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Revitalizing Motoko

Akashi National College of Technology

Have you ever heard of Motoko?

Motoko is a shopping district in an underpass between JR Kobe Station and JR Motomachi Station, and it was a prosperous area about 60 years ago, but not today.

Many shoppers are concentrated in the periphery of JR Sannomiya station and Kobe station where large chain and department stores have been built. However, without such landmarks, the number of visitors to Motoko has decreased gradually. Likewise, the stores' shutters in Motoko have been closing and the shopping arcade is hollowing out. Moreover, the pulled down shutters are covered with various graffiti phrases, revealing that Motoko has many serious problems. Changes in People's shopping styles and in the local traffic network have caused the decline of Motoko. Therefore, we decided to take on an activity to revive Motoko during the summer holidays. The activity's objective was mainly to create events that would prompt visits to Motoko by shoppers, and to use the power of art to transform Motoko from the forlorn place that it is to a more fascinating one.

So first, we surveyed shop employees along the second street of Motoko. As a result, we found that many clerks answered, ‘Motoko is withering!' and ‘Its image is gray!' And, we learned that graffiti was one of the reasons why people kept out of Motoko. So, we executed a graffiti prevention campaign with local residents at the second street of Motoko. The campaign required participant's to post notes in the shape of frogs on the walls and shutters that had graffiti. The notes contained messages saying that we were taking back Motoko. And, the frogs were symbolic of that fact because, in Japanese, the words “frog” and “to return” sound the same. So, these paper frogs were helping us to return Motoko to its former state. Over the course of 2 days, 250 frogs were placed on graffiti covered walls. We had a strong desire to see the graffiti disappear from these walls and to bring shoppers back to Motoko.

Another part of our project involved a special two-day event on a storeroom floor. We referred to the event and the store as the Kae Room. People who visited the Kae Room, adults and children alike, played a game to find frogs which we had made with origami. And, inside these frogs were written messages. If a person found a frog with the message “congratulations,” he or she would receive a candy. Not only children but also adults enjoyed this game, and they kept the frogs they caught as souvenirs. Another activity in the Kae Room was story writing. This story was created by the visitors to this room. When each person read this story, he or she would write the next section of story in continuance. Even people who did not add to the story really enjoyed reading the story. At the same time, Kae Room visitors also enjoyed making handmade wind-chimes out of PET bottles. We exhibited these wind-chimes by hanging from the ceiling of the JR underpass as seen here. They would ring by the tremble of passing trains. At first, when you hear about these wind-chimes, the idea may sound a bit odd; but, in fact, they created a very tasteful change in the area.

When the Kae Room event was finished, we carried out a questionnaire for visitors.

As a result, we found that many people come to the shop once a month for shopping, but some are just using Motoko as a point of passage. Regarding the Kae Room, 90% of the visitors answered that they really enjoyed it, and they said that if such an event were held again, they would want to visit Motoko, again. As for the visitors themselves, the ratio of men to women was balanced and half of those in attendance were teenagers or young adults. Furthermore, this event was well-known to people from different prefectures and it became a good opportunity to inform people outside of Kobe about Motoko. In fact, some people introduced the Kae Room and discussed it on their blogs.

Another big part of our project was painting one particular graffiti covered wall in Motoko. The graffiti covered wall was in a noticeable place in Motoko, and that space was covered with many illegal advertisements and was not a beautiful space. So, we hoped that beautifying the place would improve the image of Motoko. And, we aimed to increase the number of shoppers in Motoko more and more by making new scenery in this space. So, upon the request of local merchants, we designed a wall painting that displayed the scenery of Kobe as seen from the sea.

When we designed the wall painting, we used perspectives creatively and made a lively design. For example, we painted a ship in the foreground, but because we imagined the ship to be so close, we had to paint only a section of it. And, we painted an octopus and a ray on the floor as if they were really swimming there. We wanted to make the design noticeable to visitors, and I believe we did.

When we were there many townspeople stopped by and showed interest in our activity and wall painting. And, there were people who took many photographs. But, there was one negative opinion like “This wall painting is too common! Anyone can make designs like this wall painting! I'd like a more powerful design.” However, throughout the execution of this wall painting, I discovered that many visitors to Motoko and Motoko's clerks were interested in our revitalization activities. And, we felt that we shouldn't miss even such negative responses because the key to Motoko's recovery may hide behind such resident and visitor responses. We believe that if Motoko can keep it's traditional image and satisfy shoppers needs, Motoko can increase it's chances of revitalization.

Thus, we carried out these activities to revive Motoko. Certainly, it must be difficult for shopping arcades to survive in today's society of mass production and mass consumption. But, the shopping arcades in Motoko have something irreplaceable by any other arcade. That is, this shopping arcade is an energetic place packed with expression which brings out most people's character. And now, we are continuing our efforts to help Motoko by making a public information magazine about Motoko and new event activities. Compared to our previous activities, we cannot say that the number of visitors has largely increased, but the whole of Motoko is beginning to move toward revitalization. From now, we will continue to engage in these activities until Motoko's revival is complete.