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"Iconoclastic and erudite, opinionated and insightful, wily and contrarian--this exciting book should be widely read not only by architects, but by anyone interested in Japan. Isozaki's essays are at once autobiographical and oracular; the collection, written over decades and discussing buildings spanning centuries, establishes his personal struggle with being Japanese in a global era as one that offers provocative insight into the culture of Japan yesterday, today, and tomorrow." --Dana Buntrock, Department of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley "Drawing on both his own extensive experience as a practicing architect and a broad grasp of world history, Arata Isozaki takes on the century-old debate over what is (or should be) 'Japanese' about Japanese architecture. This self-reflective critique is fresh and timely, and in the process provides provocative arguments about the shape of all Japanese history." --Henry D. Smith, II, Professor of Japanese History, Columbia University
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Japanese architect Arata Isozaki sees buildings not as dead objects but as events that encompass the social and historical context--not to be defined forever by their "everlasting materiality" but as texts to be interpreted and reread continually. In Japan-ness in Architecture, he identifies what is essentially Japanese in architecture from the seventh to the twentieth century. In the opening essay, Isozaki analyzes the struggles of modern Japanese architects, including himself, to create something uniquely Japanese out of modernity. He then circles back in history to find what he calls Japan-ness in the seventh-century Ise shrine, reconstruction of the twelfth-century Todai-ji Temple, and the seventeenth-century Katsura Imperial Villa. He finds the periodic ritual relocation of Ise's precincts a counter to the West's concept of architectural permanence, and the repetition of the ritual an alternative to modernity's anxious quest for origins. He traces the "constructive power" of the Todai-ji Temple to the vision of the director of its reconstruction, the monk Chogen, whose imaginative power he sees as corresponding to the revolutionary turmoil of the times. The Katsura Imperial Villa, with its chimerical spaces, achieved its own Japan-ness as it reinvented the traditional shoin style. And yet, writes Isozaki, what others consider to be the Japanese aesthetic is often the opposite of that essential Japan-ness born in moments of historic self-definition; the purified stylization--what Isozaki calls "Japanesquization"--lacks the energy of cultural transformation and reflects an island retrenchment in response to the pressure of other cultures. Combining historical survey, critical analysis, theoretical reflection, and autobiographical account, these essays, written over a period of twenty years, demonstrate Isozaki's standing as one of the world's leading architects and preeminent architectural thinkers.
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Format:Hardcover
This is not the usual book on Isozaki's architecture. Rather it is a scholarly approach to the theory of Modernist architecture within the Japanese context. In the first part, Isozaki offers original and provocative insights regarding the way how Japanese architects, including himself, were challenged to create from scratch a novel type of architecture which had nothing to do with their tradition. Furthermore he deals with how the architects had to overcome simplicist Western stereotypes regarding issues such as Japan-ness, Japanesquization and Japanese taste. Then Isozaki takes us through 13 centuries of Japanese architecture, focusing on three masterpieces: Ise Shrine, Todai-ji and Katsura Villa. Built respectively in the 7th, 12th and 17th centuries, they represent epochal changes in Japan's history and politics.
Apart from the black and white pictures which are a bit disappointing, I found the book extremely interesting, in particular his cutting edge approach towards Japanese traditional architecture and typical aesthetic concepts such as ma. However it takes for granted that one is acquainted with both Japanese history and theory of architecture, which makes it quite daunting for those who know nothing about the themes. Even the excellent glossary at the end is not very helpful if one is not familiar with the context which the author is dealing with.
However I would definitely recomend the volume to whoever follows architectural theory, because Isozaki provides us with his most mature and well-structured approach on the topic.
Apart from the black and white pictures which are a bit disappointing, I found the book extremely interesting, in particular his cutting edge approach towards Japanese traditional architecture and typical aesthetic concepts such as ma. However it takes for granted that one is acquainted with both Japanese history and theory of architecture, which makes it quite daunting for those who know nothing about the themes. Even the excellent glossary at the end is not very helpful if one is not familiar with the context which the author is dealing with.
However I would definitely recomend the volume to whoever follows architectural theory, because Isozaki provides us with his most mature and well-structured approach on the topic.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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1 review
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Profound and thought provoking
8 Oct 2007
Format:Hardcover
I ordered this book before publication and it wasn't until the summer of 2006 that i read it. and read it and read it. It is not easy to grasp for it complexly relates the myth of "Japan-ness' and how the qualities of Japanese architecture have been influenced by critics, history, individuals and foreign interventions - Isato concludes that there is no 'essential Japanese style but a complex web of forces creating various Japanesese architectural forms. "Japan-ness in Architecture" is a beautiful blend of personal and historical explorations that reveal the sources of styles whose effects continually define structural identities and transformations throughout 'Japanese' history. This is one of the best books I have read on the interaction of Japanese history and culture.
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