KYOTO SEIKA UNIVERSITY

“SEIKA renounces all the conventional values of the past like a

blank canvas. We are creating a new university imbued with the spirit
of freedom and autonomy where all faculty members and students are
respected first of all as people.”

Kyoto Seika University continues to pursue those original ideals

today.
Seiichi Okamoto, SEIKA’s first president, envisioned the creation
of an entirely new kind of university education, passionately
advocating the concept of a university based on the spirit of freedom
and autonomy.

Mission Statement
"Our objective is to promote a spirit of independence, thereby
contributing to human society by intellectual and artistic learning.“
History

SEIKA was founded in 1968 with the intention of providing a

progressive, liberal and humanistic alternative to the "production-line"
education system of that time.
Academic Calendar

First Semester | April to July,

18 weeks with 4 days for Golden Week – 1st week of May

Second Semester | October to February

22 week with 7 days for Winter Break – December to January
 Faculty of Design
Interior and Goods Design Course
Interior and Goods Design Course

The Interior and Goods Design Course aims to enrich our lifestyle,
to make places and things for living healthily and comfortably through
design. For this reason, students need not only skills in color and
form, but also proficiency in suggesting new ways and ideas for the
relationship between society, the regions and natural environments.

This course has a firm awareness of this and, through its practical
design modules like creating products in partnership with the private
sector, its curriculum always engages with the outside world.
 Interior and Goods Design Course

Students learn how to think about design within its relationship with
society, while also enhancing their skills in the design that personally
interests them—interior, furniture, knickknacks, or editorial.

The course features a feast of learning that looks ahead to a career

in design, including modules leading you to become eligible to apply
for the certified architects' qualification, or in which you study
management.
 First Year | The Most Important of All ,
A Designer’s Mind

Goal : Learning the foundations of design from nature, training

skills in form and sensibility.

During the first year of the Interior and Goods Design Course,
students learn the foundations of two- and three-dimensional form
and design.

For example, a sketching class trains students in portrayal and

shaping, by drawing plants 100 times.
 Second Year | New Lifestyles Suggested by
Japanese Confectionary

Goal : Attaining proficiency in suggesting new ways of living.

The second year applies the skills and creative abilities acquired in the
previous academic year, giving students the faculties to suggest ways to
improve the way we live.

The year features a curriculum with its eyes on the world outside the
campus, including taking part in a design event in Tokyo, planning
products, conducting market surveys, and designing things in partnership
with the private sector.
 Second Year | New Lifestyles Suggested by
Japanese Confectionary

Students work with more materials as well, including metals, plastics,

ceramics and more, and students also learn how to use computers to
design in both two and three dimensions.

Each class enhances students' specialties so they can acquire the

ability to apply design and suggest new ways of living. Over the year
students then come to see what they want to create, what path they
wish to take.
 Third Year | What is fun and comfortable design?

Goal : Determining your own interests and futures. Attaining specialist

design skills and theory.

This year sees students explore their own interests and specialties
further, selecting several classes depending on their own interests and
wishes.

There are classes designing the interior for homes and stores, or designing
the furniture or lighting. Students also study cutlery, packaging, and
editorial design, the kinds of design that make everyday life more fun and
comfortable. Moreover, they conduct fieldwork whereby they experience a
regional production site.
 Third Year | What is fun and comfortable design?

There are also career-minded opportunities for attaining the

eligibility to apply for qualification to be a Grade Two certified
architect, as well as learning how to build up a portfolio. The year
brings students closer to being professional designers by
determining the new lifestyles they wish to present and then how to
make it.
 Fourth Year | Turning real richness into form

Goal : Applying the skills in shape, design and presentation

acquired up till now. Completing a graduation project.

They now join seminar classes as per their own interests and future
career choices, and get to grips with the graduation projects that will
be the culmination of their four years of study.

To start, students survey contemporary lifestyles, researching and

analyzing. Planning, conceptualizing, designing and choosing
materials, they then proceed to the actual production stage.
 Fourth Year | Turning real richness into form

A student designed clothes and chairs based on the concept of what

is "projected" when different things come together. The student's
final graduation project was a new suggestion of beauty produced by
clothes and a chair through the action of sitting.

Design should make our future lifestyle more fun and comfortable.
After four years of asking themselves how that can be done,
students then go out into the world with their ideas.
Career paths after graduating from the Interior and Goods
Design Course

• Furniture or lighting designer

• Craft designer using knickknacks or Kyoto traditions
• Interior designer with a Grade Two certified architect qualification
• Packaging or editorial designer
• Knickknacks designer
• Product designer
• Color designer
• Accessories designer
• Event manager
• Interior design coordinator etc.
 Japan Interior Planner Association
• The Japan Interior Planner Association
(JIPA) was established as a coalition
organization of regional interior planner
associations nationwide in 1998. We
support the association activities in each
region, continue the activities with the aim
of contributing to the development and
fulfillment of society and culture as well as
aiming for sound development of the
interior and the environment.
Regional Association
• Hokkaido IP Association
• IP Association of Iwate Prefecture
• Yamagata IP Association
• Tokyo IP Association
• IP Association of Shizuoka Prefecture
• Chubu IP Association
• Hokuriku IP Association
• Kansai IP Association
• Chugoku IP Association
• Kyushu IP Association
 Japan Interior Designers' Association

JID was founded in 1958 as a national association to represent the

interests of the interior designers in Japan. Since then, JID has been
dealing with the professional, cultural, and legal interests of the interior
design profession supporting and promoting the realization of the modern
design.

The full membership consists of the individual designers who practice

interior design and interior product design as well as the researchers
engaged in the field of interior design. The supporting membership
includes the organizations, companies, design schools and institutes
relevant to the field of interior design who wish to contribute the goals of
the association.
 Japan Interior Designers' Association

The objectives of the association are to contribute to the social well-

being by looking for the common solutions to make better living
environments and to enhance the social recognition of the importance
of interior design.
 International Interior Designer Association | Japan Chapter

IIDA Japan Chapter is directly connected with the Headquarters

in Chicago, and supports its members in their profession of
enhancing the quality of life through interior design, to a global
standard. IIDA Japan Chapter reveals to the Japanese interior
world new trends and, through stimulating activities, seeks to advance
the social status of interior designers and interior design itself.
At this point, a comparison of offered Interior Design Program from
Kyoto Seika University to the previously assigned university in the
Philippines which is the University of Santo Tomas, to evaluate
each school on how they envision themselves as an agent of change
on its nation and society.
On the mission statement coming from Kyoto Seika University, as school
stated "to promote a spirit of independence," which one important value on how
Okamoto envisioned the university as imbued with the spirit of freedom and
autonomy. With this, students are expected to contribute to society
intellectually and artistically. On the other hand, the mission statement of
University of Santo Tomas states "to pursuit the Truth through the
production of advancement and transmission of knowledge," where students are
expected to become competent and compassionate individuals committed to
nation and its community, inspired by the ideals of St. Dominic de Guzman and
guided by the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas.
It is very evident that both universities have different approach to teaching.
Kyoto Seika University encourage their students to embrace their individuality
that is respected first of all as human. While the University of Santo Tomas
encourage their students to acquire knowledge and growth guided by the
teachings of the Catholic Church.
 KYOTO SEIKA UNIVERSITY OF SANTO
UNIVERSITY TOMAS

Both universities have the same goal to establish a core foundation of the
1st YEAR

students both physical and intellectual.

To suggest ways to improve the way To continue the formation and

we live. Expected to have involvement development of learning. However,
outside the campus, including taking this time it requires research as it
2nd YEAR

part in a design event in Tokyo, tackles non-residential interiors.

planning products, conducting market
surveys, and designing things in
partnership with the private sector.
 KYOTO SEIKA
UNIVERSITY
To determining personal interests to
attain specialist design skills and
theory. The year brings students
closer to being professional designers
and it opens also career-minded
3rd YEAR
opportunities to apply for qualification
to be a Grade Two certified architect,
as well as learning how to build up a
portfolio.
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO
TOMAS
To have deeper understanding on
technicalities of construction and
materials and to pursue excellence in
creative through involvement to
various competitions both local and
international. All students will be
joining seminars that discusses other
specialized field in Interior Design.
 KYOTO SEIKA
UNIVERSITY
To apply the skills in shape, design
and presentation acquired up till now.
They now join seminar classes as per
their own interests and future career
choices, and get to grips with the
4th YEAR
graduation projects that will be the
culmination of their four years of
study.
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO
TOMAS
To provide the formation and
development of Interior Design, the
students are now expected to conduct
an extensive research and to produce
a thesis and an individual actual
project as requirement for graduation.
Sources

Kyoto Seika University. (n.d.). Retrieved March 15, 2019, from http://www.kyoto-
seika.ac.jp/eng/

Kita, T. (n.d.). Japan Interior Designers' Association. Retrieved March 19, 2019, from
http://www.jid.or.jp/index_en.shtml

Japan Federation of Interior Planner's Association. (n.d.). Retrieved March 19, 2019, from
http://jipa-official.org/en/