Affect, Rupture and Heritage on Hashima Island, Japan

Abstract

The chapter explores the case of Hashima Island, Japan, an abandoned coal mining facility that was closed down in 1974. Through the narrative of Ott Kadarik, an Estonian architect who visited the island in January 2011, the text explores how traces of the past and ideas of the future combine in the subjective perception of a ruined urban landscape. Embodiment and the senses have received limited attention in heritage studies. In its affective and personal dimensions, heritage highlights not the institutionalised heritage, narrativised as spectacle, but rather the individual perception of participants and the creation of subjective stories—that is, the knowledge how to participate, to see and hear the landscape. Drawing on Hetzler’s concept of ruin time, I propose that the affective meaning of ruined time adds a dimension of value to heritage sites—and that perceptions of rupture or ruptured landscapes influence creativity. For Kadarik, embodied involvement in the ruptured landscape inspired creative ways of seeing: the text examines his responses to the ruined milieu, including his emotions, professional interest and reflections on vernacular architecture, economies of planning, population density and the sociality of urban environments. The ruined environment of Hashima reveals layers of interpretation that unfold from a “ruined” or “interrupted” present towards new histories—and futures. Through a strong sense of embodied experience, the affective rupture of ruins may in turn influence future perceptions of other urban landscapes.

Hashima Island (Photo by Ott Kadarik)