08-17-2002, 11:07 AM
Veteran voyeur gives the skinny on Hibiya Park lovebirds
By TAIGA URANAKA
Staff writer
In Tokyo's Hibiya Park, just by the Hibiya gate entrance, couples can often be seen laying claim to benches surrounding a large fountain.
Isoya Shinji, president of Tokyo University of Agriculture, has been watching strollers at Hibiya Park, in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, for decades.
As intimate as they look, however, their relationship is still in a nascent stage, explains Isoya Shinji, a self-styled expert on lovebirds' behavior.
Look at the flower garden, he says, that's where you find couples at a more advanced intimacy level, physically and mentally. More private and romantic, the garden has an inherent lure for those already at ease with each other. More passionate mates find their nest in the hilly bush behind.
Shinji, however, is no full-time voyeur-in-residence.
When not watching couples in the park, he handles the duties that come with being president of the Tokyo University of Agriculture, or airs his views as a landscape specialist at various committees on city planning and nature conservation.
Yet, in the behavioral study of couples in parks, the 58-year-old scholar is the authority.
He claims those who choose to visit parks on dates are relatively innocent, in contrast to many youngsters in Tokyo today who do not bother with the phased intricacy of relationships.
"Unlike those in the parks, many jump to the sexual conclusion," Shinji said. "It's the result of what I call urban pathology, which distorts the basic respect for human dignity of their date, as well as their own."
Shinji's involvement with Hibiya Park dates to 1967, when he was a student at the college he heads today and was assigned to come up with a renovation plan for the park. Built in 1903, it was deemed ready for a face-lift.
During 18 months of field research, he spent day and night in the park, leaving no stone unturned within its 161,637 sq. meters.
It was during this "minute-by-minute monitoring" of visitors that he found some behavioral patterns among couples in the park, such as phased intimacy building, leading him to mull upon the topic of physical distance in human relationships.
Citing American anthropologist Edward T. Hall's work on proxemics, Shinji said there are several levels of intimacy, or distance between human beings in accordance with a given social environment.
"But for today's youngsters, there is no such thing as building intimacy step by step," he lamented. "They are like animals, merely seeking sexual pleasure, changing partners the next day."
He maintains this is the result of urban pathology, which takes place when people are crammed into a highly artificial environment.
"It's natural as a species that people lose respect for fellow living creatures and even want to kill them in such a densely populated situation," he said.
At the same time, however, Shinji refrains from condemning public displays of love or admonishing sexual activity.
On the contrary, he said he would rather encourage people to enjoy each other's company more in open environments. "Parks actually should offer more spaces for (couples) to be intimate," he said.
"The problem with people making out in the open air? It's way more wholesome than going straight to a love hotel. Do you talk about life or nature in such places?" Shinji quipped.
"Anyway, I want young people to engage in the act of love, because fewer children spells trouble for me as head of a college."
The Japan Times: Aug. 18, 2002
(C) All rights reserved
By TAIGA URANAKA
Staff writer
In Tokyo's Hibiya Park, just by the Hibiya gate entrance, couples can often be seen laying claim to benches surrounding a large fountain.
Isoya Shinji, president of Tokyo University of Agriculture, has been watching strollers at Hibiya Park, in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, for decades.
As intimate as they look, however, their relationship is still in a nascent stage, explains Isoya Shinji, a self-styled expert on lovebirds' behavior.
Look at the flower garden, he says, that's where you find couples at a more advanced intimacy level, physically and mentally. More private and romantic, the garden has an inherent lure for those already at ease with each other. More passionate mates find their nest in the hilly bush behind.
Shinji, however, is no full-time voyeur-in-residence.
When not watching couples in the park, he handles the duties that come with being president of the Tokyo University of Agriculture, or airs his views as a landscape specialist at various committees on city planning and nature conservation.
Yet, in the behavioral study of couples in parks, the 58-year-old scholar is the authority.
He claims those who choose to visit parks on dates are relatively innocent, in contrast to many youngsters in Tokyo today who do not bother with the phased intricacy of relationships.
"Unlike those in the parks, many jump to the sexual conclusion," Shinji said. "It's the result of what I call urban pathology, which distorts the basic respect for human dignity of their date, as well as their own."
Shinji's involvement with Hibiya Park dates to 1967, when he was a student at the college he heads today and was assigned to come up with a renovation plan for the park. Built in 1903, it was deemed ready for a face-lift.
During 18 months of field research, he spent day and night in the park, leaving no stone unturned within its 161,637 sq. meters.
It was during this "minute-by-minute monitoring" of visitors that he found some behavioral patterns among couples in the park, such as phased intimacy building, leading him to mull upon the topic of physical distance in human relationships.
Citing American anthropologist Edward T. Hall's work on proxemics, Shinji said there are several levels of intimacy, or distance between human beings in accordance with a given social environment.
"But for today's youngsters, there is no such thing as building intimacy step by step," he lamented. "They are like animals, merely seeking sexual pleasure, changing partners the next day."
He maintains this is the result of urban pathology, which takes place when people are crammed into a highly artificial environment.
"It's natural as a species that people lose respect for fellow living creatures and even want to kill them in such a densely populated situation," he said.
At the same time, however, Shinji refrains from condemning public displays of love or admonishing sexual activity.
On the contrary, he said he would rather encourage people to enjoy each other's company more in open environments. "Parks actually should offer more spaces for (couples) to be intimate," he said.
"The problem with people making out in the open air? It's way more wholesome than going straight to a love hotel. Do you talk about life or nature in such places?" Shinji quipped.
"Anyway, I want young people to engage in the act of love, because fewer children spells trouble for me as head of a college."
The Japan Times: Aug. 18, 2002
(C) All rights reserved