Japanese Influence upon Modern Architecture
The Japanese perception of beauty can also be seen in the concepts of wabi (simple quietude) and sabi (elegant simplicity). The opposite of gorgeous splendor, these suggest a modest beauty striving for something closer to nature than nature itself. Wabi, in particular, evolved as a reaction against the dazzling continental culture imported from China during the sixteenth century. Wabi today detects beauty in nonmaterialistic, spiritual freedom and in harmony with nature. At the same time it contains aspects of the philosophy of "less is more" that Ludwig Mies van der Rohe advocated in the modern architectural movement. What attracted the attention of Mies, as well as Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd Wright, was the concept in Japanese architecture of enclosing a simple structure with a thin membrane to create a composition in which there is a sense of tension in simplicity. There remains, however, one significant point of divergence: modern architecture, along with the expansion of industry, is geared towards an artificial art. What lies at the heart of the Japanese perception of beauty is the desire to reproduce nature, to achieve a fusion with nature, even in architecture, a most unnatural creation.
Unfortunately, this priceless legacy appears to be disappearing. Visitors to Tokyo are often stunned, even disappointed, to find the same skyscrapers that impose themselves on the skyline in New York and Chicago. Of course this is due in part to urbanization, but it may also be related to the growing distance not only between man and nature, but paradoxically, despite the concentration of population, the distance between people.
Warren Hickox House, Illinois, 1900. Frank Lloyd Wright, architect.
Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto. Seventeenth century.
Entrance Hall, Gamble House, California, 1908. Greene & Greene, architects.
Interior of rural home (minka).
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