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Surveys of Japanese Art by Medium
Architecture
There is no thorough history of Japanese architecture from the beginning to the present,
but a good short introduction to traditional Japanese buildings (shrines, temples,
residences, places of recreation) from prehistory to the mid-19th century is Kazuo
Nishi and Kazuo Hozumi, What Is Japanese Architecture?, translated
by H. Mack Horton (New York: Kodansha International, 1985). Organized into many short
units and equipped with about 250 descriptive drawings and plans but no photographs,
the book sometimes seems to be written for young people, but adults unfamiliar with
the topic will be grateful for its simple clarity. The closest thing to a modern
formal history of Japanese architecture is William H. Coaldrake, Architecture
and Authority in Japan (London and New York: Routledge, 1996), a highly readable
book (with abundant photographs, plans, and elevations) on selected major buildings
(sacred and secular) from the shrines at Ise and Izumo to buildings by Tange Kenzo.
Coaldrake sees buildings as "containers" of power; his emphasis is Edo
architecture, but his thesis is not overly restrictive and he is consistently interesting.
Before the publication of Coaldrake's book, the closest thing to a serious general
survey was Robert Treat Paine and Alexander Soper's encyclopedic approach, in The
Art and Architecture of Japan, 3d ed. (Baltimore: Penguin, 1981), but
the text is very dry and the illustrations are inadequate. Two fairly short surveys
designed for the general reader are William Alex, Japanese Architecture
(New York: Braziller, 1963), and Arthur Drexler, The Architecture of Japan
(New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1966), though neither of these books is adequately
illustrated.
An admirable complement to these surveys of architecture is William H. Coaldrake,
The Way of the Japanese Carpenter: Tools and Japanese Architecture
(New York: Weatherhill, 1990), a beautifully written, hands-on view of the craft
of architecture. Coaldrake studies the physical aspects of the building process by
discussing the tools of Japanese traditional carpentry and their role in the history
of sacred and secular architecture from prehistoric to modern times.
For a splendid picture book that includes good short discussions of the history and
architecture of temples, their surroundings, and their contents, see J. Edward
Kidder, Jr., Japanese Temples: Sculpture, Paintings, Gardens, and Architecture
(Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, n.d.). Less monumental, but nevertheless attractive
and informative, is Kakichi Suzuki, Early Buddhist Architecture in Japan,
translated by Mary N. Parent and Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt (New York: Kodansha International,
1980), which goes to about the year 1000 (that is, from the Asuka into the middle
of the Heian period). For a highly technical study of one aspect of temple architecture
from the 7th to 15th century, see Mary Neighbor Parent, The Roof in Japanese Buddhist
Architecture (New York: Weatherhill, 1983). On the "folk house," particularly
the farmhouse, see Chuji Kawashima, Minka, translated by Lynne E. Riggs (New
York: Kodansha International, 1986).
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