A found object barely different/relating/trance-ission/evolutionary:
Hyperart Thomasson aka just Thomason[1] was invented by the Japanese artist Akasegawa Genpei[2] in 1972 in Yotsuya, Tokyo. The first Thomasson was entitled "The pure staircase of Yotsuya"[3]. The term Thomasson derives from the professional baseball player Gary Thomasson, who was signed by the Yomiuri Giants for a record amount of money and spent his last two seasons with the team (1981–1982) failing to produce any hits for the team, coming close to breaking the league strikeout record before being benched and retiring from baseball altogether due to a knee injury.
Akasegawa Genpei, a great baseball enthusiast, viewed Thomasson's useless position on the team as a fitting analogy for, I quote "an object, part of a building, that was maintained in good condition, but with no purpose, to the point of becoming a work of art". In Japanese there is no distinction between the singular and plural forms of the noun Tomason, hence in English as well, Thomasson can denote one or several of such items/structures. In English, the term is sometimes spelled Tomason, or Thomason, we personally prefer the spelling Cis-Art Thomaasson [sic], for obviously vain, methodological, and artistic reasons.
Our unlearned retina considers it a second cousin twice removed of a rather architectural/infra- or intra-structure “found object” / ”objet trouvé” contained in a positive infinite feedback-loop/self-regression.
We intend to put this neglected/underrated concept xor quasi-method to good use in our immediate and impending creative endeavors. IYI: check out the bleak/drab/somber Hiroshima Thomasson.
IYI: Modernology[4] (考現, kogengaku), by Wajiro Kon (今和次郎, Kon Wajirō).
Image 1: First Thomasson ever (but not yet called as such) Yotsuya, Tokyo, 1972, entitled: “the pure staircase of Yotsuya”
Image 2: A coarse outline drawing of the idea to the first Cis-Art Thomaasson. 2025, entitled: “Hairway to Steven”
Image 3: Our first Cis-Art Thomaasson, entitled: “Hairway to Steven” in our studio/atheneum, 2025
Image 4 : A triple entendre spelling Hyperart Tho…on with a personal Japanese business stamp chop, the Kanji signs represent the meaning of beauty and grace of Asia, spelling Ma-a-su, 2025
[1] 超芸術トマソン: (Japanese: Tomason トマソン or most correct Chōgeijutsu Tomasson 超芸術トマソン)
[2] Genpei Akasegawa (赤瀬川 原平, Akasegawa Genpei) was a pseudonym of Japanese artist Katsuhiko Akasegawa (赤瀬川 克彦, Akasegawa Katsuhiko)
[3] In 1972, Akasegawa discovered the first Thomasson in Yotsuya, Tokyo when he noticed that a staircase had no entrance once reaching the top. Even though there was clear evidence of recent repair work and maintenance on the handrail of the staircase, which seemed to be used even though the staircase itself appeared to serve no purpose at all.
[4] A branch of sociology which explores the transformations of the city and in people after Tokyo became a modern metropolis in the early Showa Era.
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