Beauty to the Modernist Eyes: Katsura Imperial Villa as an Experience of Modernism and Modernity

Abstract

This article explores a 1960 book project on the Japanese Imperial Palace and Garden complex Katsura, entitled Katsura: Tradition and Creation in Japanese Architecture (1960), in collaboration with Walter Gropius, Kenzo Tange, Yasuhiro Ishimoto, and Herbert Bayer, as an experience of modernism and modernity. Through photography and written records, this article traces the rediscovery of the villa by modern architects since the 1930s, from Bruno Taut to Walter Gropius to appreciate the beauty of Katsura and, finally, Yasuhiro Ishimoto’s photographic rendering in 1983, to understand the visual interpretation of authenticity and objectivity through developing perspectives of observation. The 1960 book project was a modernist reinvention on the traditional architectural and garden landscape of Katsura. Through Ishimoto’s lens, a series of observations and impressions were projected in the modernist eyes that were distinct from traditional experiences of the villa. The meticulous capture of spatial dynamics and layered material presented in this visual tour have provided a new perspective of interpreting the Katsura Palace, which is fundamentally different from traditional ways of documentation and continues in Ishimoto’s visual reinterpretation in 1983, mirroring a developing conversation of cultural exchange between Japanese tradition and the West.