Osaka Brand Center

Yamazaki’s wide range of activities is not limited to the communities within Osaka. “Hozumi Seizaisho (Sawmill) Project” in Iga-shi, Mie, and “Sagurareru Shima (an island to be explored)” at Ieshima Island, Himeji-shi, Hyogo, are among his major projects that are currently taking place outside his base city. Through these projects in outside communities, however, Yamazaki has discovered that people in Osaka “are generally pretty good at using public spaces.”
In Osaka, as Yamazaki points out, people often grow green onions and shiso basil in planting areas of public streets. They also plant private garden bushes on the premises of train tracks that run right behind their houses, or turn street spaces in front of stores into community areas after they have closed for business for the day. “People in Tokyo, for example, seem to separate themselves from the public,” says Yamazaki. “People in Osaka, on the contrary, rather think that they are part of the public.” In other words, Osaka locals forwardly assume (in a good sense) that what the public has is what they’ve got, while being particularly gifted to find a practical use for every corner of public space. This may explain why unique, unexpected utilization of public space is seen in Osaka, according to Yamazaki.