'Tokyo 1964' Exhibition at the Japanese Embassy, London from 18th July until 7th September 2012, Monday to Friday

Today (20 July 2012) we visited the Japanese Embassy to see the new “Tokyo 1964” Olympics exhibition. This exhibition was filled with all sorts of photos, literature, information and other memorabilia from the 1964 games (and the months preceding them!). Such items as the bibs that the torch relay runners wore, commemorative stamps featuring the four new stadiums that had been built, and the documentary of the games produced by the esteemed producer Kon Ichikawa. However, one side of the exhibition that was particularly interesting was the section on the technology and architecture.

The Bullet Train was one of the major technological projects that Japan completed for the Olympics. Although it was a project started as early as the 1930s, it was abandoned because at the time there was simply not enough money or resources to complete it. This changed when Tokyo won the 1964 Olympic bid – while the world had all eyes on Japan, the government wished to demonstrate how advanced Japan was. The Bullet Train made its first journey on 1st October 1964 – nine days before the opening ceremony of the games. At that time, the fastest train, the Hikari, travelled at a speed of around 130mph, which is just under the average speed of the High-Speed Service from St. Pancras to Ashford International (145mph). This High-Speed train was produced by Japanese manufacturer Hitachi, so it does actually use Japanese technology itself. However, these days the fastest train on the Japanese Bullet Train lines travels at a speed of around 186mph.

There were four main stadiums used in Tokyo for the Olympic Games – the National Stadium, Nippon Budokan, Komazawa Gymnasium and the Yoyogi National Gymnasium. As mentioned, commemorative stamps were produced for each of these buildings, showing the prestige that Japan wanted to demonstrate through them. The National Stadium was where the opening ceremony was held, and where Yoshinori Sakai lit the Olympic Cauldron. This stadium was enlarged to hold 75,000 spectators for the duration of the Olympics and is still used for annual soccer tournaments. It now holds audiences of 48,000. Nippon Budokan is now used primarily for martial arts, although since the Olympics it has been used as a venue for many high-profile musical acts such as The Beatles and Bob Dylan.

Overall the exhibition was incredibly interesting, and provided a real insight into not just the Olympic Games themselves, but the post-war context it was set against. The “Tokyo 1964” Olympics Exhibition is on at the Japanese Embassy from 18th July until 7th September 2012, Monday to Friday, 9.30am until 5:30pm, and admittance is free.

Text by Dan Stanyon