Japanese architecture

Hondo at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
Built in 1633

Japanese architecture (日本建築, Nihon kenchiku) has a long history similar to that of other aspects of Japanese culture, characterized by periods of interaction with foreign influences interspersed with long periods of isolation during which unique traits developed. Buildings of the Jomon and Yayoi periods were mostly agricultural residences, with larger buildings and tombs appearing as an aristocracy developed. Wooden buildings from the Asuka period, preserved in Horyuji Temple, were built in the style of Chinese worship halls. Japanese buildings continued to follow the Chinese style of horizontal buildings with heavy tile roofs supported by timber frames, but developed unique characteristics reflecting Buddhist values. During the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, the samurai expanded the compounds of the aristocracy to include living quarters for military personnel. Eventually, (daimyo) warlords built castles from which to defend their domains. During the Tokugawa era, when there were no military conflicts, many daimyo built large residences in the city of Edo for their families.

After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan began to build European-style buildings> The widespread destruction of Japanese cities during World War II cleared the way for the construction of large numbers of steel-framed, box-shaped utilitarian buildings, which provoked a reaction during the 1970s, leading to a variety of new styles and architectural treatments incorporating traditional elements into modern designs. Japan’s best-known modern architects include Kenzo Tange, Maekawa Kunio, Fumihiko Maki, Isozaki Arata, and Tadao Ando. Japanese architecture has influenced Western architecture with its emphasis on simplicity, horizontal lines, and flexible spaces. . Frank Lloyd Wright was strongly influenced by Japanese spatial arrangements and the concept of interpenetrating exterior and interior space, long achieved in Japan by opening up walls made of sliding doors.

Prehistoric period (Jomon, Yayoi, and prior cultures)

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

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  Reconstructed dwellings in Yoshinogari

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  Reconstructed raised-floor building in Yoshinogari

There are no extant examples of prehistoric architecture, and the oldest Japanese texts, such as Kojiki and Nihonshoki hardly mention architecture. Research and excavation has revealed that houses of this period had thatched roofs and dirt floors. Houses in regions with high temperatures and high humidity had wooden floors. With the spread of rice cultivation from China, communities became increasingly larger and more complex, and large-scale buildings, either residences for the local ruling family or rice storage houses, are found at the Sannai-Maruyama site (earlier than the 2nd century B.C.E.) in Aomori and the Yoshinogari site in Saga (earlier than the 3rd century B.C.E.).

After the 3rd century, a centralized administrative system developed and many keyhole-shaped Kofun (tombs) were built in Osaka and Nara for the aristocracy. Among many examples in Nara and Osaka, the most notable is Daisen-kofun, designated as the tomb of Emperor Nintoku. This kofun is approximately 486 by 305 meters (1,594.5 by 1,000 feet), rising to a height of 35 meters (115 feet).

Asuka and Nara architecture

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  Kondo and pagoda at Hōryū-ji, Ikaruga, Nara
  Built in 7th century

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  Shōsōin at Todaiji, Nara
  Built in 8th century

The earliest structures still extant in Japan, and the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world, are found at Hōryū-ji (Hōryū temple) to the southwest of Nara. They serve as the core examples of architecture from the Asuka period. First built in the early 7th century as the private temple of Crown Prince Shotoku, Hōryū-ji consists of 41 separate buildings; the most important ones, the main worship hall, or Kondo (Golden Hall), and Goju-no-to (Five-story Pagoda), stand in the center of an open area surrounded by a roofed cloister. The Kondo, 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.

Temple building in the 8th century was focused around the Tōdaiji in Nara. Constructed as the headquarters for a network of temples in each of the provinces, the Tōdaiji is the most ambitious religious complex erected in the early centuries of Buddhist worship in Japan. Appropriately, the 16.2 meter (53 feet) Buddha (completed in 752) enshrined in the main hall, or Daibutsuden, is a Rushana Buddha, the figure that represents the essence of Buddhahood, just as the Tōdai-ji represented the center 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 Daibutsuden on a gently sloping hillside are a number of secondary halls: the Hokkedo (Lotus Sutra Hall), with its principal image, the Fukukenjaku Kannon (the most popular bodhisattva), crafted of dry lacquer (cloth dipped in lacquer and shaped over a wooden armature); the Kaidanin (Ordination Hall) with its magnificent clay statues of the Four Guardian Kings; and the storehouse, called the Shosoin. This last structure is of great importance because in it are stored the utensils that were used in the temple's dedication ceremony in 752, the eye-opening ritual for the Rushana image, as well as government documents and many secular objects owned by the imperial family.

Heian period

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  Kondo at Daigo-ji, Kyoto
  Built in 12th century

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  Phoenix Hall at Byodoin, Uji
  Built in 1053

In reaction to the growing wealth and power of organized Buddhism in Nara, the priest Kūkai (best known by his posthumous title Kobo Daishi, 774-835) journeyed to China to study Shingon, a form of Vajrayana Buddhism, 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. Japanese Buddhist architecture also adopted the stupa in its Chinese form as a pagoda.

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 Japanese architects to rethink the problems of temple construction, and in so doing to choose more indigenous elements of design. Cypress-bark roofs replaced those of ceramic tile, wood planks were used instead of earthen floors, and a separate worship area for the laity was added in front of the main sanctuary.

In the Fujiwara period, Pure Land Buddhism, which offered easy salvation through belief in Amida (the Buddha of the Western Paradise), became popular. Concurrently, the Kyoto nobility developed a society devoted to elegant aesthetic pursuits. So secure and beautiful was their world that they could not conceive of Paradise as being much different. The Amida hall, blending the secular with the religious, houses one or more Buddha images within a structure resembling the mansions of the nobility.

The Ho-o-do (Phoenix Hall, completed 1053) of the Byodoin, a temple in Uji to the southeast of Kyoto, is the best example of Fujiwara Amida halls. 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. Inside, a single golden image of Amida (circa 1053) is installed on a high platform. The Amida sculpture was executed by Jocho, who used a new canon of proportions and a new technique (yosegi), in which multiple pieces of wood are carved out like shells and joined from the inside. Applied to the walls of the hall are small relief carvings of celestials, the host believed to have accompanied Amida when he descended from the Western Paradise to gather the souls of believers at the moment of death and transport them in lotus blossoms to Paradise. Raigo (Descent of the Amida Buddha) paintings on the wooden doors of the Ho-o-do, an early example of Yamato-e, Japanese-style painting, contain representations of the scenery around Kyoto.

Shindenzukuri

Palatial or aristocratic mansions called shindenzukuri (寝殿造 or 寝殿造り, shindenzukuri , shinden style) were built in Heian-kyō (平安京, today's Kyoto) during the Heian period (784-1185), especially in 10th century Japan. The main characteristic of the shindenzukuri was the special symmetry of the group of buildings and the undeveloped space between them. A mansion was usually set on a one chō (町, 120 meters, 394 feet) square of ground. The main building, the shinden was on the central north-south axis and faced south onto an open courtyard. Two subsidiary buildings, tainoya (對屋), were built to the right and left of the shinden, both running east-west. The tainoya and the shinden were connected by two corridors, called sukiwatadono (透渡殿) and watadono (渡殿). A chūmonrō (中門廊, central gate corridor) at the half way points of the two corridors, led to a south courtyard, where many ceremonies were performed. From the watadono, narrow corridors extended south and ended in tsuridono, or small pavilions arranged in a U-shape around the courtyard. Wealthier aristocrats constructed more buildings behind the shinden and tainoya. Officers and guards lived by the east gates.

The main room of the shinden, called the moya, was surrounded with a secondary roofed hisashi, or veranda. The moya was one big space partitioned by portable screens. Guests and residents of the house were seated on mats. In front of the moya across the courtyard was a pond garden. Water ran from a stream (yarimizu 遣水) into a large pond to the south of the courtyard, which had islets and bridges combined with mountain shapes, trees, and rocks to create a feeling of being in the land of the Amidah Buddha.

There are no remaining original examples of Shindenzukuri-style homes, but the same style and design can be found in the Kyoto Imperial Palace (Heian Palace), the Byōdō-in's Phoenix Hall, and Hojoji (Hojo Temple).

Shindenzukuri later developed into shoinzukuri and sukiyazukuri (数奇屋造 detached teahouse type architecture). .

Kamakura and Muromachi period

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  Sanjūsangen-dō, Kyoto
  Built in 1266

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  Ginkakuji, Kyoto
  Built in 15th century

After the Kamakura period, Japanese political power was controlled by armed samurai, such as Seiwa Genji. Their simple and sturdy values affected the architecture style, and many samurai houses are a mixture of shinden-zukuri and turrets or trenches. Bukezukuri (武家造 housing for a military family) were similar in structure to the shindenzukuri with a few changes to accommodate the differences between the aristocratic family and the military family. Each lord had to build extra space in order to keep his soldiers around him at all times, with their weapons readily available on the grounds in case of a sudden attack. To help guard against these attacks, a yagura (櫓), or tower, was built and torches were scattered around the gardens so they could be lit as quickly as possible. Extra rooms called hiro-bisashi ("spacious room under the eaves") were built, grouped around the shinden, to accommodate larger numbers of people living under one roof. The zeze (膳所, kitchen) was also enlarged to accommodate the extra staff required to cook large quantities of food for the soldiers and members of the household.

Unlike the Shindenzukuri, bukezukuri homes were simple and practical, eschewing the preoccupation with art and beauty that led to the downfall of the Heian court. Rooms characteristic of a bukezukuri home included a reception room (Dei, 出居), armory (Saiku jo, 細工所), a carriage house (Kuruma-yadori, 車宿), a room for ancestral tablets and other objects of Buddhist worship (Jibutsu do, 持佛堂), a study and a stable. The bukezukuri style changed throughout the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, and over times the number of rooms in a bukezukuri decreased as daimyo started to use castles.

See also

For more information on artistic concepts, also see Japanese art.

Example of pre-modern Japanese architecture are:

• Buddhist temples in Japan
• Shinto shrines
• Japanese castle

Typical architectural features are:

• Fusuma
• Tatami
• Shōji
• Shoin

• Housing in Japan
• List of Japanese architects

• Machiya (town houses)
• Washitsu

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Bognár, Botond. The new Japanese architecture. New York: Rizzoli. 1990. ISBN 0847812251 ISBN 9780847812257 ISBN 0847812669 ISBN 9780847812660
• Goto, Osamu. History of Japanese Architecture (日本建築史). Kyoritsu Shuppan (共立出版), 2003.
• Ishimoto, Yasuhiro, Walter Gropius, and Kenzō Tange. Katsura; tradition and creation in Japanese architecture. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1960.
• Ross, Michael Franklin. Beyond metabolism: the new Japanese architecture. New York: Architectural record books. 1978. ISBN 007053893X ISBN 9780070538931
• Young, David E., and Michiko Young. The art of Japanese architecture. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing. 2007. ISBN 9780804838382 ISBN 0804838380

External links

All links retrieved September 15, 2008.

• JAANUS (Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System) On-line dictionary of Japanese architectural and art historical terminology
• Very extensive article with pictures

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