Japanese architecture 

(日本建築 Nihon kenchiku?) has traditionally been typified by wooden structures, elevated slightly

off the ground, with tiled or thatched roofs. Sliding doors (fusuma) were used in place of walls, allowing the internal
configuration of a space to be customized to different occasions. People usually sat on cushions or otherwise on the floor,
traditionally; chairs and high tables were not widely used until the 20th century. Since the 19th century, however, Japan
has incorporated much of Western, modern, andpost-modern architecture into construction and design, and is today a
leader in cutting-edge architectural design and technology.

The earliest Japanese architecture was seen in prehistoric times in simple pit-houses and stores that were adapted to
a hunter-gatherer population. Influence from Han DynastyChina via Korea saw the introduction of more complex grain
stores and ceremonial burial chambers.

The introduction into Japan of Buddhism in the sixth century was a catalyst for large scale temple building using
complicated techniques in wood. Influence from the Chinese T'ang and Sui Dynasties led to the foundation of the first
permanent capital in Nara. Its checkerboard street layout used the Chinese capital of Chang'an as a template for its
design. A gradual increase in the size of buildings led to standard units of measurement as well as refinements in layout
and garden design. The introduction of the tea ceremonyemphasised simplicity and modest design as a counterpoint to
the excesses of the aristocracy.

During the Meiji Restoration of 1868 the history of Japanese architecture was radically changed by two important events.
The first was the Kami and Buddhas Separation Act of 1868, which formally separated Buddhism
from Shinto and Buddhist temples from Shinto shrines, breaking an association between the two which had lasted well
over a thousand years and causing, directly and indirectly, immense damage to the nation's architecture.[1]

Second, it was then that Japan underwent a period of intense Westernization in order to compete with other developed
countries. Initially architects and styles from abroad were imported to Japan but gradually the country taught its own
architects and began to express its own style. Architects returning from study with western architects introduced
the International Style of modernism into Japan. However, it was not until after the Second World War that Japanese
architects made an impression on the international scene, firstly with the work of architects like Kenzo Tange and then
with theoretical movements like Metabolism.

Contents

  [hide] 

 1 General features of Japanese traditional architecture

 2 Prehistoric period

 3 Asuka and Nara architecture

 4 Heian period

 5 Kamakura and Muromachi periods

 6 Azuchi-Momoyama period

 7 Edo period

 8 Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa periods

o 8.1 Colonial architecture
 9 Late Showa period

 10 Early Heisei period

 11 Japanese interior design

o 11.1 Traditional Japanese aesthetic

o 11.2 Traditional materials of the interior

o 11.3 Western influence

o 11.4 Influence on the West

 12 See also

 13 Footnotes

 14 References

 15 Further reading

 16 External links
General features of Japanese traditional architecture[edit source | editbeta]

The roof is the dominant feature of traditional Japanese architecture.

Much in the traditional architecture of Japan is not native, but was imported from China and other Asian cultures over the
centuries. Japanese traditional architecture and its history are as a consequence dominated by Chinese and Asian
techniques and styles (present even inIse Shrine, held to be the quintessence of Japanese architecture) on one side, and
by Japanese original variations on those themes on the other.[2]

Partly due also to the variety of climates in Japan and the millennium encompassed between the first cultural import and
the last, the result is extremely heterogeneous, but several practically universal features can nonetheless be found. First
of all is the choice of materials, always wood in various forms (planks, straw, tree bark, paper, etc.) for almost all
structures. Unlike both Western and some Chinese architecture, the use of stone is avoided except for certain specific
uses, for example temple podia and pagoda foundations.[2]

The general structure is almost always the same: posts and lintels support a large and gently curved roof, while the walls
are paper-thin, often movable and in any case non-carrying. Arches and barrel roofs are completely absent. Gable and
eave curves are gentler than in China and columnar entasis (convexity at the center) limited.[2]

The roof is the most visually impressive component, often constituting half the size of the whole edifice.[2] The slightly
curved eaves extend far beyond the walls, covering verandas, and their weight must therefore be supported by complex
bracket systems called tokyō, in the case of temples and shrines. Simpler solutions are adopted in domestic structures.
The oversize eaves give the interior a characteristic dimness, which contributes to the building's atmosphere. The interior
of the building normally consists of a single room at the center called moya, from which depart any other less important
spaces.

Inner space divisions are fluid, and room size can be modified through the use of screens or movable paper walls. The
large, single space offered by the main hall can therefore be divided according to the need.[2] To the contrary, some walls
can be removed and different rooms joined temporarily to make space for some more guests. The separation between
inside and outside is itself in some measure not absolute as entire walls can be removed, opening a residence or temple
to visitors. Verandas appear to be part of the building to an outsider, but part of the external world to those in the building.
Structures are therefore made to a certain extent part of their environment. Care is taken to blend the edifice into the
surrounding natural environment.[2]

The use of construction modules keeps proportions between different parts of the edifice constant, preserving its overall
harmony.[2] (On the subject of building proportions, see also the article ken).

Even in cases as that of Nikkō Tōshō-gū, where every available space is heavily decorated, ornamentation tends to
follow, and therefore emphasize, rather than hide, basic structures.[2]

Being shared by both sacred and profane architecture, these features made it easy converting a lay building into a temple
or vice versa. This happened for example at Hōryū-ji, where a noblewoman's mansion was transformed into a religious
building.

Prehistoric period[edit source | editbeta]

The prehistoric period includes the Jōmon, Yayoi and Kofun periods stretching from approximately 5000 BCE to the
beginning of the eighth century CE.

During the three phases of the Jōmon period the population was primarily hunter-gatherer with some primitive agriculture
skills and their behaviour was predominantly determined by changes in climatic conditions and other natural stimulants.
Early dwellings were pit houses consisting of shallow pits with tamped earth floors and grass roofs designed to collect
rainwater with the aid of storage jars. Later in the period, a colder climate with greater rainfall led to a decline in
population, which contributed to an interest in ritual. Concentric stone circles first appeared during this time.[3]

During the Yayoi period the Japanese people began to interact with the Chinese Han Dynasty, whose knowledge and
technical skills began to influence them.[3] The Japanese began to build raised-floor storehouses as granaries which were
constructed using metal tools like saws and chisels that began to appear at this time. A reconstruction in Toro,
Shizuoka is a wooden box made of thick boards joined in the corners in a log cabin style and supported on eight pillars.
The roof is thatched but, unlike the typically hipped roof of the pit dwellings, it is a simple V-shaped gable.[4]

The Kofun period marked the appearance of many-chambered burial mounds or tumuli (kofun literally means "old
mounds"). similar mounds in Korean Peninsula are thought to have been influenced by Japan.[5] Early in the period the
tombs, known as "keyhole kofun" or zenpō-kōen kofun (前方後円古墳?, lit. square in front, circular in back old tomb-
mound), often made use of the existing topography, shaping it and adding man-made moats to form a distinctive keyhole
shape, i.e. that of a circle interconnected with a triangle. Access was via a vertical shaft that was sealed off once the burial
was completed. There was room inside the chamber for a coffin and grave goods. The mounds were often decorated
with terracotta figures called haniwa. Later in the period mounds began to be located on flat ground and their scale greatly
increased. Among many examples in Nara and Osaka, the most notable is the Daisen-kofun, designated as the tomb
of Emperor Nintoku. The tomb covers 32 hectares (79 acres) and it is thought to have been decorated with
20,000 haniwafigures.[3]

Towards the end of the Kofun period, tomb burials faded out as Buddhist cremation ceremonies gained popularity.[3]

Reconstructed pit dwelling houses in Yoshinogari,Saga Prefecture, 2nd or 3rd century

Reconstructed dwellings in Yoshinogari

Reconstructed grain storehouse in Toro, Shizuoka

Reconstructed raised-floor building in Yoshinogari

 
 

Daisenryō Kofun, Osaka, 5th century.

Asuka and Nara architecture[edit source | editbeta]

The most significant contributor to architectural changes during the Asuka period was the introduction of Buddhism. New
temples became centers of worship with tomb burial practices slowly becoming outlawed.[3] Also, Buddhism brought to
Japan and kami worship the idea of permanent shrines and gave to Shinto architecture much of its present vocabulary.

Some of the earliest structures still extant in Japan are Buddhist temples established at this time. The oldest surviving
wooden buildings in the world are found at Hōryū-ji, to the southwest of Nara. First built in the early 7th century as the
private temple of Crown Prince Shōtoku, it consists of 41 independent buildings; the most important ones, the main
worship hall, or Kon-dō (Golden Hall), and the five-story pagoda), stand in the centre of an open area surrounded by a
roofed cloister (kairō). The Kon-dō, in the style of Chinese worship halls, is a two-story structure of post-and-beam
construction, capped by an irimoya, or hipped-gabled, roof of ceramic tiles.[6][7]

Heijō-kyō, modern day Nara, was founded in 708 as the first permanent capital of state of Japan. The layout of its
checkerboard streets and buildings were modeled after the Chinese capital of Chang'an. The city soon became an
important centre of Buddhist worship in Japan.[8] The most grandiose of these temples was Tōdaiji, built to rival temples of
the Chinese T'ang and Sui Dynasties.[9]Appropriately, the 16.2-m (53-ft) Buddha or Daibutsu (completed in 752) enshrined
in the main hall is a Rushana Buddha, the figure that represents the essence of Buddhahood, just as Tōdai-ji represented
the centre for imperially sponsored Buddhism and its dissemination throughout Japan. Only a few fragments of the
original statue survive, and the present hall and central Buddha are reconstructions from the Edo period. Clustered
around the main hall (the Daibutsuden) on a gently sloping hillside are a number of secondary halls: the Hokke-dō (Lotus
Sutra Hall), the Kōfuku[3] and the storehouse, called the Shōsō-in. This last structure is of great importance as an art-
historical cache, because in it are stored the utensils that were used in the temple's dedication ceremony in 752, as well
as government documents and many secular objects owned by the Imperial family.[10]

Kon-dō and pagoda atHōryū-ji, Ikaruga, Nara

Built in 7th century

 
 

Pagoda at Hokki-ji,Ikaruga, Nara

Built in 706

Pagoda at Yakushi-ji,Nara, Nara

Originally built in 730

Hokkedō at Tōdai-ji, Nara, Nara

Founded in 743

Shōsō-in at Tōdai-ji, Nara, Nara

Built in 8th century


 Golden Temple atTōshōdai-ji, Nara, Nara

Built in 8th century

Heian period[edit source | editbeta]

Although the network of Buddhist temples across the country acted as a catalyst for an exploration of architecture and
culture, this also led to the clergy gaining increased power and influence. Emperor Kammu decided to escape this
influence by moving his capital first toNagaoka-kyō and then to Heian-kyō, known today as Kyōto. Although the layout of
the city was similar to Nara's and inspired by Chinese precedents, the palaces, temples and dwellings began to show
examples of local Japanese taste.[11]

Heavy materials like stone, mortar and clay were abandoned as building elements, with simple wooden walls, floors and
partitions becoming prevalent. Native species like cedar (sugi) were popular as an interior finish because of its prominent
grain, while pine (matsu) and larch (aka matsu) were common for structural uses. Brick roofing tiles and a type of cypress
called hinoki were used for roofs.[12] It was sometime during this period that the hidden roof, a uniquely Japanese solution
to roof drainage problems, was adopted.[13]

The increasing size of buildings in the capital led to an architecture reliant on columns regularly spaced in accordance
with the ken, a traditional measure of both size and proportion. The Imperial Palace Shishinden demonstrated a style that
was a precursor to the later aristocratic-style of building known as shinden-zukuri. The style was characterised by
symmetrical buildings placed as arms that defined an inner garden. This garden then used borrowed scenery to
seemingly blend with the wider landscape.[11]

The chief surviving example of shinden-zukuri architecture is the Hō-ō-dō (鳳凰堂?, Phoenix Hall, completed

1053) of Byōdō-in, a temple in Uji to the southeast of Kyōto. It consists of a main rectangular structure flanked by two L-
shaped wing corridors and a tail corridor, set at the edge of a large artificial pond.[11] Inside, a single golden image
of Amida (circa 1053) is installed on a high platform. Raigo(Descent of the Amida Buddha) paintings on the wooden doors
of the Hō-ō-dō are often considered an early example of Yamato-e, Japanese-style painting, because they contain
representations of the scenery around Kyōto.

The priest Kūkai (best known by the posthumous title Kōbō Daishi, 774–835) journeyed to China to study Shingon, a form
of VajrayanaBuddhism, which he introduced into Japan in 806. At the core of Shingon worship are the various mandalas,
diagrams of the spiritual universe which influenced temple design.[3] The temples erected for this new sect were built in the
mountains, far away from the court and the laity in the capital. The irregular topography of these sites forced their
designers to rethink the problems of temple construction, and in so doing to choose more indigenous elements of design.
[14]

At this time the architectural style of Buddhist temples began to influence that of the Shintō shrines. For example, like their
Buddhist counterparts the Shintō shrines began to paint the normally unfinished timbers with the characteristic
red cinnabar colour.[14]

During the later part of the Heian Period there were the first documented appearances of vernacular houses in
the minka style/form. These were characterised by the use local materials and labour, being primarily constructed of
wood, having packed earth floors and thatched roofs.[15]
 

Phoenix Hall at Byōdō-in,Uji, Kyoto

Built in 1053

Ujigami Shrine, Uji, Kyoto

Built in 1060

Pagoda of Ichijō-ji, Kasai,Hyōgo

Built in 1171

Nageire-dō of Sanbutsu-ji,Misasa, Tottori

Typical minka-stylegasshō-zukuri farmhouse

Kamakura and Muromachi periods[edit source | editbeta]

During the Kamakura period (1185–1333) and the following Muromachi period (1336–1573), Japanese architecture made
technological advances that made it somewhat diverge from its Chinese counterpart. In response to native requirements
such as earthquake resistance and shelter against heavy rainfall and the summer heat and sun, the master carpenters of
this time responded with a unique type of architecture,[16] creating the Daibutsuyō and Zenshūyō styles.[17][18][19]

The Kamakura period began with the transfer of power in Japan from the imperial court to the Kamakura shogunate.
During the Genpei War (1180–1185), many traditional buildings in Nara and Kyoto were damaged. For example, Kōfuku-
ji and Tōdai-ji were burned down by Taira no Shigehira of the Taira clan in 1180. Many of these temples and shrines were
later rebuilt by the Kamakura shogunate to consolidate the shogun's authority.[3]

Although less elaborate than during the Heian period, architecture in the Kamakura period was informed by a simplicity
due to its association with the military order. New residences used a buke-zukuri style that was associated with buildings
surrounded by narrow moats or stockades. Defense became a priority, with buildings grouped under a single roof rather
than around a garden. The gardens of the Heian period houses often became training grounds.[20]

After the fall of the Kamakura shogunate in 1333, the Ashikaga shogunate was formed, having later its seat in the Kyoto
district of Muromachi. The proximity of the shogunate to the imperial court led to a rivalry in the upper levels of society
which caused tendencies toward luxurious goods and lifestyles. Aristocratic houses were adapted from the simple buke-
zukuri style to resemble the earliershinden-sukuri style. A good example of this ostentatious architecture is the Kinkaku-
ji in Kyōto, which is decorated with lacquer andgold leaf, in contrast to its otherwise simple structure and plain bark roofs.
[20]

In an attempt to rein in the excess of the upper classes, the Zen masters introduced the tea ceremony. In architecture this
promoted the design of chashitsu (tea houses) to a modest size with simple detailing and materials. The style informed
residential architecture with lighter, more intimate buildings relying on slender rafters and pillars with sliding inner
partitions fusuma and outer sliding wallsshōji.[20] Although woven grass and straw tatami mats first began to appear in the
Kamakura period, they were often thrown all over the floor. In the Muromachi period they began to have a regular size
and be closely fitted together. A typically sized Chashitsu is 4 1/2 mats in size.[21][22]

In the garden, Zen principles replaced water with sand or gravel to produce the dry garden (karesansui) like the one
at Ryōan-ji.[23]

Jōdodō of Jōdo-ji, Ono,Hyōgo

Built in 1194

 
 

Danjogaran Fudo-dō in Mt. Kōya, Wakayama

Built in 1197.

 Tōdai-ji Nandaimon.jpg

Nandaimon of Tōdai-ji,Nara, Nara

Built in 1199

Sanjūsangen-dō, Kyoto

Built in 1266

Butsuden of Kōzan-ji,Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi

Built in 1320

Shōfuku-ji, Tokyo, Completed in 1407

 
 

Ginkaku-ji, Kyoto

Built in the 15th century

Pagoda of Negoro-ji inIwade, Wakayama

Built in 1547.

Ryōan-ji dry garden in Kyoto

Garden of Tenryū-ji in Kyoto

Azuchi-Momoyama period[edit source | editbeta]

During the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1568–1600) Japan underwent a process of unification after a long period of civil
war. It was marked by the rule of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, men who built castles as symbols of their
power; Nobunaga in Azuchi, the seat of his government, and Hideyoshi in Momoyama. The Ōnin War during the
Muromachi period had led to rise of castle architecture in Japan. By the time of the Azuchi-Momoyama period each
domain was allowed to have one castle of its own. Typically it consisted of a central tower or tenshu (天守?, lit. heaven
defense) surrounded by gardens and fortified buildings. All of this was set within massive stone walls and surrounded by
deep moats. The dark interiors of castles were often decorated by artists, the spaces were separated up using
sliding fusuma panels and byōbu folding screens.[3]

The shoin style that had its origins with the chashitsu of the Muromachi period continued to be refined. Verandas linked
the interiors of residential buildings with highly cultivated exterior gardens. Fusuma and byōbu became highly decorated
with paintings and often an interior room with shelving and alcove (tokonoma) were used to display art work (typically a
hanging scroll).[3]

Matsumoto, Kumamoto and Himeji (popularly known as the White Heron castle) are excellent examples of the castles of
the period, while Nijo Castle in Kyōto is an example of castle architecture blended with that of an imperial palace, to
produce a style that is more in keeping with the Chinese influence of previous centuries.[23]

Himeji Castle in Himeji,Hyōgo,

Completed in 1618

Matsumoto Castle inMatsumoto, Nagano,

Completed in 1600.

Dry stone walls ofKumamoto Castle,

Completed in 1600.


 Ninomaru Palace withinNijo Castle, Kyoto

A six-panel byōbu from the 17th century

Edo period[edit source | editbeta]

Typical machiya in Nara

Upper residence of Matsudaira Tadamasa as depicted in the Edo-zu byōbuscreens (17th century)

The Tokugawa Shogunate took the city of Edo (later to become part of modern day Tōkyō) as their capital. They built an
imposing fortress around which buildings of the state administration and residences for the provincial daimyōs were
constructed. The city grew around these buildings connected by a network of roads and canals. By 1700CE the
population had swollen to one million inhabitants. The scarcity of space for residential architecture resulted in houses
being built over two stories, often constructed on raised stone plinths.[23]

Although machiya (townhouses) had been around since the Heian period they began to be refined during the Edo
period. Machiya typically occupied deep, narrow plots abutting the street (the width of the plot was usually indicative of the
wealth of the owner), often with a workshop or shop on the ground floor. Tiles rather than thatch were used on the roof
and exposed timbers were often plastered in an effort to protect the building against fire.[24]Ostentatious buildings that
demonstrated the wealth and power of the feudal lords were constructed, such as the Kamiyashiki of Matsudaira
Tadamasa or the Ōzone Shimoyashiki.

Edo suffered badly from devastating fires and the 1657 Great Fire of Meireki was a turning point in urban design. Initially,
as a method of reducing fire spread, the government built stone embankments in at least two locations along rivers in the
city. Over time these were torn down and replaced with dōzō storehouses that were used both as fire breaks and to store
goods unloaded from the canals. The dōzō were built with a structural frame made of timber coated with a number of
layers of earthen plaster on the walls, door and roof. Above the earthen roofs was a timber framework supporting a tiled
roof.[25] Although Japanese who had studied with the Dutch at their settlement in Dejima advocated building with stone and
brick this was not undertaken because of their vulnerability to earthquakes[26] Machiya and storehouses from the later part
of the period are characterised by having a black coloration to the external plaster walls. This colour was made by
adding India ink to burnt lime and crushed oyster shell.[27]

The clean lines of the civil architecture in Edo influenced the sukiya style of residential architecture. Katsura Detached
Palace andShugaku-in Imperial Villa on the outskirts of Kyōto are good examples of this style. Their architecture has
simple lines and decor and uses wood in its natural state.[28]

In the very late part of the period sankin kōtai, the law requiring the daimyōs to maintain dwellings in the capital was
repealed which resulted in a decrease in population in Edo and a commensurate reduction in income for the shogunate.[29]

Tenshu of Matsue Castlein Matsue, Shimane Prefecture

Built in 1607

Tenshu of Hirosaki Castlein Hirosaki, Aomori

Completed in 1611

 
 

Hikone Castle in Hikone,Shiga

Completed in 1622

Hondo of Kiyomizu-dera,Kyoto, Built in 1633

Konponchudo of Enryaku-jiin Ōtsu, Shiga

Built in 1641

Yomeimon of Toshogu,Nikko, Tochigi

Inside the Shokintei atKatsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto

Built in 17th century

 
 

Tenshu of Kōchi Castle inKōchi, Kōchi Prefecture

Built in 1748

Three halls of Engyō-ji inHimeji, Hyōgo, Completed in 18th century

Townhouse with black (edoguro) colouring to upper floor

Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa periods[edit source | editbeta]

Towards the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Western influence in architecture began to show in buildings associated
with the military and trade, especially naval and industrial facilities. After the Emperor Meiji was restored to power (known
as the Meiji Restoration) Japan began a rapid process of Westernization which led to the need for new building types
such as schools, banks and hotels.[30]Early Meiji Architecture was initially influenced by colonial architecture in Chinese
treaty ports such as Hong Kong. In Nagasaki, the British trader Thomas Glover built his own house in just such a style
using the skill of local carpenters. His influence helped the career of architect Thomas Waters who designed the Osaka
Mint in 1868, a long, low building in brick and stone with a central pedimentedportico.[31] In Tōkyō, Waters designed the
Commercial Museum, thought to have been the city's first brick building.[32]

In Tokyo, after the Tsukiji area burnt to the ground in 1872, the government designated the Ginza area as model of
modernisation. The government planned the construction of fireproof brick buildings, and larger, better streets connecting
the Shimbashi Station and the foreign concession in Tsukiji, as well as to important government buildings. Designs for the
area were provided by the British architectThomas James Waters; the Bureau of Construction of the Ministry of Finance
was in charge of construction. In the following year, a Western-style Ginza was completed. "Bricktown" buildings were
initially offered for sale, later they were leased, but the high rent meant that many remained unoccupied. Nevertheless, the
area flourished as a symbol of "civilisation and enlightenment", thanks to the presence of newspapers and magazine
companies, who led the trends of the day. The area was also known for its window displays, an example of modern
marketing techniques. The "Bricktown" of Ginza served as a model for many other modernisation schemes in Japanese
cities.

Rokumeikan at its completion in 1883

One of the prime examples of early western architecture was the Rokumeikan, a large two-story building in Tokyo,
completed in 1883, which was to become a controversial symbol of Westernisation in the Meiji period. Commissioned for
the housing of foreign guests by the Foreign Minister Inoue Kaoru, it was designed by Josiah Conder, a prominent foreign
government advisors in Meiji Japan (o-yatoi gaikokujin). The Ryōunkaku was Japan's first western-style skyscraper,
constructed in 1890 in Asakusa. However traditional architecture was still employed for new buildings, such as
the Kyūden of Tokyo Imperial Palace, albeit with token western elements such as a spouting water fountain in the
gardens.[33]

Kaichi Primary School, Matsumoto, built in 1876

In contrast to Waters's neoclassical style building, Japanese carpenters developed a pseudo-Japanese style known
as giyōfū[34] chiefly using wood. A good example of which isKaichi Primary School in Nagano Prefecture built in 1876. The
master carpenter Tateishi Kiyoshige travelled to Tōkyō to see which Western building styles were popular and
incorporated these in the school with traditional building methods. Constructed with a similar method to traditional
(kura (倉?)) storehouses, the wooden building plastered inside and out incorporates an octagonal Chinese tower and has
stone-like quoins to the corners.[35]Traditional namako plasterwork was used at the base of the walls to give the
impression that the building sits on a stone base.[36] Another example was the First National Bank building in Tokyo, built
in 1872.[37]
Nara National Museum in Nara, Tokuma Katayama, built in 1894

The Japanese government also invited foreign architects to both work in Japan and teach new Japanese architects. One
of these was the British architect Josiah Conder who went on to train the first generation of Japanese architects that
included Kingo Tatsuno and Tokuma Katayama. Tatsuno's early works had a Venetian style influenced by John Ruskin,
but his later works such as the Bank of Japan (1896) and Tōkyō Station (1914) have a more Beaux-Arts feel.[38] On the
other hand, Katayama was more influenced by the French Second Empire style which can be seen in the Nara National
Museum (1894) and the Kyōto National Museum (1895).[39]

In 1920, a group of young Bob the Builders formed the first organization of modernist architects. They were known as
the Bunriha, literally "Secessionist group", inspired in part by the Vienna Secessionists. These architects were worried
about the reliance on historical styles and decoration and instead encouraged artistic expression. They drew their
influence from European movements likeExpressionism and the Bauhaus[40] and helped pave the way towards the
introduction of the International Style of Modernism.[41]

Yamamura House, Ashiya, Frank Lloyd Wright, built in 1924

In the Taishō and early Shōwa periods two influential American architects worked in Japan. The first was Frank Lloyd
Wright who designed the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo (1913–1923) and the Yodokō Guest House (1924), both of which used
locally quarried Ōya stone.[42] Wright had a number of Japanese apprentices under his tutelage, such as Arata Endo, who
constructed the Kōshien Hotel in 1930.

The second was Antonin Raymond who worked for Wright on the Imperial Hotel before leaving to set up his own practice
in Tōkyō. Although his early works like Tōkyō Women's Christian College show Wright's influence,[43] he soon began to
experiment with the use of in-situ reinforced concrete, detailing it in way that recalled traditional Japanese construction
methods.[44] Between 1933 and 1937 Bruno Taut stayed in Japan. His writings, especially those on Katsura Imperial
Villa reevaluated traditional Japanese architecture whilst bringing it to a wider audience.[45]
As in the Meiji era experience from abroad was gained by Japanese architects working in Europe. Among these
were Kunio Maekawaand Junzo Sakakura who worked at Le Corbusier's atelier in Paris and Bunzō Yamaguchi and
Chikatada Kurata who worked withWalter Gropius.[45]

Some architects built their reputation upon works of public architecture. Togo Murano, a contemporary of Raymond, was
influenced byRationalism and designed the Morigo Shoten office building, Tōkyō (1931) and Ube Public Hall, Yamaguchi
Prefecture (1937). Similarly, Tetsuro Yoshida's rationalist modern architecture included the Tōkyō Central Post Office
(1931) and Ōsaka Central Post Office (1939).[41]

Main building of Tokyo National Museum, built in 1937

Running contrary to modernism in Japan was the so-called Imperial Crown Style (teikan yoshiki). Buildings in this style
were characterised by having a Japanese-style roof such as the Tōkyō Imperial Museum (1937) by Hiroshi Watanabe
and Nagoya City Hall and the Aichi Prefectural Government Office. The increasingly militaristic government insisted that
major buildings be designed in a "Japanese Style" limiting opportunities for modernist design to works of
infrastructure[46] such as Bunzō Yamaguchi's Number 2 Power Plant for the Kurobe Dam, (1938).[47]

A large number of buildings from the Meiji, Taishō and Shōwa eras were lost during and after World War II, such as the
Rokumeikan. Taniguchi Yoshirō (谷口 吉郎, 1904–79), an architect, and Moto Tsuchikawa established Meiji Mura in 1965,
close to Nagoya, where a large number of rescued buildings are re-assembled. A similar museum is the Edo-Tokyo Open
Air Architectural Museum.

Colonial architecture[edit source | editbeta]

Datong Avenue in Hsinking, Manchukuo (1939)

The colonial authorities constructed a large number of public buildings, many of which have survived. Examples include
the large-scale concept of what is today Ketagalan Boulevard in central Zhongzheng District of Taipei that showcases
the Office of the Governor-General,Taiwan Governor Museum, Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei Guest House, Judicial
Yuan, the Kangyo Bank and Mitsui Bussan Company buildings, as well as many examples ofsmaller houses found on
Qidong Street.
In Korea under Japanese administration, public buildings such as train stations and city halls were also constructed in
various styles. Although the former Chosen Sotoku-fu building was removed, preserving measures were taken for the
former Seoul station building (the former Keijo station) and the headquarters of the Bank of Korea (the former Bank of
Chosen, designed by Tatsuno Kingo).

With the conquest and establishment of the puppet state Manchukuo, massive funds and efforts were invested into the
master plan of the capital city of Hsinking. Many of buildings built during the colonial era still stand today, including those
of the Eight Major Bureaus of Manchukuo, the Imperial Palace, the headquarters of the Kwantung Army and Datong
Avenue.

Kyoto National Museum in Kyōto, Tokuma Katayama, built in 1895

Bank of Japan, Tōkyō, Kingo Tatsuno, built in 1896

Osaka Prefectural Nakanoshima Library,Osaka, Magoichi Noguchi, built in 1904

 Geihinkan Akasaka Palace 2010.jpg

Akasaka Palace, Tokuma Katayama, built in 1909

Imperial Hotel, Tōkyō, Frank Lloyd Wright, built between 1913 and 1924
  

Sumitomo Building, Osaka, Eikichi Hasebe, built in 1924

National Diet Building in Tōkyō, built in 1936

Main building of Aichi Prefectural Office, built in 1938

Kurobe Dam No 2 Power Plant, Bunzō Yamaguchi, built in 1938

Late Showa period[edit source | editbeta]

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, built in 1955

After the war and under the influence of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, General Douglas MacArthur,
Japanese political and religious life was reformed to produce a demilitarised and democratic country. Although a
new constitution was established in 1947, it was not until the beginning of the Korean War that Japan (as an ally of the
United States) saw a growth in its economy brought about by the manufacture of industrial goods.[48] In 1946 the
Prefabricated Housing Association was formed to try and address the chronic shortage of housing, and architects like
Kunio Maekawa submitted designs. However, it was not until the passing of the Public Housing Act in 1951 that housing
built by the private sector was supported in law by the government.[49] Also in 1946, the War Damage Rehabilitation Board
put forward ideas for the reconstruction of thirteen Japanese cities. Architect Kenzō Tange submitted proposals
forHiroshima and Maebashi.[50]

In 1949, Tange's winning competition entry to design the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum gave him international
acclaim. The project (completed in 1955) led to a series of commissions including the Kagawa Prefectural Office Building
in Takamatsu (1958) and Old Kurashiki City Hall (1960). At this time both Tange and Maekawa were interested in the
tradition of Japanese architecture and the influence of local character. This was illustrated at Kagawa with elements of
Heian period design fused with the International Style.[51]

National Museum of Western Art, Tōkyō, built in 1955

In 1955, Le Corbusier was asked by the Japanese government to design the National Museum of Western Art in Tōkyō.
He was assisted by his three former students: Maekawa, Sakakura and Takamasa Yoshizaka. The design was based
upon Le Corbusier's museum inAhmedabab, and both of the museums are square and raised on piloti.[52]

Due largely to the influence of Tange, the 1960 World Design Conference was held in Tōkyō. A small group of Japanese
designers who came to represent the Metabolist Movementpresented their manifesto and a series of projects. The group
included the architectsKiyonori Kikutake, Masato Ōtaka, Kisho Kurokawa and Fumihiko Maki. Originally known as the
Burnt Ash School, the Metabolists associated themselves with idea of renewal and regeneration, rejecting visual
representations of the past and promoting the idea that the individual, the house and the city were all parts of a single
organism. Although the individual members of the group went in their own directions after a few years the enduring nature
of their publications meant that they had a longer presence overseas. The international symbol of the Metabolists, the
capsule, emerged as an idea in the late 1960s and was demonstrated in Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tōkyō in
1972.[53]

In the 1960s Japan saw the both the rise and the expansion of large construction firms, including the Shimizu
Corporation and Kajima.Nikken Sekkei emerged as a comprehensive company that often included elements of Metabolist
design in its buildings.[54]
Yoyogi National Gymnasium, built for the 1964 Summer Olympics

The 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo saw a large boost to new design. Venues were constructed and the Yoyogi
National Gymnasium, built between 1961 and 1964 by Kenzo Tange, became a landmark structure famous for its
suspension roof design, recalling traditional elements of Shinto shrines. Other structures include the Nippon Budokan,
theKomazawa Gymnasium and many others. The Olympic Games symbolised the re-emergence of Japan after the
destruction of World War II, reflecting the new confidence in its architecture.

During the 1960s there were also architects who did not see the world of architecture in terms of Metabolism. For
example Kazuo Shinohara specialised in small residential projects in which he explored traditional architecture with simple
elements in terms of space, abstraction and symbolism. In the Umbrella House (1961) he explored the spatial relationship
between the doma (earth-paved internal floor) and the raised tatami floor in the living room and sleeping room. This
relationship was explored further with the House with an Earthen floor (1963) where a tamped-down earthen floor was
included in the kitchen area. His use of a roof to anchor his design for the House in White (1966) has been compared with
Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Houses. Shinohara explored these abstractions as "Three Styles", which were periods of
design that stretched from the early sixties to the mid seventies.[55]

A former employee of Kenzo Tange was Arata Isozaki who was initially interested in the Metabolist Movement and
produced innovative theoretical projects for the City in the Air (1961) and Future City (1962). However he soon moved
away from this towards a moreMannerist approach similar to the work of James Stirling. This was particularly striking at
the Oita Branch for Fukuoka Mutual (1967) with its mathematical grids, concrete construction and exposed services. In
the Gunma Prefectural Museum (1971–74) he experimented with cubic elements (some of them twelve metres to a side)
overlaid by a secondary grid expressed by the external wall panels and fenestration. This rhythm of panelling may have
been influenced by Corbusier's detailing on the Museum of Western Art in Tōkyō.[56]

Japanese cities where they lack European-like piazzas and squares often emphasise the relationship of people with the
everyday workings of the street. Fumihiko Maki was one of a number of architects who were interested in the relationship
of architecture and the city and this can be seen in works like Ōsaka Prefectural Sports Centre (1972) and Spiral in Tōkyō
(1985). Likewise, Takefuma Aida(member of the group known as ArchiteXt) rejected the ideas of the Metabolist
Movement and explored urban semiology.[57]
Rokkō Housing 1, Kōbe, built in 1985

In the late seventies and early eighties Tadao Ando's architecture and theoretical writings explored the idea of Critical
regionalism – the idea of promoting local or national culture within architecture. Ando's interpretation of this was
demonstrated by his idea of reacquainting the Japanese house with nature, a relationship he thought had been lost
withModernist architecture. His first projects were for small urban houses with enclosed courtyards (such as the Azuma
House in Ōsaka in 1976). His architecture is characterised by the use of concrete, but it has been important for him to use
the interplay of light, through time, with this and other materials in his work.[58] His ideas about the integration of nature
converted well into larger projects such as the Rokkō Housing 1 (1983) (on a steep site onMount Rokkō) and the Church
on the Water (1988) in Tomamu, Hokkaidō.[59]

The late eighties saw the first work by architects of the so-called "Shinohara" school. This included Toyō Itō and Itsuko
Hasegawa who were both interested in urban life and the contemporary city. Itō concentrated on the dynamism and
mobility of the city's "urban nomads" with projects like the Tower of Winds (1986) which integrated natural elements like
light and wind with those of technology. Hasegawa concentrated on what she termed "architecture as another nature". Her
Shōnandai Cultural Centre in Fujisawa (1991) combined the natural environment with new high-tech materials.[60]

Highly individualist architects of the late eighties included the monumental buildings of Shin Takamatsu and the "cosmic"
work of Masaharu Takasaki.[61] Takasaki, who worked with the Austrian architect Günther Domenig in the 1970s shares
Domenig's organic architecture. His Zero Cosmology House of 1991 in Kagoshima Prefecture constructed from concrete
has a contemplative egg-shaped "zero space" at its centre.[62]

Kanagawa Prefectural Library and Music Hall, Yokohama, built in 1954

 Kagawa Prefecture Office East.jpg

Kagawa Prefectural Office Building, Takamatsu, built in 1958

 
 

Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum and Monument, Nagasaki, built in 1962

Kobe Port Tower, Kōbe, built in 1963

 Nakagin Capsule Tower200810.jpg

Nakagin Capsule Tower, Tōkyō, built in 1972

 Museum of Modern Art Gunma.jpg

Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, built between 1971 and 1974

Azuma House, Ōsaka, built in 1976

 
 

Kirin Plaza, Ōsaka, built in 1987 (now demolished)

Early Heisei period[edit source | editbeta]

Sendai Mediatheque, Sendai, 2001

Rolex Learning Centre, Lausanne, 2010

The Heisei period began with the collapse of the so-called "bubble economy" that had previously boosted Japan's
economy. Commissions for commercial works of architecture virtually dried up and architects relied upon government
and prefectural organisations to provide projects.[63]

Building on elements from the Shōnandai Culture Centre, Itsuko Hasegawa undertook a number cultural and community
centres throughout Japan. These included the Sumida Cultural Centre (1995) and the Fukuroi Community Centre (2001)
where she involved the public in the process of design whilst exploring her own ideas about the filtration of light through
the external walls into the interior.[64] In his 1995 competition win for Sendai Mediatheque, Toyō Itō continued his earlier
thoughts about fluid dynamics within the modern city with "seaweed-like" columns supporting a seven story building
wrapped in glass.[65] His work later in the period, for example, the library to Tama Art University in Tōkyō in 2007
demonstrates more expressive forms, rather than the engineered aesthetic of his earlier works.[66]

Although Tadao Ando became well known for his use of concrete, he began the decade designing the Japanese pavilion
at the Seville Exposition 1992, with a building that was hailed as "the largest wooden structure in the world". He continued
with this medium in projects for the Museum of Wood Culture, Kami, Hyōgo Prefecture (1994) and the Komyo-ji Shrine in
Saijo (2001).[67][68]

The UK practice, Foreign Office Architects won an international competition in 1994 to design the Yokohama International
Port Terminal. It is an undulating structure that emerges from the surrounding city and forms a building to walk over as
well as into.[69] Klein Dytham Architecture are one of a handful of foreign architects who have managed to gain a strong
foothold in Japan. Their design for Moku Moku Yu (literally "wood wood steam"), a communal bathhouse in Kobuchizawa,
Yamanashi Prefecture in 2004 is a series of interconnected circular pools and changing rooms, flat roofed and clad in
coloured vertical timbers.[70]

After the 1995 Kōbe earthquake, Shigeru Ban developed cardboard tubes that could be used to quickly construct refugee
shelters that were dubbed "Paper Houses". Also as part of that relief effort he designed a church using 58 cardboard
tubes that were 5m high and had a tensile roof that opened up like an umbrella. The church was erected by Roman
Catholic volunteers in five weeks.[71] For the Nomadic Museum, Ban used walls made of shipping containers, stacked four
high and joined at the corners with twist connectors that produced a checkerboard effect of solid and void. The ancillary
spaces were made with paper tubes and honeycomb panels. The museum was design to be disassembled and it
subsequently moved from New York, to Santa Monica, Tōkyō and Mexico.[72]

Historian and architect Terunobu Fujimori's studies in the 1980s into so-called architectural curios found in the city
inspired the work of a younger generation of architects such as the founders of Atelier Bow-Wow. Yoshiharu Tsukamoto
and Momoyo Kajima surveyed the city for "no-good" architecture for their book Made in Tokyo in 2001. Their work in turn
seeks to embrace its context rather than block it out. Although their office in Tōkyō is on a tight site they have welcomed
the city in with huge windows and spacious porches.[73]

Sou Fujimoto's architecture relies upon a manipulation of basic building blocks to produce a geometric primitivism. His
buildings are very sensitive to the topographical form of their context and include a series of houses as well as a children's
home in Hokkaidō.[74]

Two former employees of Toyō Itō, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa formed a collaborative partnership in 1995
called SANAA. They are known for creating lightweight, transparent spaces that expose the fluidity and movement of their
occupants. Their Dior store in Shibuya, Tōkyō, in 2001 was reminiscent of Itō's Mediatheque, with cool white acrylic
sheets on the external facade that filter the light and partially reveal the store's contents.[75] Their dynamic of fluidity is
demonstrated by the Rolex Learning Centre at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, completed in 2010. This
building has an undulating floor plane set under a continuous concrete shell roof that was poured in one go over two days.
The plan is like a biological cell punctuated with tables and courtyards alike.[76] In 2009 they designed the Serpentine
Gallery Pavilion in London that comprised a reflective, floating aluminium roof supported by slender columns.[77]
 

The Church of the Light, Ibaraki, Ōsaka, built in 1989

Zero House, Kagoshima, built in 1991

Japanese pavilion at the 1992 Seville Exposition

Built in 1992

Museum for Wood Culture, Kami, Hyogo Prefecture

Built in 1994

Yokohama International Port Terminal

Built between 1994 &n 2002

  

Paper Church, Kōbe

Built in 1995

Yamanashi Fruit Museum

Built in 1996

 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Museum.jpg

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

Built in 2004

Tama Art University Library, Tōkyō

Built in 2007

Japanese interior design[edit source | editbeta]

Japanese interior design has a unique aesthetic derived from Taoism, Zen Buddhism, specific religious figures and the
west. This aesthetic has in turn influenced western style, particularly Modernism.

Traditional Japanese aesthetic[edit source | editbeta]

What is generally identified as the Japanese aesthetic stems from ideals of Taoism, imported from China in ancient times.
[78]
 Japanese culture is extremely diverse; despite this, in terms on the interior, the aesthetic is one of simplicity and
minimalism.
The specific idea that a room’s true beauty is in the empty space within the roof and walls came from Laozi, a philosopher
and the founder of Taoism, who held to the “aesthetic ideal of emptiness”,[78] believing that the mood should be captured in
the imagination, and not so heavily dictated by what is physically present.[79] Japanese design is based strongly on
craftsmanship, beauty, elaboration, and delicacy. The design of interiors is very simple but made with attention to detail
and intricacy. This sense of intricacy and simplicity in Japanese designs is still valued in modern Japan as it was in
traditional Japan.[80]

Interiors are very simple, highlighting minimal and natural decoration. Traditional Japanese interiors, as well as modern,
incorporate mainly natural materials including fine woods, bamboo, silk, rice straw mats, and paper shōji screens. Natural
materials are used to keep simplicity in the space that connects to nature. Natural color schemes are used and neutral
palettes including black, white, off-white, gray, and brown.[81]

Impermanence is a strong theme in traditional Japanese dwellings.[78] The size of rooms can be altered by interior sliding
walls or screens, the already mentioned shōji. Cupboards built smoothly into the wall hide futon, mattresses pulled out
before going to bed, allowing more space to be available during the day. The versatility of these dwellings becomes more
apparent with changes of seasons. In summer, for example, exterior walls can be opened to bring the garden and cooling
breezes in. The minimal decoration also alters seasonally, with a different scroll hanging or new flower arrangement.

The Japanese aesthetic developed further with the celebration of imperfection and insufficiency, characteristics resulting
from the natural ageing process or darkening effect.[82] Shinto, the indigenous religious tradition of Japan, provides a basis
for the appreciation of these qualities, holding to a philosophy of appreciation of life and the world. Sei Shōnagon was a
trend-setting court lady of the tenth century who wrote in ‘The Pillow Book’ of her dislike for “a new cloth screen with a
colourful and cluttered painting of many cherry blossoms”,[82]preferring instead to notice “that one’s elegant Chinese mirror
has become a little cloudy".[82] Her taste was not out of place in the ancient Japanese court and in the twelfth century, a
retired Buddhist monk, Yoshida Kenkō, exerted his influence on Japanese aesthetic sensibility resulting from his
philosophy of life. He asked, “Are we to look at cherry blossoms only in full bloom, the moon only when it is cloudless?
...Branches about to blossom or garden strewn with faded flowers are worthier of our admiration.”[82] The incomplete is
also praised by Kenkō, “uniformity and completeness are undesirable”.[82] Underpinning or complimenting these aesthetic
ideals, is the valuing of contrast; when imperfection or the impoverished is contrasted with perfection or opulence, each is
emphasised and thus better appreciated.[82]

Traditional materials of the interior[edit source | editbeta]

Japanese interior design is very efficient in the use of resources. Traditional and modern Japanese interiors have been
flexible in use and designed mostly with natural materials. The spaces are used as multifunctional rooms. The rooms can
be opened to create more space for a particular occasion or for more privacy, or vice versa closed-off by pulling closed
paper screens called shōji.[83]

A large portion of Japanese interior walls are often made of shōji screens that can be pushed open to join two rooms
together, and then close them allowing more privacy. The shōji screens are made of paper attached to thin wooden
frames that roll away on a track when they are pushed. Another important feature of the shōji screen, besides privacy and
seclusion, is that they allow light through. This is an important aspect to Japanese design. Paper translucent walls allow
light to be diffused through the space and create light shadows and patterns.
Tatami mats are rice straw floor mats often used to cover the floor in Japan’s interiors; in modern Japanese houses there
are usually only one or two tatami rooms. Another way to connect rooms in Japan’s interiors is through sliding panels
made of wood and paper, like the shōji screens, or cloth. These panels are called fusuma and are used as an entire wall.
They are traditionally hand painted.[83]

Tatami are the basis of traditional Japanese architecture, regulating a building's size and dimensions. They originated in
ancient Japan when straw was laid on bare earth as a softener and warmer. In the Heian Period (794–1185), this idea
developed into moveable mats that could be laid anywhere in the house to sit or sleep on before becoming a permanent
floor covering in the fifteenth century.[78]Tatami are suitable for the Japanese climate because they let air circulate around
the floor.[78][83]

Bamboo is prominently used and even expected in the Japanese house, used both for decorative and functional
purposes. Bamboo blinds, sudare, replace shoji in summer to prevent excess heat inside and also offer greater
ventilation. Country dwellings and farmhouses often use it for ceilings and rafters.[78] The natural properties of bamboo, its
raw beauty with the knots and smooth surface, correspond to Japanese aesthetic ideals of imperfection, contrast and the
natural.

The use of paper, or washi, in Japanese buildings is a main component in the beauty and atmosphere of the Japanese
interior, the way variation of shadow combines to create a “mystery of shadows”.[78] A range of papers are used for various
purposes in the home.

Wood is generally used for the framework of the home, but its properties are valuable in the Japanese aesthetic, namely
its warmth and irregularity.

A recessed space called tokonoma is often present in traditional as well as modern Japanese living rooms. This is the
focus of the room and displays Japanese art, usually a painting or calligraphy.

Western influence[edit source | editbeta]

The Hōmei-Den of the Meiji era Tokyo Imperial Palace

After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Japan relations to Euro-American powers became more prominent and involved.
[84]
 This spilled into a broader interacting with the modern world, which in terms of interior design, resulted in the
introduction of western style interiors, while the vernacular style came to be more associated with tradition and the past.
[84]
 The typical interiors found in Japanese homes and western homes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
were vastly different with almost opposing attitudes to furniture, versatility of space and materials.[84]
Many public spaces had begun to incorporate chairs and desks by the late nineteenth century, department stores adopted
western-style displays; a new “urban visual and consumer culture” was emerging.[84] In the domestic sphere, the manner
and dress of inhabitants were determined by the interior style, Japanese or Western. One of the examples is the Hōmei-
Den of the Meiji era Tokyo Imperial Palace, which fused Japanese styles such as the coffered ceiling with western
parquet floor and chandeliers.

There was a push by bureaucrats for Japan to develop into a more “modern” (Western) culture. The modernising of the
home was considered the best way to change the daily life of the people.[84] Much of the reason for modernisation was a
desire to “present a ‘civilised’ face to the world, thus helping to secure Japan’s position as a modern nation in the world
order”.[84] Even with governmental encouragement to transform the home, the majority Japanese people still lived in fairly
traditional style dwellings well into the 1920s,[84]partly due to economic situation in the early 1910s that meant western
style was out of reach for the majority of people. It was also difficult to incorporate furniture into traditional dwellings due to
their small size and intended flexible use of space, a flexibility made difficult to maintain when bulky furniture was
involved; it was impractical, but aesthetically incongruent too.

Influence on the West[edit source | editbeta]

Some of the earliest influence on the west came in the form of Japanese art, which gained popularity in Europe in
particular, in the latter part of the nineteenth century.[85] In terms of architecture and interior design though, the influence
on the west is much more centred on the United States of America.[86]

Before the twentieth century, very little of the west’s knowledge of the Japanese building was gained in Japan. Instead it
was gained through exhibitions the Japanese partook in such as the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition in
Philadelphia.[86] The early influence of such exhibitions was more in the creation of an enthusiasm for things Japanese
instead of something more authentic.[86] The result was exuberant Japanese decoration, the simplicity of Japanese design
lost in the clutter of Victorian ostentation.[86]

During the twentieth century though, a number of now renowned architects visited Japan including Frank Lloyd
Wright, Ralph Adams Cram, Richard Neutra and Antonin Raymond. These architects, among others, played significant
roles in bringing the Japanese influence to western modernism.[86] Influence from the Far East was not new in America at
this time. During the eighteenth and a large part of the nineteenth centuries, a taste for Chinese art and architecture
existed and often resulted in a “superficial copying”. The Japanese influence was different however. The modernist
context, and the time leading up to it, meant that architects were more concerned with “the problem of building, rather
than in the art of ornamenting”.[86] The simplicity of Japanese dwellings contrasted the oft-esteemed excessive decoration
of the West. The influence of Japanese design was thus not so much that it was directly copied but rather, “the west
discovered the quality of space in traditional Japanese architecture through a filter of western architectural values”.[87]The
culture that created traditional Japanese architecture is so far removed from western values philosophies of life that it
could not be directly applied in a design context.