Flaming Smokestacks
'Kojo Moe' and Night-time Factory Tourism in Japan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.31290Keywords:
Kojo Moe, Japan, Industry, Artificial light, Night tourism, PhotographyAbstract
In Japan, the trend for ‘factory love’ (Kojo Moe) — appreciating and photographing sites of heavy industry — has led to the development of organized night-time tours to industrialized locations within cities and city-ports. These night-time factory tours (Kojo Yakei) are primarily aimed at the domestic market and are particularly popular with small groups of young Japanese women. This photo essay considers the experience and aesthetics of these night-time urban tours, their social and performative aspects and their relationship to other types of industrial tourism.
References
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Orange, H. 2016. “Night time Factory Tourism in Japan”. Hilary Orange: Industrial Heritage & Public Engagement [blog], 16 May. Available online: https://hilaryorange.wordpress.com/2016/05/16/factorytourism/
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Amano, I. 2016. “In Praise of Iron Grandeur: The Sensibility of Ko¯jo¯ Moe and the Reinvention of Urban Technoscape.” Contemporary Japan 28 (2): 145–164. https://doi.org/10.1515/cj-2016-0008
Bharne, V. 2014. Zen Places and Neon Spaces: Reflections on Japanese Architecture and Urbanism. New York: Applied Research and Design.
Business Monitor International. 2015. Japan Tourism Report: First Quarter 2016. London: BMI Research.
Crang, M. 2010. “The Death of Great Ships: Photography, Politics and Waste in the Global Imaginary.” Environment and Planning A 42 (5): 1084–1102. https://doi.org/10.1068/a42414
Creighton, M. 2009. “The Heroic Edo-ic: Travelling the History Highway in Today’s Tokugawa Japan.” In Japanese Tourism and Travel Culture, edited by S. Guichard-Anguis and O. Moon, 37–75. London and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203886670.ch2
Dickie, M. 2012. “Smokestack Sightings.” Financial Times, 19 May. Available online: https://www.ft.com/content/922d07da-9dab-11e1-838c-00144feabdc0
Edensor, T. 1998. Tourists at the Taj: Performance and Meaning at a Symbolic Site. London: Routledge.
____. 2001. “Performing Tourism, Staging Tourism: (Re)producing Tourist Space and Practice.” Tourist Studies 1 (1): 59–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/146879760100100104
____. 2007. “Mundane Mobilities, Performances and Spaces of Tourism.” Social and Cultural Geography 8 (2): 199–215. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649360701360089
____. and S. Millington. 2009. “Illuminations, Class Identities and the Contested Landscapes of Christmas.” Sociology 43 (1): 103–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038508099100
Frew, E. A. 2000. Industrial Tourism: A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis. PhD diss., Victoria University, Australia.
Funck, C. and M. Cooper. 2013. Japanese Tourism: Spaces, Places and Structures. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Garrett, B. L. 2013. Explore Everything: Place-hacking the City. London: Verso.
Japan Times. 2016. “Still a Struggle for Working Women.” 8 April. Available online: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/04/08/editorials/still-a-struggle-for-working-women/
Kerr, A. 2001. Dogs and Demons: The Fall of Modern Japan. London: Penguin.
Leary, J. P. 2011. “Detroitism.” Guernica, 11 January. Available online: https://www.guernicamag.com/features/leary_1_15_11/
MacCannell, D. 1976. The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Schocken Books.
Masatoshi, T. 1995. “The City and Its Model: A Civilisation’s Mechanism for Self-expression as the Object of Tourism.” Senri Ethnological Studies 38: 105–124
Okada, M., 2003. Technoscape: Landscape Theory of Integration and Estrangement. Tokyo: Kajima.
Orange, H. 2016. “Night time Factory Tourism in Japan”. Hilary Orange: Industrial Heritage & Public Engagement [blog], 16 May. Available online: https://hilaryorange.wordpress.com/2016/05/16/factorytourism/
Otgaar, A. J. 2012. “Towards a Common Agenda for the Development of Industrial Tourism.” Tourism Management Perspectives 4: 86–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2012.05.004
Oyama, K. and T. Ishii. 2007. Kojo Moe. Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki.
____. 2009. Kojo Moe F. Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki.
Robinson, M. and D. Picard. 2009. The Framed World: Tourism, Tourists and Photography. Farnham, UK: Ashgate.
Speakman, L. and B. Bramwell. 1992. Sheffield Works: An Evaluation of a Factory Tourism Scheme. Sheffield: Sheffield City Polytechnic.
Urry, J. 2002. The Tourist Gaze (2nd edition). London, Sage.
Wakabayashi, D. 2011. “Japan’s Belching Smokestacks Draw Industrial-Strength Sightseers.” Wall Street Journal, 24 January. Available online: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704307404576080301501407240
Xie, P. F. 2015. Industrial Heritage Tourism. Bristol, UK: Channel View.
Published
2017-12-04
Issue
Section
Photo Essays
How to Cite
Orange, H. (2017). Flaming Smokestacks: ’Kojo Moe’ and Night-time Factory Tourism in Japan. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 4(1), 59-72. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.31290
