This paper clarifies the characteristics of Masaru Sekino’s “national housing” theory targeting Chapter 9 “National Housing” of Sekino’s book A Short History of Japanese House, the draft plan “Japanese Housing Development Model”, as well as “Housing Style Model” recorded in the conference presentation, “Fundamental Problems in Japanese Housing Styles”. The following characteristics were identified in the “national housing” theory seen in Sekino’s A Short History of Japanese House.
Sekino wrote A Short History of Japanese House in order to have a correct perspective of history so as to establish a housing policy aimed at eliminating the growing housing problems. As per the “development model” shown in it, “national housing” is positioned as the ultimate goal of housing architecture development. This “national housing’ is different from the meaning of “national housing” talked about during the war.
Chapter 9 “National Housing’ of the A Short History of Japanese House depicts the process of the resolution of various problems including earthquake resistance and fire prevention, adaptation to the Japanese climate, and seating style and practical floor planning issues, through the acceptance of Western housing after the Meiji Restoration, and positions “national housing” as the ultimate goal of such housing architecture development. At the same time, it discusses the importance of exploring ideal housing architecture widely accessible to the common people and that goes beyond conventional housing architecture mainly targeting the wealthy. Further, it also notes that it is an issue to be considered in the context of its connection with urban planning and housing policy.
The content of descriptions in the conclusion, or the “development model” shown therein, present an overview of the history of Japanese housing and making it a model while emphasizing the importance of capitalizing on the “old, early traditions” in a “new spirit”. It is noted that it is through this attitude that the ideal future housing development will be actualized. Further, in the “development model” as well, “national housing” is positioned as the ideal form of housing development. It is considered that “national housing” corresponds to the three top aspects of culture, nature, and society, and it consists of independent houses, rural houses, and urban housing.
In the conclusions of Chapter 9 of the A Short History of Japanese House, “national housing” is described as the core, and if one compares it with chaptering according to systems up to Chapter 8, the content of the descriptions is different. It can be considered that there was an intention to reinforce the discussion of national housing which became active during the war from a historical viewpoint. However, with respect to the concerned portions, even given the post-war reforms, no major reforms were made. From this as well, it can be considered that “national housing”, considered to be a product of the wartime regime, was regarded, at least by Sekino, to be a problem that continued after the war. Here, one can recognize the need for examining the housing issue of “national housing” not just as a wartime issue but also as a problem that continued after the war.
