Bridges Made by Miyoko Ohno
Michiyo OKABE  Deputy Center Director/Chief Curator, Gallery A4

Here is the history of works by Miyoko Ohno. She started her ca reer as a product designer and then joined the world of bridge design to realize the concept of “Design for All” to pursue excellent design to b e used by all people.
Ohno wanted to major in architectural design in college. Her fa ther, an engineer at Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., was against the idea of her becoming an architect since there were very few women at construction sites. He allowed her to study design and she decided to go to college of arts. She attended to a preparatory school where she met Midori Mitsui, another M who launched M+M Design Office with Ohno later. They started their professional journey as artists. Mitsui en tered Tokyo University of the Arts and then studied at Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Ohno studied at Tama Art University, worked at Interior Design Office of Matsuya and then went to Switzerland to further her stu dy. When in college, they were greatly influenced by “Japanese Traditional Houses” by Teiji Ito and Yukio Futagawa (1962). They made backpack trips to Tohoku and Setouchi areas to take photographs. Ohno was tall and called “Zosan” by her friends. “Zosan (an elephant)” showed her friendliness, popularity, mental strength and trust among her friends. Her friends had already seen her profile in later years.
Ohno met her mentor Mr. Isamu Kenmochi at Tama Art University. She joined Interior Design Office of Matsuya with his recommendation. Her boss was Katsuo Matsumura and her peer designer was Shiro Kuram ata. She was socialized with members of Japan Design Committee including Tetsuo Matsumoto and Sori Yanagi. She might have absorbed vitality of Japanese designers globally sending their designs.
Returning to Japan from Switzerland, she clicked with Mitsui an d launched M+M Design Office. They designed interior space of hospi tals and released dining tables and chairs fit for Japanese living and eating styles. They became topical when a dining table of hinoki cypre ss was featured in Japan Interior Design (1974). They made their debut as a group of women designers.
It was around the time when interest in landscape design was heightened and participation of designers in the field of civil engineering was sought for. Ohno started to receive an offer to design landscapes. Mitsui, on the other hand, had adherence to designing something to be touched by human hand and pursued her career in furniture design and left the office. Ohno was brave enough to enter the world of landscape design. The first project she was engaged in was Hasune Footbridge (✽1) . It has brail signs and handrails 80 cm from the floor over the entire length and benches on the bridge. It is to take care of children, pregnant mothers an d elderly citizens who use it. It is not very special now but it was a very novel idea those days and surprised the person in charge at Metropolitan Expressway Company Limited. She then designed many other structures includ ing highway bridges and footbridges. She was involved in long-term projects of decade or more and created landmarks of the communities.
Bridges connect infrastructures in the communities, making people’s life richer and easier . Ohno proposed that bridges should be filled with functions compassionate to human bodies and behaviors, have a social mission as a public facility , be friendly to natural environment and beautiful so that they can fade into the background landscape.
Just before the exhibition, I visited “Ayunose Bridge”(✽2) . It is a dignified bridge over the magnificent valley . I strongly feel Ohno there. Y amato Town in Kumamoto Prefecture where the bridge was built is a town with full of nature. The town also maintains traditional culture of stone bridges including Tsujunkyo, puppet play called Bunraku and Ohtsukurimonomatsuri (festival with parade of floats). It was a desperate wish of the local people to have a bridge connecting communities separated by the valley. The bridge was planned as a part of “Kumamoto A rtpolis”(✽3)  and Ohno was designated by Arata Isozaki, the commissioner of the project. A monument was built at the 10th anniversary, indicating how important the project was to the town. Ohno was the person who made holistic creation of the bridge from the architectural design to the des ign management. Ohno created landscape by building “bridges” to connect towns and people and she was always in the center of design act ivities. All the people in the community were so much pleased when she w as awarded with Civil Engineering Design Award in 2002.
Ohno and Mitsui met again after 30 years in 2011 as members of the jury of “wood chair design” competition organized by Wakita Museum. The jury also exhibited their works and th eir chairs made of Japanese lar ch were among them. Mitsui saw Ohno’s work and said with a smile, “It’s like a bridge.” Mitsui said that she keenly felt that Ohno improved her design sensitivity with the keyword of bridge in her 30-year career . It is the manifestation of Ohno's philosophy of devoting to her mission and role. Mitsumasa Fujitsuka, a photographer, commented that she could “design from millimeter to kilometer” . Motomi Kawakami, a product designer , described her as “ having a handsome sensitivity, delegating to others while preserving her ideas and concepts. T etsuo Matsumoto described her as "a person who has achieved remarkable and gigantic works which ordinary men cannot achieve.” He also said, “She was a comrade to us. ” “Bridges” are products of ideas and conditions submitted by man y different people and the design requires a lot of skills and kn owledge. Ohno has an open mind to delegate others activities that she cannot handle. Her bridges are product of her generous mind, warm compassion to people and firm belief.
Ohno passed away in 2016, leaving her volition to solve resource challenges and to design furniture friendly to users. We can se e cycle of her idea from bridges to nature to furniture. She desig ned her bridges, which survives after 100 years of use. They are bridges to our future. She had been challenging all the time to make a breakthrough to humanize civil engineering. I will here present the road she paved as a bridge to the younger generation.

✽1  Completed in 1977 ( Tokyo). Awarded with Civil Engineering T anaka Prize (1977)
✽2  Completed in 1999 (Kumamoto Prefecture). Awarded Grand Prize of Civil Engineering Design Award (2002)
✽3  Architecture and Cultural Project started in 1988 under the lea dership of the governor, Morihiro Hosokawa, to make the prefecture a creative cultural one.