Deceiving Katsura

This article is transferred from my previous blog site.

German architect Bruno Taut was shown Katsura Imperial Villa on the next day of his arrival in Japan. The day of visit happened to be his birthday. UENO Isaburo took him there. He was a member of the International Architectural Association of Japan which invited Taut to Japan. Taut appreciated Katsura and commented that its beauty pleased the eyes. He was not a devoted modernist, rather an expressionist. He didn’t praise Katsura because it reminded him of practical beauty of modernism architecture but because various views wait ahead to be revealed. But his Japanese friends emphasized on his modernist side.

When Taut arrived in Japan in 1933, Japanese modernists as an emerging force in architecture were struggling to make themselves recognized. They insisted Katsura, as a supreme example of Japanese simple and rational beauty, had something in common with modernism. It seems they attempted to spread their influence and increase their say in Japanese architecture by cleverly using Katsura.

However, architects who belonged to the same modernist discipline later stopped saying Katsura shared something with modernism. Katsura is now understood more from a manierisme point of view.

How things are evaluated could depend on intention of those who try to justify themselves. It might be uninteresting if you are trapped by stereotypes or myths commonly known.

The buildings look simple and plain at first glance but turn out to be tricky and exquisite at another glance.

The garden is also quite manipulated to look natural yet refined. Artificial straight shorelines, however, reminds you that this garden is full of plots. It seems every item at the villa is mysteriously alive but does not concern your presence.