Katsura - Picturing Modernism in Japanese Architecture: Photographs by Ishimoto Yasuhiro, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press

摘要

Located in the leafy suburbs of the ancient capital of Kyoto, the Katsura Imperial Villa is generally acknowledged as the quintessence of Japanese architecture. It possesses a beguiling combination of rustic simplicity, picturesque beauty and contrived intimacy arguably unsurpassed by any other building in Japan. It has been compared to a Mondrian-esque painting but this convenient interpretation belies the real story at Katsura. In reality it is not a precursor to Modernism but a deeply personal response by its designer, Prince Toshihito, to the social mores of his age. It is essentially a vehicle to facilitate a life of cultivated leisure and engender the development of cultural pastimes such as poetry, painting, calligraphy and the tea-making ceremony.