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The Concept of Zokei as its educational Ideas

In the prospectus of the university for the first year President Yoko Kuwasawa wrote: “The purpose of the founding of the university was to synthesize design and fine arts into the broader concept of Zokei, to study and teach theories and application of Zokei, to master expert skills, to raise up talented people with various individualities and to contribute to the creation of culture, the development of Japanese industry and social welfare.”
The concept of Zokei, the term used as part of the university’s name, contains the concept of holding each special field together: being synthetic is one of the concepts the educational ideas of the university are based on.
In “The Purpose of Education” in the prospectus of the university for the second year, Yoko Kuwasawa said: “Although there are various opinions on the meaning of design and fine arts, they are activities of Zokei which contribute to industrial production, visual communication and living environment causing more comfort and more efficiency to improve the quality of people’s life. Therefore, design and fine arts are expressions responsible for society rather than mere self-expression, and designers and artists are indebted to civilization to resolve contradictions in modern society and industry.” As her words “Design is not a matter of individuals but a matter of the public and society” show, the concept of Zokei contains social work beyond individual expressions, and having social meaning is another concept the educational ideas of TZU are based on.
In addition to its being synthetic and having social meaning, the concept of Zokei also contains one of the most fundamental forms of expression. As language is fundamental to expression and communication of information for human beings, so are the activities of Zokei. The concept of Zokei embodies the fundamentals of communication, which is another concept the educational ideas of TZU are based on.
The concept of Zokei is the philosophy of education of the university itself. Regarding “being synthetic”, “having social meaning” and “embodying fundamentals of communication” as important factors of the concept Zokei, we are convinced that thinking about problems concerning “human beings and Zokei” and “society and Zokei” fundamentally and synthetically is the very basis of the education at TZU.