Sangha of Auspicious Companions

The Tokyo Toilet

In Tokyo’s parks, some toilets glow like lanterns—until you lock the door and the walls turn opaque. Their glass walls let users check whether the toilet is occupied before entering, as well as get a sense of how clean it is from the outside. They were designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban as part of an ambitious collaborative project, which called on 16 top design and architecture studios to reimagine public toilets in 17 different locations in central Tokyo in 2019. Some toilets are shaped like snowballs, and other like mushrooms, while some have been inspired by bamboo forests. “Toilets are a symbol of Japan’s world-renowned hospitality culture,” says the Tokyo Toilet website. Since the 1980s, the Japanese culture of cleanliness has been embodied for many by the latest toilets with their high-tech features. These can now be found in roughly three-quarters of Japanese households.

Be The Change

Notice a public space today that you usually ignore or avoid—a restroom, a bus shelter, a park bench. Spend one minute there with attention, as if the divine were watching through your eyes. What shifts when you treat shared spaces as sacred?