Have you heard of the concept of "Hyperart Thomasson"? It refers to a useless relic or structure that has been preserved as part of a building or the building’s environment, which has become a piece of art in itself.

This was defined and named by the award-winning Japanese artist Genpei Akasegawa.

The name comes from Gary Thomasson, a professional baseball player who belonged to the Yomiuri Giants in the 1980s. After his first year, he ceased to be a valuable player, always striking out, but still, they kept him as the fourth batter in line.

This was exactly the kind of concept that Mr. Akasegawa was researching-- the idea that “something is preserved for an unknown reason although it serves no purpose”. And thus he came up with Hyperart Thomasson, also known as “Thomasson architecture”.

There are a number of these “Thomasson architecture” buildings in Fujiyoshida that Mr. Akasegawa discovered on his visit in 2000. Here we’d like to introduce ones that he described as “top tier” Thomasson.
There’s a building with a staircase wrapped around it, but you’ll notice that these stairs don’t actually connect to any door or entryway into the building itself. This is what you’d call “useless stairs” in Thomasson architecture.

And if you look across the street from the “useless stairs”, you’ll see a wall with an image sketched on the side, possibly of a sailboat, but one cannot be quite sure. That’s because this art is unintentional; rather the coloring of the image naturally resulted from something on the wall, like a gas meter. This wall is also one of Mr. Akasegawa’s favorites.

Now that you have an idea of what Thomasson architecture looks like, can you find any more as you continue your journey?