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Introduction
Do you know what will appear when you type in “Kabuki-cho” to the google search box? As you can see on the right, many images of the Kabuki-cho Ichiban-gai will appear. Just by looking at its’ Google search result, we can see how Kabuki-cho is recognized as “the city with an immense number of signboards with flashy neon lights” by many people; it being unconsciously embedded as our main image of the city. As a matter of fact, such are the significant features that contribute in creating the “uniqueness” of Kabuki-cho. Likewise, Pellow and Lawrence-Zúñiga (2014) discuss how architecture plays an important role in shaping views of the world and recreating the cityscape of a particular area. Considering signboards to be one of the significant features that create and represent Kabuki-cho, this research project will analyze different types of signboards placed in the district from the semiotical perspective, to examine how such can be considered “unique” and “distinctive”.
Definition of signboards
Definition of SIGNBOARDS in this website refers to: a sign with information on it or showing the name of a business, school, hospital, etc.
— retrieved from Cambridge English Dictionary
methodology
We will use semiotics to analyze the signboards in Kabuki-Cho. According to Chandler (2017),
one of the broadest definitions is that of the late Italian semiotician Umberto Eco, who states that ‘semiotics is concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign’. A sign is traditionally defined as ‘something which stands for something else’. All meaningful phenomena (including words and images) are signs.
Therefore, interpreting signboards is equivalent to treating them as signs. For this research project, we explore how meanings are made and how reality is constructed/represented through signboards. The necessary fieldwork to complete this project was conducted in Kabuki-cho from June 10th, 2022~July 18th, 2022, with the frequency of once a week, from 18:00~21:00. Considering its’ (the business’s) immense effect on the district’s economy, we exclusively focused on the signboards of Hotels, Host and Kyabakura , Industries, and Muryo-Annai Jyo. Moreover, considering the district’s high crime rate, public signboards were also the subject of this research. Fieldnotes under the focus on each respective category were made in the field with the participant’s smartphones. Moreover, pictorial data were taken using smartphones as well.
Conclusion
The signboards carry very important information including name of places, milestones, shops, hospitals, public and private buildings, traffic signs, navigation information, advertisements, public notices, social and cultural messages.
(Bains, J. K., Singh, S., & Sharma, A, 2020)
Signboards are universal and one can spot them regardless of where they are. Nevertheless, through this research project, we have come to the conclusion that signboards in Kabuki-cho were found to be unique and distinctive compared to those of other districts. One common aspect shared among all categories was the usage of neon lighting. With the immense amount of neon-lighted signboards, the accumulation of such has ultimately constructed what is the “flashy cityscape” we see today. Moreover, this can be one of the fundamental reasons why Kabuki-cho is also known as “the city that never sleeps”.
Moreover, the district is notorious for its immense number of nightlife entertainment, which associates with its’ prominence of being known as one of the largest red-light districts in Japan. Likewise, signboards observed in Kabuki-cho are very likely to be associated with such entertainment, which people may not come across very often unless they visit the district. Through the semiotic analysis conducted in each respective category, we were able to figure out how the various features which contribute to promoting and perhaps embracing their respective businesses, are what makes such signboards a “one-of-a-kind”.
However, limitations are also present in this research, considering the short period of time dedicated to the project. The lack of subjects of observation as well as the absence of observation of viewer reactions has limited the research where it was not able to identify how the signboards exactly influenced viewer behavior and action. Taking this into consideration, future research is highly expected in order to make such analysis to be made possible as well.
