Survey of Design Archives in Japan

DIGITAL JAPANESE DESIGNERS ARCHIVE

Preserving Designers’ Works and Legacies

DESIGN ARCHIVE

Description

Description

The “Survey of Design Archives in Japan” is an ongoing initiative that has been supported since 2016 by a grant from the Ishibashi Foundation, a public interest incorporated foundation, with the goal of creating a digital archive of Japanese designers.

The project records the background and career paths of designers(ｆamily and associates) —primarily those active in the postwar period—through oral history interviews, and publishes this information online alongside images of their works. The aim is to preserve this as a social resource that many people can learn from and utilize.

Underlying this initiative is a strong sense of urgency: Japan lacks a sufficient number of comprehensive design museums and specialized archival institutions, and there are few archivists with specialized knowledge. Consequently, as the designers who supported the field’s forefront pass away or grow older, there is a real risk that their works and materials may be lost or scattered.

Design serves as a vital record that reflects the times, society, and culture; however, currently, the responsibility for preserving and organizing these materials falls on the designers themselves, their families, and staff—a burden that far exceeds what any individual can handle. If this situation continues, there is a risk that valuable records of Japan’s lifestyle culture and industrial heritage will be lost, creating gaps in the history of design and cultural history.

To date, we have completed research on 100 designers spanning a wide range of generations—from Fumio Yamana, born in 1897, to designers born in the 1950s—and have made the results publicly available. We will continue to interview as many designers as possible and meticulously document their works and careers as part of the “Digital Archive of Japanese Designers.” Through these efforts, we aim to lay the foundation for a Japanese design archive and contribute to the future establishment of a design museum.

Director Yasuko Seki

Project

Project

Members

Project Members　

Director

Yasuko Seki (Editor, PLAT Director)

Members

Katsuhiko Abe (Designer, President of ABEZO)

Tomoko Ishiguro (Writer)

Aia Urakawa (Writer)

Keiko Kubota (Publisher, ADP)

Hearing & Report 1

Designers ＆ Creators

Footprints and archives now, as told by the designers themselves and those involved.
*alphabetic order　family name + givine name

Hearing & Report 2

University, Museum & Organization

Approaches and initiatives for design archives in universities, museums and research institutions
*in order of appearance