Behind the Scenes: 2025 Expo Mascot "Myaku-Myaku" welcoming guests (photo: author)
”May be too hot to touch”

Recently, I have become increasingly mindful of the concept of “mountain ranges” in architecture (Igarashi, Ichikawa, etc.). If you are not familiar with the term, an analogy can be drawn to a kind of master-pupil lineage in Zen, but perhaps not as lofty a goal as enlightenment. Outside of these mountain ranges, there are isolated peaks and also open seas where it is difficult to establish a connection. As an outlier, I can commiserate with the difficulties of such situations. In reality, it is extremely difficult to stand alone as a freestanding peak without a larger-than-life charisma or connections. I had a vague suspicion that the ultimate embodiment of such mountain ranges is condensed in the 2025 Osaka Expo. For both educational and experiential motives, I recently visited the Expo, whereby this hypothesis turned into conviction.

To avoid any misunderstanding, I would like to clarify that I want to offer huge congratulations to those who have contributed to the Expo, from the conceptualization to the realization of each pavilion and facility. The journey must have been a series of unimaginable challenges. This is not criticism, but rather an objective observation from an outsider who does not belong to any mountain ranges. It is also not a critique of any country pavilions, the organizing body or specific companies.

*Solar Still Pavilion, 2022 (image credit: B01)*
*https://www.bureau0-1.com/projects/solar-still-pavilion*

The signature pavilions representative of the host country and corporate pavilions at this Expo constitute a kind of microcosmos that clearly reflects the lineage and architectural mountain ranges mentioned earlier. Looking at the roster of involved architects, it is only natural that, with a few exceptions, the list includes some of Japan's most renowned architects. Furthermore, the various facilities such as rest areas, galleries, exhibition spaces, pop-up stages, satellite studios, and restrooms were designed by a select group of promising young architects chosen through an open competition. There were few surprises here as well, and the inclusion of many individuals with deep connections to the competition judges exemplified a kind of predestined harmony. (For some reason, we also submitted a proposal, but it was a concept that would have been overexpensive, and looking back, I realize we were overly ambitious. However, this was a design we wanted to realize on a dreamlike global stage, so I have no regrets. Having had the unfounded hubris of supporting the early formidable days of Fujimoto's practice, I ultimately came to realize that I, too, am an outlier who does not belong to any mountain range.)

*1970 Osaka Expo"Festival Plaza" & 2025 Osaka Expo "The Ring" (left:* *The Nikkei; right: Ibamoto, Creative Commons)*

Ultimately, “The Ring” designed by Sou Fujimoto became the centerpiece of the 2025 Osaka Expo, profoundly manifesting the microcosm of contemporary Japanese architecture. At the time of the 1970 Osaka Expo, both architecture and Japan had a grand narrative. The world envisioned by the Metabolists was centered around a massive space frame roof covering the central festival plaza, with the Sun Tower piercing through it. Two years later, the Tanaka Kakuei administration announced the Japan Archipelago Reconstruction Plan, introducing policies aimed at decentralizing the economy and addressing regional disparities. In the 2025 Osaka Expo, 55 years later, this concept of decentralization is embodied in a different sense. The central roof structure has been replaced by the ringed roof that encircles the site. I am an avid believer in the importance of grand narratives, but this structural change seems to symbolize the recent trend of thoughts that flows from the center to the periphery: from centralization to decentralization; from unity to fragmentation, from the whole to a part.

Statue of Hoshi the Monk, Kyoto National Museum
"The sign is a fissure. What peeks through it is none other than the face of another sign."
Roland Barthes, "The Empire of Signs" (this photo and quote only exists in its Japanese version)

Furthermore, “The Ring”, while located in Osaka, can also be seen as a structure that is more suggestive of archipelago Japan and its capital, Tokyo. As Roland Barthes aptly observed, the imperial palace occupying the center of Tokyo is devoid of power despite its implied authority or prestige, and he positively interpreted the unique freedom that comes from being liberated from meaning. While the Western philosophy sought to fill signs with meaning, in Japan, there can be coexistence of signs that lack or refuse to be filled with meaning. By being detached from meaning, the image itself gains its own brilliance. This Ring, along with the countless objects and stories swirling within and around it, ultimately foments a world where the overwhelming presence of the image itself renders any words unnecessary. No matter how meaningless words echo through the mountain ranges, I believe this Ring should remain after the Expo ends, as a testament to this zeitgeist, and for future generations to autopsy.