Tokyo Zokei University

Tokyo Zokei University (TZU) was founded in 1966 by Yoko Kuwasawa and her supporters.In her book published for the tenth anniversary of the university, she wrote as follows: “The idea of establishing the university occurred to me on the tenth anniversary of Kuwasawa Design School.

Tokyo Zokei University is the first university ever in Japan that has the word “Zokei” in its name. By using the word “Zokei”, we express our thought and strong will toward education and research, which is focused on positively accepting the new consciousness of the society which is heading toward the historical changes of art-style in the act of expression and broadening the boundary of expression. The word “Zokei” does not only refer to the visual form or an expression, as is generally understood, but it also indicates the standpoint to acknowledge “art” and “design” as a whole: Going beyond the boundary of synthesizing “art” and “design”, “Zokei” is based on the viewpoint that we acknowledge all kinds of executions and expressions as a part of social performance.

The progress of Kuwasawa Design Research Institute inspired me to create a university where various problems concerning design directly connected to human life can be investigated. It was also my hope that the new institution would involve general education including basic cultural, social and natural sciences, and that a kind of applied science, i.e., the theory of Zokei, a broader concept of design and fine arts, would be researched and be established.”

“The idea was interdisciplinary. At the same time, I had a strong desire to elucidate the essence of modern Zokei by pursing the connection between Zokei and pure art.” The spirit of the founding of TZU is based on Yoko Kuwasawa’s educational ideas, i.e., clarification of the meaning of modern Zokei and establishment of the theory of Zokei based on a synthetic viewpoint, which can be recognized in her activities as a designer. In other words, Yoko Kuwasawa herself is the symbol of the spirit of the university and the basis of its educational ideas.

In the prospectus of the university for the first year President Yoko Kuwasawa wrote: “The purpose of the founding of the university was to synthesize design and fine arts into the broader concept of Zokei, to study and teach theories and application of Zokei, to master expert skills, to raise up talented people with various individualities and to contribute to the creation of culture, the development of Japanese industry and social welfare.”

In “The Purpose of Education” in the prospectus of the university for the second year, Yoko Kuwasawa said: “Although there are various opinions on the meaning of design and fine arts, they are activities of Zokei which contribute to industrial production, visual communication and living environment causing more comfort and more efficiency to improve the quality of people’s life. Therefore, design and fine arts are expressions responsible for society rather than mere self-expression, and designers and artists are indebted to civilization to resolve contradictions in modern society and industry.” As her words “Design is not a matter of individuals but a matter of the public and society” show, the concept of Zokei contains social work beyond individual expressions, and having social meaning is another concept the educational ideas of TZU are based on.

In addition to its being synthetic and having social meaning, the concept of Zokei also contains one of the most fundamental forms of expression. As language is fundamental to expression and communication of information for human beings, so are the activities of Zokei. The concept of Zokei embodies the fundamentals of communication, which is another concept the educational ideas of TZU are based on.

The concept of Zokei is the philosophy of education of the university itself. Regarding “being synthetic”, “having social meaning” and “embodying fundamentals of communication” as important factors of the concept Zokei, we are convinced that thinking about problems concerning “human beings and Zokei” and “society and Zokei” fundamentally and synthetically is the very basis of the education at TZU.