29 Facts About Japanese architecture

Japanese architecture has been typified by wooden structures, elevated slightly off the ground, with tiled or thatched roofs.

However, it was not until after the Second World War that Japanese architecture architects made an impression on the international scene, firstly with the work of architects like Kenzo Tange and then with theoretical movements, like Metabolism.

In traditional Japanese architecture, there are various styles, features and techniques unique to Japan in each period and use, such as residence, castle, Buddhist temple and Shinto shrine.

The Japanese architecture 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.

In Japanese architecture this promoted the design of chashitsu to a modest size with simple detailing and materials.

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Matsumoto, Kumamoto and Himeji are excellent examples of the castles of the period, while Nijo Castle in Kyoto is an example of castle Japanese architecture blended with that of an imperial palace, to produce a style that is more in keeping with the Chinese influence of previous centuries.

The scarcity of space for residential Japanese architecture resulted in houses being built over two stories, often constructed on raised stone plinths.

Towards the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, Western influence in Japanese architecture began to show in buildings associated with the military and trade, especially naval and industrial facilities.

Japanese architecture's 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 pedimented portico.

One of the prime examples of early western Japanese 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.

However traditional Japanese architecture was still employed for new buildings, such as the Kyuden of Tokyo Imperial Palace, albeit with token western elements such as a spouting water fountain in the gardens.

In contrast to Waters's neoclassical style building, Japanese architecture carpenters developed a pseudo-Japanese architecture style known as giyofu chiefly using wood.

Japanese architecture government invited foreign architects to both work in Japan and teach new Japanese architecture architects.

Similarly, Tetsuro Yoshida's rationalist modern Japanese architecture included the Tokyo Central Post Office and Osaka Central Post Office .

The increasingly militaristic government insisted that major buildings be designed in a "Japanese architecture Style" limiting opportunities for modernist design to works of infrastructure such as Bunzo Yamaguchi's Number 2 Power Plant for the Kurobe Dam, .

Japanese architecture was assisted by his three former students: Maekawa, Sakakura and Takamasa Yoshizaka.

Japanese architecture's 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.

Commissions for commercial works of Japanese architecture virtually dried up and architects relied upon government and prefectural organisations to provide projects.

Japanese architecture continued with this medium in projects for the Museum of Wood Culture, Kami, Hyogo Prefecture and the Komyo-ji Shrine in Saijo .

Sou Fujimoto's Japanese architecture relies upon a manipulation of basic building blocks to produce a geometric primitivism.

Japanese architecture's 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 Hokkaido.

Japanese architecture culture is extremely diverse; despite this, in terms of the interior, the aesthetic is one of simplicity and minimalism.

Japanese architecture design is based strongly on craftsmanship, beauty, elaboration, and delicacy.

Japanese architecture aesthetic developed further with the celebration of imperfection and insufficiency, characteristics resulting from the natural ageing process or darkening effect.

Traditional and modern Japanese architecture interiors have been flexible in use and designed mostly with natural materials.

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Bamboo is prominently used and even expected in the Japanese architecture house, used both for decorative and functional purposes.

Use of paper, or washi, in Japanese architecture buildings is a main component in the beauty and atmosphere of the Japanese architecture interior, the way variation of shadow combines to create a "mystery of shadows".

The simplicity of Japanese architecture dwellings contrasted the oft-esteemed excessive decoration of the West.

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.