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approach suited HRC, who felt restless in the aftermath of the tumultuous
Anpo ’60 struggle, as Japanese society became increasingly content in everyday
life. The group’s name, which derived from the Wrst characters of the
three members’ family names—taka (hi) + aka (red) + naka (center)—could
be more than coincidental, hinting at their left-leaning mindset.
Another mockingly “ofWcial” feature was discursive in nature,
found in their Xyer, which functioned as a call for participation to interested
colleagues, with the obligatory information outlined concerning where and
when to meet and what to bring. Issued by the campaign’s (imaginary) organizer,
“Metropolitan Environment Hygiene Execution Committee,” it duly
listed an impressive roster of cosponsors, both real and Wctional, possible and
improbable. The total of twenty-one organizations are, in order of listing:
Tokyo Metropolitan Cleansing Projects Department
Anti-Pollution Countermeasure Headquarters
Sightseeing [Art] Research Institute*
National Federation of Shopping Streets
Youth Division of Ginza One-Thousand-Store Society
Rear-End Society
Imperial Palace Cleaning Volunteers
National Full-of-Flowers Campaign
Housewives’ Federation
Chuo-Ward Satsuki Women’s Society
Voice of Young Japan
Anti–Youth Delinquency Committee
Jiritsu (“Independent”) School Lecturers’ Group*
Taimei Elementary School PTA
Magazine Kikan (“Organ”) Editorial Department*
Japan Yomiuri Newspaper Company
Small-Kindness Campaign
Tokyo’s Olympics Organizing Committee
Fluxus Japanese Section*
Group Ongaku*
Hi Red Center*
After the “Descent to the Everyday” 55
The list pokes fun at the way many social programs and events were—and
still are—organized and promoted in Japan, which bespeaks the ingrained
collectivism in Japanese society as a whole. It should be noted HRC’s abiding
concern with the local context is in sharp relief to its international fame.
Cleaning Event in particular has been frequently performed by the members
of Fluxus outside Japan, but this discursive portion and the social commentary
relevant in Tokyo in 1964 have been lost in these restaging efforts.
Among the collectives discussed in this chapter, only Gutai, thanks to its
leader Yoshihara’s vision (as well as Wnance), consciously exercised internationalism.
HRC’s membership in Fluxus was not its own doing, but resulted