After Devastation, Japanese Designers Re-Imagined the Visual-Cultural Landscape of Their Nation

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- How and how much does our aesthetic environment affect our thoughts, actions and worldview?

Maggie Kinser Saiki attempted to answer this question in her recent book, "12 Japanese Masters," in which she describes how, after the devastation of World War II, Japanese designers forged a new aesthetic that joined themes of destruction and rebirth with an appreciation for life and an awareness of the world around them.

On Sept. 22, Saiki will present a slide lecture, "12 Japanese Masters" in which she will describe how American occupying forces persuaded an entire citizenry to change the way it worked, ate, dressed, slept and spent its money.

Her talk, sponsored by the University at Buffalo Department of Art, will take place at 6 p.m. in the Screening Room in Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus. It will be free and open to the public.

One step in the process of "modernizing" Japan was the complete "reimagining" of the visual landscape of the Japanese culture. Using images dating from 1930s onward, Saiki will illustrate this process and discuss what happens when commerce and culture meet.

Using her stunning visual portfolios and insightful personal profiles, she will examine the work of 12 designers who brought Japanese style into the vanguard of modern design via the fields of fashion, interiors, industrial, product and graphic design. Among them are poster designer Koichi Sato, who merged Western art with traditional Japanese motifs; fashion designer Issey Miyake, a master in the use of textiles and shapes, and Shigeo Fukuda, whose whimsical creations include a two-headed screw and a coffee cup with the handle inside.

Saiki also will ask her audience to consider the relative power of commercial and cultural elements and what responsibilities creative individuals have to their cultures and audience.

Saiki grew up in a world permeated with the visual language of persuasion. Her father was the late Bill Kinser, a former advertising man who later became a UB professor of design and typography. Her mother is Charleen Kinser, a designer and award-winning animator.

She lived for 15 years in Japan, where she wrote on vernacular housing, contemporary culture and post-war design. Besides "12 Japanese Masters," she is the author of two other books. "Japanese Working for A Better World" and "Y.M.D.: Ancient Arts, Contemporary Designs" -- essays on the marriage of handcrafting traditions and internationally viable product design.

Her articles have appeared in Graphis magazine, the Journal of Architecture and Building Science, The Asian Wall Street Journal and Metropolis, among other publications.