to Japan with a lavish contract. He had a good swing. The only problem was that this infamous swing never seems to make contact with the ball: his bat would whiz futile through the air, until at last he ended up on the bench for good. In fact, if you write out the name “Gary Thomasson” in Japanese characters, it spells out the word for “hyperart”. And in the space between the gnarled topology of these two words, the wispy image of an urban ghost appears… Akasegawa Genpei
Strange window: Credit: Londonlife/Bloomzy
Junsui taipu 純粋タイプ. Spotted in Bow, East London. UK.
Useless gate. Spotted at Orchard Place, London.
No longer a door. Spotted at Bow Wharf, London
Ghost sign or a possible Jōhatsu 蒸発 Spotted in Hackney
Useless window. Spotted in Hackney Wick, London
Genbaku taipu 原爆タイプ. Spotted in Tateishi, Tokyo
Monokūki もの喰う木. Spotted in Victoria Park, London
Hisashi ヒサシ. Spotted in Daizawa, Tokyo
Genbaku taipu 原爆タイプ. Spotted in Arakawa, Tokyo
HOW TO CATEGORISE YOUR THOMASSON OBSERVATIONS:
Picking up the threads of Akasegaw'a’s cult study, publishing house Chikuma Shobō, went on to publish the "Thomasson Illustrated Encyclopedia" based on Akasegawa’s Thomasson related writings and in it they created clear categories of Thomasson (source: Wikipedia):
The Useless Staircase - Muyō kaidan 無用階段
Also known as a Pure Staircase. A staircase that only goes up and down. Most used to have a door at the top. Some useless staircases exist that were useless right from completion, due to changes or mix-ups in the design.
The Useless Doorway- Muyō mon 無用門
Even though it has been blocked up, a Useless Doorway still maintains the majesty of its original purpose. In other cases, a Useless Doorway exists in a place that has no need for it, with no wall or fence around it.
The Hisashi - Hisashi ヒサシ
Hisashi is the word for "eaves" in Japanese. This refers to useless eaves: ones that no longer have a window or door underneath them to protect from the rain.
The Useless Window - Muyō mado, 無用窓
A blocked up window: one which is still beautiful due to the care taken in blocking it up.
The Nurikabe - Nurikabe ヌリカベ
Nurikabe is the word for "plaster wall" in Japanese. This overlaps with the Useless Doorway and Useless Window categories. It refers to a door or window that was meant to be completely sealed up with concrete, but a difference can still be seen between it and the surrounding area.
The A-bomb type - Genbaku taipu 原爆タイプ
A 2-D Thomasson. The outline of a building that remains in silhouette on a wall. This can be seen when a section of a tightly packed row of buildings is torn down.
The Elevated type - Kōsho 高所
These objects are normal themselves, but exist in a higher than normal place, therefore seeming strange. For example, a door with a handle on the second floor of a wall. These often appear when staircases are torn down. They can also appear when a winch or crane is kept inside the building, but a standard door is used on the outside.
The Outie - Debeso でべそ
A protrudence from a sealed up wall, such as a door knob or tap.
The Uyama - Uyama ウヤマ
A sign or hoarding with letters missing. The first example of this was a shop sign which contained the words Uyama, but the rest of the lettering was missing, hence the name.
The Castella - Kasutera カステラ
A cuboid protuberance from a wall, named after Castella, a Japanese sponge cake. For example, a blocked up window which sticks out from the wall. The opposite of this, a sunken blocked up section, is known as a Reverse Castella.
The Atago - Atago アタゴ
An object sticking out at the side of the road, with no clear purpose, possibly used to stop cars parking. The first example of this was found by Akasegawa whilst walking from Shinbashito Atago, hence the name.
The Live Burial - Ikiume 生き埋め
A roadside object which is partly submerged in concrete.
The Geological layer - Chisō 地層
A patch of ground that is different in height from that around it, usually where multiple construction works have taken place.
The Boundary - Kyōkai 境界
A guardrail, fence or wall whose purpose is not immediately clear.
The Twist - Nejire ねじれ
A part of a building which is normally meant to be straight, but is slightly twisted. Often seen when an object that was created to be used straight is used at an angle.
The Abe Sada - Abe Sada 阿部定
The remains of a telephone pole cut down. The name refers to the Abe Sada Incident; a famous case from 1930s Japan in which a woman strangled her lover and then severed his genitalia with a kitchen knife.
The Devouring Tree - Monokūki もの喰う木
A tree which absorbs part of a fence or wire whilst still growing. However, this is not a particularly rare phenomenon, and occurs quite often. If there is no human involvement then it cannot be called a Thomasson, just a natural phenomenon.
The Useless Bridge - Muyō bashi 無用橋
A bridge over a filled-in river, or a bridge that has become useless. In the case of some covered drains, a bridge is still necessary for cars or heavy vehicles to cross. In this case these could not be called Useless Bridges, as they only appear useless.
The Pure type - Junsui taipu 純粋タイプ
An uncategorizable object whose use it is impossible to fathom. For example, the Pure Shutters, which open to reveal a blank wall, and the Pure Tunnel that exists without a surrounding hill. The Pure Staircase of Yotsuya belongs in this category.
Evaporation - Jōhatsu 蒸発
The fading of color on a sign, or a monument with parts missing: an object whose meaning has become hard to work out. Cases often appear due to the long-lasting material of the object. This also often occurs when a sign's key phrases, painted in red for emphasis, disappear, leaving the rest of the sign hard to understand.
THOMASSON RESOURCES
HYPERART:THOMASSON
Publisher : Kaya Press; Illustrated edition (January 31, 2010)
Language : English
Paperback : 352 pages
ISBN-10 : 1885030460
ISBN-13 : 978-1885030467
99% Invisible did a great podcast about Thomassons
Japanese hashtag: #トマッソン
SHARE YOUR THOMASSONS WITH US
I’ve got my fingers crossed that this post will inspire a few friends and readers to keep an eye out for Thomassons. If you do happen to sort one, please do send them my way. Email, message on Instagram or Twitter. I’d love to make a collection of Thomasson posts on this blog and it would be miles better with your help, please.