Revisiting the Ginza Fashion Survey after 100 Years

In the 1920s, the Japanese architect and designer Wajiro Kon developed the methodology of Modernologio and conducted a survey of Ginza, Tokyo, Japan, to record urban and “tasteful” street customs. Distinguished by its thorough counting and illustrations, Modernologio is an original method for observing changing customs in contemporary Japan. Walking at a fixed speed over a defined section of pavement, Kon and his researchers tallied up certain features of Ginza City passersby in early-summer 1925, including their hats, hairstyles, beards, ties, combs, clothing, accessories, and shoes. Kon’s survey empirically measured the impact of modernisation and Europeanisation on Japan, primarily through the ratio of Japanese to European clothing styles. This basic and informative method was a way of exploring social changes through urban customs. The illustrations from the survey also serve as a historical representation of the time. For the present study, I will adopt Kon’s methodology and reproduce the survey. I plan to conduct a Ginza fashion survey during early-summer 2025 to see how Ginza City pedestrians have changed in appearance over 100 years. This presentation provides a brief report on this topic. Whereas this survey will follow the model set by Kon in 1925, it will also use modern recording tools to ensure careful counting. The accumulation of such surveys allows for diachronic comparisons and contributes to historical sociology. To be sensitive to changes in contemporary society, Kon’s method enables the researcher to develop analytical categories on the ground. Using a phenomenological method that operates through the eyes of researchers, this method has the potential to capture changing customs in a flexible way, even today.