Jin-shin Jiko/Jinshin Jiko

Building on the Japanese term for personal injury, “Jin-shin Jiko,” or “human accident,” Yoko Tawada plays with words and syllables relating to body and soul, self and person, human and corpse, rhythm and silence. She gives a sound to the fast, orderly arrangement of local public transport in Tokyo's subways – a machinery to which every passenger is subject, and one that is constantly being tested and perfected. Inspired by the station maps for individual lines that are posted in the corresponding train stations, the Japanese text is arranged vertically, alternating with the English translation, which is set horizontally on the reverse of each page. The two different reading directions create a dual format that is also repeated in the photographs preceding and following the text; the book can be viewed and read in landscape as well as in portrait format. The images show scenes from Tokyo's subways, illustrating not only their inescapable-seeming closeness, but also the countless measures taken in the last few years to prevent incidents involving personal injury – such as barriers along the edges of the platforms, colored lights at the ends of the platforms, and emergency telephones.

Based on the Japanese word jinshin joushuu (personal accident), Yoko Tawada plays with words and syllables related to body and soul, self and individual, human and corpse, rhythm and silence. Tawada gives sound to the fast and orderly layout of public transport in Tokyo's subway. Inspired by the station maps posted at stations on each line, the Japanese text is written vertically and the English translation horizontally, alternating on the back of each page. These two different readings are repeated in the photographs that precede and follow the main text. The images, of Tokyo's subway scenes, attest not only to the inescapable closeness but also to the countless measures that have been taken in recent years to prevent personal injury, such as barriers at the edge of the platform, coloured lights at the edge of the platform and emergency telephones.