Recognizing the Similar and Thus Accepting the Other: The European and Japanese Traditions of Building With Wood
PDF

Keywords

Identity
Perception
Pragmatic building solutions
Building cultures
Typology

How to Cite

Zwerger, K. (2021). Recognizing the Similar and Thus Accepting the Other: The European and Japanese Traditions of Building With Wood. Journal of Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism, (2), 305–317. https://doi.org/10.51303/jtbau.vi2.520

Abstract

This article shows that building issues have not been tackled fundamentally differently in Europe and Japan despite large cultural differences. Different cultural expressions must not necessarily be equated with different thinking. The paper contrasts two apparently contradictory views. Numerous analyses of Japanese “otherness” in “Western” as well as local perception dominate the literature. But the results of extensive architectural field surveys seem to indicate the contrary. These results show similar and equal backgrounds and conditions resulting in similar and equal building types and techniques. They show that our ways of addressing a task are prompted by pragmatism. Broadly identical solutions were developed worldwide long before globalization. Yet this realization does not allow us to conclude that equal appearances can be taken to be equal in content.

https://doi.org/10.51303/jtbau.vi2.520
PDF

References

Ando, Ryosuke. 1991. Nara rokudaiji daikan; Horyuji I. Tokyo.

Barthes, Roland. 1983. The Empire of Signs. Translated by Richard Howard. New York: Hill and Wang.

Bognar, Botond. 1988a. Archaeology of a Fragmented Landscape. In Papadakis, Andreas (ed.), Japanese Architecture, 15-25. London: Academy Editions.

Bognar, Botond. 1988b. The Japanese Order of Things: Notes on Humanism and the Man-Environment Relationship in Japan. In Form, Being, Absence: Architecture and Philosophy, 2, 148-162. New York: Rizzoli International.

Ciorra, Pippo; and Ostende, Florence. 2016. Japaneseness. The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945, 67-83. Venice: Marcilio Editori.

Edlinger, Astrid. 2008. The Japanese Example – or the Art of Appropriation. In Herrle, Peter et al. (eds.), Architecture and Identity, 57-71. Berlin: Lit.

Engel, Heinrich. 1964. The Japanese House: Tradition for Contemporary Architecture. Rutland: Tuttle.

Gropius, Walter. 1967. Apollo in der Demokratie. Mainz: Kupferberg.

Herrle, Peter. 2008. Architecture and Identity? Steppenwolf and the Carriers of Change. In Herrle, Peter et al (eds.), Architecture and Identity, 11-22. Berlin: Lit.

Isozaki, Arata. 2011. Japan-ness in Architecture. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Löffler, Beate. 2015a. The Perpetual Other. Western Architecture in the Western Imagination. International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity, vol. 3, 3: 82-112.

Löffler, Beate. 2015b. Beständiger Wandel. Japanische Architektur als interpretatorische Verfügungsmasse (1850-2015). In Picht, Laura et al. (eds.), The Limits of Change. Was ist der Wert der beständigen Dinge?, 197-213. Berlin: Neofelis Verlag.

Macrobius, Ambrosius Theodosius. [431] 2011. Saturnalia. Edited and translated by Kaster, Robert A. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Mitsutani, Takumi. 2003. A Dendrochronological Investigation of Construction Materials Used in the Shosoin Repository. Bulletin of Office of the Shosoin Treasure House, vol. 25: 81-84. https://shosoin.kunaicho.go.jp/en-US/bulletin?p=3 (consulted on 16/02/2021).

Mitsutani, Takumi. 2006. A Dendrochronological Investigation of Construction Materials Used in the Shosoin Repository. Bulletin of Office of the Shosoin Treasure House, vol. 28: 66-70. https://shosoin.kunaicho.go.jp/en-US/bulletin?p=3 (consulted on 16/02/2021).

Mitsutani, Takumi. 2016. A Dendrochronological Investigation of Construction Materials Used in the Shosoin Repository (III). Bulletin of Office of the Shosoin Treasure House, vol. 38: 81-88. https://shosoin.kunaicho.go.jp/en-US/bulletin?p=2 (consulted on 16/02/2021).

Muschg, Adolf. 2007. Wegbeschreibung minimal. In Wolfsberg, Kunstmuseum (ed.), Japan und der Westen. Die erfüllte Leere, 211-219. Köln: DuMont.

Nara Bunkazai Hozon Jimusho (Ed.). 1967. Kokuh? T?daiji Sh?r? Sh?ri K?ji H?kokusho. Nara: Nara Bunkazai Hozon Jimusho.

Nish, Ian. 1998. The Iwakura Mission in America and Europe. A New Assessment. Richmond: Japan Library.

Nitschke, Günter. 2002. Architektur und Ästhetik eines Inselvolkes. In Schittich, Christian (ed.), Im Detail: Japan. Architekten, Konstruktionen, Stimmungen, 15-35. Basel: Birkhäuser.

Pantzer, Peter. 2002. Kume Kunitake: Die Iwakura-Mission. Das Logbuch des Kume Kunitake über den Besuch der japanischen Sondergesellschaft in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz im Jahre 1873. München: Ludicium Verlag.

Schiermeier, Kris. 2014. Imitation oder Innovation? Van Goghs Japonaiserien und die japanische Kunst der Meiji-Zeit. In Irvine, Gregory (ed.), Der Japonismus und die Geburt der Moderne. Die Kunst der Meiji-Zeit, 140-165. Leipzig: Seemann.

Schoper, Tom. 2017. Ähnlichkeit und Differenz. In neuem Kontext das eigene anders spüren. In Ein Haus. Werk - Ding - Zeug?, 17-49. Wien: Passagen Verlag.

Seckel, Dietrich. 1959. Emakimono. Translated by Maxwell Brownjohn. London: Jonathan Cape.

Snodgrass, Adrian. 2004. Thinking through the gap: The space of Japanese Architecture. Architectural Theory Review, vol. 9, 2, 65-85.

Speidel, Manfred (ed.). 2003. Bruno Taut. Ich liebe die japanische Kultur. Kleine Schriften über Japan. Berlin: Gebrüder Mann.

Speidel, Manfred. 2009. Nachwort. In Taut, Bruno. Nippon mit europäischen Augen gesehen. Berlin: Mann.

Taut, Bruno. 1936. Grundlinien der Architektur Japans. Tokyo: Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai.

Taut, Bruno. 1937. Houses and People of Japan. Tokyo: Sanseido.

Tetsur?, Watsuji. 2017. F?do; Wind und Erde: Der Zusammenhang zwischen Klima und Kultur. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz.

Verghese, George. 2003. The Way of the Detail in Japanese Design. IDEA Journal, vol. 4, 1: 161-172.

Wilde, Oscar. [1891] 2019. Intentions. GlobalGrey. https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/intentions-ebook.html (consulted on 14/02/2021).

Yoshioka, Hiroshi. 1995. Samurai and self-colonization in Japan. In Pieterse, Jan N. (ed.), The decolonization of imagination, 99-112. London: Zed Books.

Zwerger, Klaus. 2007-08. Präsentation japanischer Baukultur im Wien des 19. Jahrhunderts. Archiv, 57/58: 18-220.

Zwerger, Klaus. 2020. Cereal Drying Racks: History and Typology of Wood Buildings in Europe and East Asia. Basel: Birkhäuser.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.