The Design Governor

In 1642, a Japanese daimyo, or feudal lord, named Yorishige Matsudaira rode 350 miles southwest from Tokyo (then Edo) to take over the provincial capital city of Takamatsu on the sunny island of Shikoku. To commemorate his arrival, he called in the finest landscape architects in the land and had them build a magnificent garden, known as Ritsurin Koen, or Forest of Chestnut Trees, that even today draws visitors from all over Japan. When they come, they see in flourishing Takamatsu, now a city of 240,000, many another sight to please the eye. For Masanori Kaneko, 60, the local governor, has taken a leaf from Matsudaira's book.

Childhood Memories. In his 17 years in office, Kaneko has turned the out-of-the-way, largely agricultural prefecture of Kagawa into an architectural showplace and art center, and he has become ,known far and wide as the "design chiji [governor]." For the Takamatsu library, he brought in Yoshinobu Ashihara, architect for Japan's pavilion at Expo 67. Professor Junzo Yoshimura, original architect of Emperor Hirohito's new palace in Tokyo, managed the restoration of the exquisite Moon-Scooping Pavilion, built by Matsudaira's men.

Hiroshi Oe, 53, a distinguished, Shinto-influenced modernist, is represented by a new balconied suburban high school, plus a $745,000, six-story cultural hall ("Almost like a dream girl," says Kane ko. "I've fallen head over heels for it").

The hall's entrance is graced by a hand some piece of sculpture by Masayuki Nagare, Japan's foremost sculptor -- and a Takamatsu resident.

Kaneko is proudest that he snared Japan's leading architect, Kenzo Tange, 53, to design his Kagawa prefectural headquarters, which is considered even finer than Tange's Tokyo city hall, and Takamatsu's new gymnasium (see color). For the latter. Architect Tange called on his childhood memories of Japan's traditional, majestic wooden barges ("Takamatsu, after all, is a city by the sea"). Building it, with its cable-suspended roof and abutment-supported "bow" and "stern," proved a contractor's nightmare. Whenever the gripes seemed insurmountable, Kaneko cheerfully exhorted the workmen to "show us your patriotism, for this is a work Japan will be proud of."

Four-Time Winner. Kaneko believes that "politics and architecture are, in the final analysis, one and the same. Both must be dedicated to enriching the minds of the people." Though he has run into criticisms for extravagance, he devotes only 4% of the budget to architecture, keeps building expenses to a minimum--Tange's prefectural hall cost only $7.80 per square foot (v. $11.10 for his Tokyo city hall). The citizens of Kagawa seem to appreciate his philosophy. They have re-elected Kaneko to office by overwhelming majorities four times in a row.

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