Expo '70
Encyclopedia
was a World's Fair
held in Suita, Osaka
, Japan
between March 15 and September 13, 1970. The theme of the Expo was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind." In Japanese Expo '70 is often referred to as Ōsaka Banpaku (大阪万博). This was the first World's Fair held in Japan.
The master plan for the Expo was designed by the Japanese architect Kenzo Tange
helped by 12 other Japanese architects who designed elements within it. Bridging the site along a north/south axis was the Symbol Zone. Planned on three levels it was primarily a social space which had a unifying space frame
roof.
in 1965. 330 hectares in the Senri Hills outside Osaka had been earmarked for the site and a Theme Committee under the chairmanship of Seiji Kaya was formed. Kenzo Tange and Uzo Nishiyama were appointed to produce the master plan for the Expo. The main theme would be Progress and Harmony for Mankind. Tange invited 12 other architects to elucidate designs for elements within the master plan. These architects included: Arata Isozaki
for the Festival Plaza mechanical, electrical and electronic installations; and Kiyonori Kikutake
for the Landmark Tower.
Two main principles informed the idea of the master plan. The first was the idea that the wisdom of all the peoples of the world would come together in this place and stimulate ideas; the second was that it would be less of an exposition and more of a festival. The designers thought that unlike previous expositions they wished to produce a central, unifying, Festival Plaza where people could meet and socialise. They called this the Symbol Zone and covered it and the themed pavilions with a giant space frame roof.
The designers liked the idea that like the 1851 London Exposition
, the roof of the Symbol Zone could be a unifying entity for the expo. However, they didn't want the constraint imposed by the London Exposition of having everything contained under one roof, so the space frame contained only the Festival Plaza and themed pavilions. Tange compared the concept to a tree. The idea was that although the national pavilions were like individual flowers they needed to be connected to the whole via branches and a trunk. Thus the Symbol Zone became the trunk and the moving pedestrian walkways and sub-plazas became the branches. These elements were reinforced with colour, with the trunk and branches in plain white and the pavilions in their own colours that were determined by the national architects.
The Symbol Zone ran north/south across the site, spanning an arterial road running east/west. The Festival Plaza was to the north of road and had the main gate on its southern end. To the north of the main gate and central to the Festival Plaza was the Tower of the Sun
from which visitors could join pedestrian walkways that travelled out towards the north, south, east and west gates.
The Theme Space under the space frame was divided into three levels, each designed by the artist Tarō Okamoto, The underground level represented the past and was a symbol of the source of humanity. The surface level represented the present, symbolising the dynamism of human interaction. The space frame represented the future and a world where humanity and technology would be joined. Tange envisioned that the exhibition for the future would be like an aerial city and he asked Fumihiko Maki
, Noboru Kawazoe, Koji Kamiya and Noriaki Kurokawa to design it. The Theme Space was also punctuated by three towers: the Tower of the Sun, the Tower of Maternity and the Tower of Youth.
To the north of the Theme Space was the Festival Plaza. This was a flexible space that contained a flat area and stepped terrace. The plaza could be rearranged to provide for different requirements for seating capacity, from 1500 to 10000. The flexibility extended to the lighting and audio visual equipment allowing for a range of musical performances and electronic presentations.
Seventy-seven countries attended the event and, within six months, the number of visitors reached 64,218,770 people, one of the largest and best attended expositions in history. This set a record for most number of visitors at an Expo until it was surpassed by the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.
on display in the United States' pavilion. It had been brought back from the moon by Apollo 12
astronauts in 1969.
Expo '70 also saw the premiere of the first-ever IMAX
film: the Canadian-produced Tiger Child
for the Fuji Group
pavilion.
The Canadian Pavilion, designed by architect Arthur Erickson
, featured two National Film Board of Canada
productions: The Land, a look at Canada from coast to coast, filmed for the most part from a low-flying aircraft, as well as the animated short The City, directed by Kaj Pindal.
The West German pavilion, designed by Fritz Bornemann
, featured the world's first spherical concert hall, based on artistic concepts by Karlheinz Stockhausen
. The pavilion theme was "gardens of music", in keeping with which Bornemann "planted" the exhibition halls beneath a broad lawn, with the connected auditorium "sprouting" above ground. Inside, the audience was surrounded by 50 loudspeaker groups in seven rings at different "latitudes" around the interior walls of the sphere. Sound was sent around the space in three dimensions using either a spherical controller designed by Fritz Winckel of the Electronic Music Studio at the Technical University of Berlin, or a ten-channel "rotation mill" constructed to Stockhausen's design. Works by Johann Sebastian Bach
, Ludwig van Beethoven
, Bernd Alois Zimmermann
, and Boris Blacher were played from multi-track tape. As the main feature, however, Stockhausen was invited to present five-and-a-half-hour live programs of his music every day over a period of 183 days to a total audience of about a million listeners. In the course of the exhibition, 19 performers in Stockhausen’s ensemble gave concerts for over a million visitors. "Many visitors felt the spherical auditorium to be an oasis of calm amidst the general hubbub, and after a while it became one of the main attractions of Expo 1970".
The Expo also featured demonstrations of early mobile phone
s, local area network
ing and maglev train technology.
(moved to downtown Osaka in November 2004) until March 2004.
Additionally, there is a time capsule
that is to be left for 5,000 years and opened in the year 6970. The capsule has been donated by the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
This World's Fair concept first originated and started with the two Westinghouse Time Capsules
which are to be opened in 6939.
World's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...
held in Suita, Osaka
Suita, Osaka
is a city located in northern Osaka, Japan. As of August 1, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 356,751 and the density of 9,880 persons per km². The total area is 36.11 km²....
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
between March 15 and September 13, 1970. The theme of the Expo was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind." In Japanese Expo '70 is often referred to as Ōsaka Banpaku (大阪万博). This was the first World's Fair held in Japan.
The master plan for the Expo was designed by the Japanese architect Kenzo Tange
Kenzo Tange
was a Japanese architect, and winner of the 1987 Pritzker Prize for architecture. He was one of the most significant architects of the 20th century, combining traditional Japanese styles with modernism, and designed major buildings on five continents. Tange was also an influential protagonist of...
helped by 12 other Japanese architects who designed elements within it. Bridging the site along a north/south axis was the Symbol Zone. Planned on three levels it was primarily a social space which had a unifying space frame
Space frame
A space frame or space structure is a truss-like, lightweight rigid structure constructed from interlocking struts in a geometric pattern. Space frames can be used to span large areas with few interior supports...
roof.
Background
Osaka was chosen as the site for the 1970 World Exposition by the Bureau of International ExpositionsBureau of International Expositions
The International Exhibitions Bureau is an intergovernmental organization created to supervise international exhibitions falling under the jurisdiction of the Convention Relating to International Exhibitions....
in 1965. 330 hectares in the Senri Hills outside Osaka had been earmarked for the site and a Theme Committee under the chairmanship of Seiji Kaya was formed. Kenzo Tange and Uzo Nishiyama were appointed to produce the master plan for the Expo. The main theme would be Progress and Harmony for Mankind. Tange invited 12 other architects to elucidate designs for elements within the master plan. These architects included: Arata Isozaki
Arata Isozaki
Arata Isozaki is a Japanese architect from Ōita. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1954. Isozaki worked under Kenzo Tange before establishing his own firm in 1963. He was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1986.In 2005, Arata Isozaki founded the Italian branch of his office: Arata Isozaki &...
for the Festival Plaza mechanical, electrical and electronic installations; and Kiyonori Kikutake
Kiyonori Kikutake
is a prominent Japanese architect known as one of the founders of the Japanese Metabolist group. He has also been the tutor and employer of several important Japanese architects, such as Toyo Ito and Itsuko Hasegawa.-Career:...
for the Landmark Tower.
Two main principles informed the idea of the master plan. The first was the idea that the wisdom of all the peoples of the world would come together in this place and stimulate ideas; the second was that it would be less of an exposition and more of a festival. The designers thought that unlike previous expositions they wished to produce a central, unifying, Festival Plaza where people could meet and socialise. They called this the Symbol Zone and covered it and the themed pavilions with a giant space frame roof.
The designers liked the idea that like the 1851 London Exposition
The Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations or The Great Exhibition, sometimes referred to as the Crystal Palace Exhibition in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held, was an international exhibition that took place in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 15 October...
, the roof of the Symbol Zone could be a unifying entity for the expo. However, they didn't want the constraint imposed by the London Exposition of having everything contained under one roof, so the space frame contained only the Festival Plaza and themed pavilions. Tange compared the concept to a tree. The idea was that although the national pavilions were like individual flowers they needed to be connected to the whole via branches and a trunk. Thus the Symbol Zone became the trunk and the moving pedestrian walkways and sub-plazas became the branches. These elements were reinforced with colour, with the trunk and branches in plain white and the pavilions in their own colours that were determined by the national architects.
The Symbol Zone ran north/south across the site, spanning an arterial road running east/west. The Festival Plaza was to the north of road and had the main gate on its southern end. To the north of the main gate and central to the Festival Plaza was the Tower of the Sun
Tower of the Sun
The is an artwork created by Japanese artist Tarō Okamoto. It was known as the symbol of Expo '70 and currently is preserved and located in the Expo Commemoration Park in Suita, Osaka, Japan...
from which visitors could join pedestrian walkways that travelled out towards the north, south, east and west gates.
The Theme Space under the space frame was divided into three levels, each designed by the artist Tarō Okamoto, The underground level represented the past and was a symbol of the source of humanity. The surface level represented the present, symbolising the dynamism of human interaction. The space frame represented the future and a world where humanity and technology would be joined. Tange envisioned that the exhibition for the future would be like an aerial city and he asked Fumihiko Maki
Fumihiko Maki
is a Japanese architect and currently teaching at Keio University SFC.- Biography :After studying at the University of Tokyo he moved to the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and then to Harvard Graduate School of Design. In 1956, he took a post as assistant professor of...
, Noboru Kawazoe, Koji Kamiya and Noriaki Kurokawa to design it. The Theme Space was also punctuated by three towers: the Tower of the Sun, the Tower of Maternity and the Tower of Youth.
To the north of the Theme Space was the Festival Plaza. This was a flexible space that contained a flat area and stepped terrace. The plaza could be rearranged to provide for different requirements for seating capacity, from 1500 to 10000. The flexibility extended to the lighting and audio visual equipment allowing for a range of musical performances and electronic presentations.
Seventy-seven countries attended the event and, within six months, the number of visitors reached 64,218,770 people, one of the largest and best attended expositions in history. This set a record for most number of visitors at an Expo until it was surpassed by the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.
Attractions
A popular highlight of the fair was a large moon rockMoon rock
Moon rock describes rock that formed on the Earth's moon. The term is also loosely applied to other lunar materials collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon.The rocks collected from the Moon are measured by radiometric dating techniques...
on display in the United States' pavilion. It had been brought back from the moon by Apollo 12
Apollo 12
Apollo 12 was the sixth manned flight in the American Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon . It was launched on November 14, 1969 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, four months after Apollo 11. Mission commander Charles "Pete" Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L...
astronauts in 1969.
Expo '70 also saw the premiere of the first-ever IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
film: the Canadian-produced Tiger Child
Tiger Child
Tiger Child was the first IMAX movie ever made. It was directed by Canadian filmmaker Donald Brittain and produced by Roman Kroitor and Kichi Ichikawa. It premiered at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan at the Fuji Group Pavilion....
for the Fuji Group
Fuyo Group
is a Japanese keiretsu.The group emerged after World War II as a continuation of the Yasuda zaibatsu. It coalesced around Fuji Bank, and group presidents began meeting regularly in 1964...
pavilion.
The Canadian Pavilion, designed by architect Arthur Erickson
Arthur Erickson
Arthur Charles Erickson, was a Canadian architect and urban planner. He studied Asian languages at the University of British Columbia, and later earned a degree in architecture from McGill University.-Biography:...
, featured two National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
productions: The Land, a look at Canada from coast to coast, filmed for the most part from a low-flying aircraft, as well as the animated short The City, directed by Kaj Pindal.
The West German pavilion, designed by Fritz Bornemann
Fritz Bornemann
Fritz Bornemann was a German architect.- Life and works :Bornemann studied architecture at the Technical University of Berlin. After graduating in 1936, he was Assistant Scenic Designer at the Berlin Municipal Opera and, starting in 1945, Construction Supervisor with the city of Berlin...
, featured the world's first spherical concert hall, based on artistic concepts by Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
. The pavilion theme was "gardens of music", in keeping with which Bornemann "planted" the exhibition halls beneath a broad lawn, with the connected auditorium "sprouting" above ground. Inside, the audience was surrounded by 50 loudspeaker groups in seven rings at different "latitudes" around the interior walls of the sphere. Sound was sent around the space in three dimensions using either a spherical controller designed by Fritz Winckel of the Electronic Music Studio at the Technical University of Berlin, or a ten-channel "rotation mill" constructed to Stockhausen's design. Works by Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Bernd Alois Zimmermann was a post-WWII West German composer. He is perhaps best known for his opera Die Soldaten which is regarded as one of the most important operas of the 20th century...
, and Boris Blacher were played from multi-track tape. As the main feature, however, Stockhausen was invited to present five-and-a-half-hour live programs of his music every day over a period of 183 days to a total audience of about a million listeners. In the course of the exhibition, 19 performers in Stockhausen’s ensemble gave concerts for over a million visitors. "Many visitors felt the spherical auditorium to be an oasis of calm amidst the general hubbub, and after a while it became one of the main attractions of Expo 1970".
The Expo also featured demonstrations of early mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s, local area network
Local area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
ing and maglev train technology.
Today
The site of Expo '70 is now . Almost all pavilions were demolished, and there remain some memorials a part of the roof structure for designed by Kenzo Tange. Among a few still-intact pieces, the most famous one is the designed by the Japanese artist Tarō Okamoto. The former international art museum pavilion designed by Kiyoshi Kawasaki was used as the building for the National Museum of Art, OsakaNational Museum of Art, Osaka
The is a subterranean Japanese art museum located on the island of Nakanoshima, located between the Dōjima River and the Tosabori River, about 5 minutes west of Higobashi Station in central Osaka....
(moved to downtown Osaka in November 2004) until March 2004.
Additionally, there is a time capsule
Time capsule
A time capsule is an historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians...
that is to be left for 5,000 years and opened in the year 6970. The capsule has been donated by the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
, formerly known as , is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics corporation headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Japan. Its main business is in electronics manufacturing....
This World's Fair concept first originated and started with the two Westinghouse Time Capsules
Westinghouse Time Capsules
The Westinghouse Time Capsules are two time capsules prepared by the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company: "Time Capsule I", created for the 1939 New York World's Fair; and "Time Capsule II", created for the 1964 New York World's Fair. Both are buried 50 feet below Flushing Meadows Park,...
which are to be opened in 6939.
In popular culture
- Expo '70 is the setting for the Daiei Motion Picture Company production of Noriaki YuasaNoriaki Yuasawas a Japanese director, most notable for his involvement in the Gamera film series. Yuasa was a special guest at G-Fest in 1999, 2000, and 2003, and was the recipient of the Mangled Skyscraper Award at the latter. He died on June 14, 2004 after suffering a stroke.-Directing Credits:* Shiawasa nara...
's Gamera vs. JigerGamera vs. Jigeris a 1970 kaiju film by the Daiei Motion Picture Company. It is the sixth entry in the original Gamera series.-Plot:In Gamera vs. Jiger, Gamera has his hands full right from the very beginning. Japan is preparing for the 1970 World's Fair, to be held in Osaka. Construction of the various buildings...
(1970), which was extensively filmed on location at the Expo grounds. The final battle between the monsters takes place at the Expo site. The film was marketed overseas as Monsters Invade Expo '70.
- Expo '70 is mentioned in the Japanese manga 20th Century Boys20th Century Boysis a science fiction-mystery manga created by Naoki Urasawa. It won the 2001 Kodansha Manga Award in the General category, an Excellence Prize at the 2002 Japan Media Arts Festival, and the 2003 Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category. The last two volumes of the story were serialized under...
by Naoki UrasawaNaoki Urasawais a Japanese manga artist.-Early life:He graduated from Meisei University with a degree in economics. In 2008, Urasawa had a guest teaching post at Nagoya Zokei University, where he taught classes on manga.-Manga career:...
. In the manga, the Expo is recalled many times and the Tower of the Sun plays a role. It also features heavily in the anime Crayon Shin-chan: The Storm Called: The Adult Empire Strikes BackCrayon Shin-chan: The Storm Called: The Adult Empire Strikes Backis a Japanese anime film. It is the ninth installment of the Crayon Shin-chan series. It was released in 2001.-Plot:As the twenty-first century arrives, a museum opens in town for adults to relive their childhood. The owners of the museum have secret plans. Shin-chan and friends must stop the plot...
where it is used to represent the nostalgia people feel for the 20th century.
- Expo '70 is the name of the experimental/improvisational sound project of Los Angeles musician Justin WrightJustin WrightJustin Charles Wright was an American animator and storyboard artist who worked at Pixar Animation Studios for slightly over a year until his death....
.
- Expo '70 is the main setting for the Canadian director Robert LepageRobert LepageRobert Lepage, is a playwright, actor, film director, and stage director from Québec City, Québec, and is one of Canada's most honoured theatre artists.- Life and work :...
's 1998 film entitled NôNô (film)Nô is a 1998 film by director Robert Lepage. It was based on one segment in Lepage's play Seven Streams of the River Ota.The title is a pun which reflects the film's dramatic structure, linking the 1980 Quebec referendum to Japanese Nō theatre.-Plot:The film is set in 1970 at the height of the FLQ...
, based on his play The Seven Branches of the River Ota.