The Tectonics of
Japanese Style
Architect and Carpenter in the Late Meiji Period
Cherie Wendelken
U tntil recently, the wooden architecture of the modern period and the role of the carpenter in the
development of modern Japanese architecture
28 have not been carefully studied.' The literature on late
nineteenth- and early twentieth-century architecture has
to the modernization and integration of the building indus-
tries. That contact temporarily blurred the boundaries
between architect, engineer, and master builder and had
lasting consequences for the definition of Japanese national identity in architecture.
tended to emphasize two important concerns: first, the gen-
Collaboration between building professionals also
esis of a newly imported Western architectural profession
raised questions of professional identity. In Europe and the
and its developmental progress on Japanese soil; and sec-
United States, as in Japan, debates about styles, their asso-
ond, the transformative effects of this new profession that
ciated meanings, and their relative quality were part of the
involved the mastery of Western building technology and
discourse of nineteenth-century historicism, but in Japan
what has been called "the problem of style."2 However, in
the self-conscious questioning of stylistic and formal con-
the broader built environment of Meiji Japan, there was no
vention was accompanied by discussion of the nature of
abrupt break with the building practices of premodern
architecture as distinct from mere building. The somewhat
Japan. Meiji-era construction was overwhelmingly execut-
naive-sounding debates in the late Meiji period over the
role of the architect-was he engineer or artist?-can also
ed by carpenters using methods and materials not unlike
those used in the late Edo period (1600-1868). In both
be understood as early modern Japanese architects'
public and private sectors during the first half of the Meiji
attempts at self-definition vis-a-vis past building tradi-
period, the master carpenter and the architect were paral-
tions.3 The new profession saw its expertise and its role as
lel and even rival professionals working in similar capaci-
distinct not only from that of the engineer but also from the
ties but in different materials. Traditionally trained master
tradition-bound world of the master carpenter. Within
carpenters acted not only as craftsmen, but as design pro-
Japan, the differences in working methods and technical
fessionals and the equivalent of structural engineers. They
expertise between architect and carpenter were as signifi-
continued to have an important role even in the construc-
cant as the differences between Japan and the West.
tion of national monuments as long as the Meiji government's K6bush6, or Department of Construction, sponsored
traditional wood construction.
Today the architectural symbol of the cultural climate
of the late Meiji era is the Shrine and Temple style, or sha-
jiyo, which appeared in the 1890s. It is conventionally
In this context changes in education, building tech-
understood as the reflection of a heightened awareness of
nology, and the political climate during late Meiji period,
national identity. However, buildings like the Nihon Kangyo
from the 1890s into the twentieth century, constitute an
Bank (fig. 1) were not new in the landscape in the 1890s,
important transitional period when architects acquired
but were new as products of the architectural profession.
some of the traditional builders' technical expertise in the
They were different because they were understood not sim-
use of wood. Thus they were the first who had not only the
ply as Japanese buildings but as a self-consciously Japan-
desire but the skill to manipulate the traditional building
ese style of architecture in an increasingly eclectic age.
vocabulary to create a new Japanese architecture that was
During the early years of the Meiji Restoration, for-
both national and modern. The wide range of activities
eign institutional programs, construction technologies, and
engaged in by academy-trained architects beginning in the
architectural styles had been imported together as part of
1890s marks an important time of contact between the tra-
the nation-building program of the new regime. Since
ditional master builder and the academy that was critical
many of the newly created public and commercial institu-
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29
FIG. 1 Tsumaki Yorinaka, Nihon Kangy6 Bank, Tokyo, 1899. No longer extant.
tions had been based on European models, it is not sur-
style. Although later moved to Chiba prefecture, the Nihon
prising that many of the buildings that housed these insti-
Kangy6 Bank was originally built across from the
tutions-post offices, palaces, ministries, and schoolswere modeled on European designs.4 European engineers
and architects had been invited to practice the modern
Rokumeikan, the European-style reception hall designed
by Josiah Conder (1852-1920) in 1883 (see Toshio Watanabe's article on the Rokumeikan in this issue of Art Jour-
building professions and to help establish them in Japan.
nal ).7 It was therefore not only an architectural rebuttal to
By the early 1880s Japanese architects trained by foreign
the westernizing sentiment of the Rokumeikan era, but a
teachers were being retained by the Meiji government to
very literal and deliberate upstaging of the Rokumeikan's
design versions of the eclectic revival styles popular in
urban presence and its prominence as a cultural symbol for
Europe. These, employing stone or brick masonry technol-
modern Japan. The Japanese appearance of these and other
ogy, represented a fundamental departure from the timber-
shajiyo buildings, such as hotels and prefectural offices, is
based building practices of pre-Meiji Japan.5
usually understood to reflect the more nationalistic climate
In the late 1880s a newly reorganized central govern-
of late Meiji, and the questioning of the earlier uncritical
ment called for an ideological return to Japanese antiquity
adoption of European styles by Japanese architects
(as opposed to modeling the West) as a guide to remaking
enthused by the architectural culture of Europe. By the late
Japan's institutions and strengthening its national identity.
1880s the Japanese architectural community had gotten
During this same period from the end of the 1880s to the
beyond a monolithic understanding of European style to an
turn of the century, a new, self-consciously Japanese style
increasingly sophisticated and detailed discourse on style
of architecture appeared. The Shrine and Temple style
in architecture, some of which centered on the appropriate
(shajiyo) was the creation of a new generation of architects,
use of revival styles then popular in Europe, such as Queen
the first to be trained in Japan by Japanese teachers.6 As
Anne, Neoclassical, or Gothic.8 The few extant Shrine and
the name suggests, these buildings took their formal inspi-
Temple-style buildings remain important as early examples
ration from premodern shrines and temples. The upturned
of the quest for national identity in modern architecture, a
eaves, cusped gables, and tiled roofs that characterized the
central issue in critical debate and in architectural design
Shrine and Temple style were intended to resemble those
for generations to come.9
of ancient religious monuments.
The ancient shrines and temples of the Nara and
Kyoto area had become increasingly important in late
The Nara Prefectural Office, designed by Nagano
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struction methods and of the dimensioning system called
kiwariho.11 Significantly, they involved the collaboration of
both master carpenters and academy-trained architects.
The contact of young architects with master builders
in the Imperial University began as part of a curriculum
change in the late 1880s. Until that time, architectural
education had focused on courses in modern construction
technology and Western-style design. Ito Chiita (18671954), Sekino Tadashi (1869-1938), Oe Shintar6 (18791935), and Takeda Goichi (1872-1938) are among those
architects now associated with the Shrine and Temple
style. Not coincidentally they were also students of Kigo
Kiyoyoshi (d. 1915), an influential master carpenter
employed by the Imperial Household, who taught the first
FIG. 2 Meiji Palace, Tokyo, site plan showing Josiah Conder's proposal for
the reception hall to the right, 1886. Imperial Household Agency; from Onogi,
Meiji Yofu Kyutei.
courses in Japanese architecture at the Imperial Universi-
ty beginning in 1889. The scope of Kigo's activities as
builder, educator, and scholar is remarkable, and his name
is associated with a long list of important projects. His pre-
tion and the restored monarch.l0 In the West as in Japan,
30 much nineteenth-century architecture was historicist in
spirit; the Shrine and Temple style was an alternative to
sent obscurity is perhaps due to his status as master
builder rather than architect.12
Kigo was no ordinary carpenter: his family had long
imported European revival styles, one of distinctly Japan-
served as master builders for the Imperial Household, act-
ese character. Since European-style buildings in masonry
ing as designers and general contractors for the palace. In
continued to be built throughout the Meiji period, building
true Meiji antiquarian fashion, the Kigo family claimed
in the manner of temples and shrines was no longer mere
association with the Imperial Household as far back as the
construction but a symbolic act: the deliberate creation
of a native revival style based on ancient monuments.
Regional politics played a role in what later became a
family seems to have taken a subsidiary role to the ruling
Heian period (794-1185). During the Edo period, the Kigo
Tokugawa clan's own carpenters, the Nakai family based in
national style in architecture. Nagano's Nara Prefectural
Kyoto. The Kigo were responsible for repair, maintenance,
Office was among a number of projects that were part of the
and minor construction at the Imperial Palace, but it was
prefecture's effort to create a traditional Japanese identity
the Nakai who supervised the 1790 reconstruction of the
in contrast to modern Tokyo.
palace, and, after a fire, the reconstruction of the same
In plan, most Shrine and Temple-style buildings
buildings in 1855. The extant mid-nineteenth-century
were not distinct from European-style buildings with simi-
buildings are thought to be similar to the designs of 1790,
lar programs. Nonetheless, the shajiyo was more than a
which were based on available documentary and pictorial
style. The term described buildings for modern institutions
evidence of the original Heian buildings.13 This project
built in wood yet designed by academy-trained architects.
shows that a historicist awareness in architectural design
These buildings were formally and structurally related to
was not an innovation of the late nineteenth century, but
traditional architecture. Architects reverted to timber as an
was present in the elite projects of master builders early as
appropriate material at a time when they were being
the eighteenth century.
trained to introduce modern construction methods, and as
The Kigo family moved with the Imperial Household
a result called on the skills of master carpenters.
to Tokyo after 1868. As imperial carpenters their identity
The full significance of the period that saw the
appearance of the Shrine and Temple style can only be
ing and the style of the Kyoto palace. From the early Meiji
naturally centered on their involvement with palace-build-
understood, however, by looking beyond stylistic history
period, the Kigo family also built shrines and other struc-
and beyond the usual focus on such architect-designed
tures in Tokyo, including the early buildings at Kuniyoshi
new construction. Many of the same men who originated
Shrine in 1872. Their most significant Tokyo project started
this first self-consciously national style also designed and
in 1873 after a fire destroyed most of the structures on the
built State Shinto shrines, recreated long-lost monuments
shogun's Edo (now Tokyo) castle site that had served as the
from antiquity, and were instrumental in Japan's nascent
imperial palace after the restoration. Kigo Kiyoyoshi com-
architectural preservation program. They supervised the
pleted the Kari Kyuden (temporary palace) of timber at
first restorations of historic buildings and wrote some of the
Akasaka by 1881. Its style was based on the reconstructed
first modern histories of Japanese architecture. All of these
Kyoto palace with the addition of cusped entrance gables
activities required a knowledge of traditional timber con-
characteristic of grand Edo residences, but with hybrid inte-
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riors to accommodate Western furniture and decoration.14
The construction of a permanent Imperial Palace
became the subject of heated debate between state architects and carpenters associated with the Imperial House-
hold into the late 1880s. Josiah Conder, Tatsuno Kingo
(1854-1911), and other prominent architects submitted a
series of designs for reception halls based on European
palace models. All were separate pavilions intended to
connect-as shown in the proposal by Josiah Conder (fig.
2)-to a residential palace in wood with tatami floors, to be
designed by Kigo's staff.'5
In 1887 it was decided to give Kigo responsibility for
the entire palace, which was to be built of wood in the
familiar palace style. The date certainly suggests a connec-
tion between Kigo's commission and a political change,
since this was the year of Inoue Kaoru's resignation as for-
FIG. 3 Kigo Kiyoyoshi, plan for the Meiji Palace, Tokyo, 1887. Imperial
Household Agency; from Onogi, Meiji Yofu Kyutei.
eign minister and the end of the Rokumeikan era of head-
long westernization. The recorded reason for the decision
cited the technical superiority and safety of traditional
1893.18 Like the eclectic architecture of the day, such
wood construction in times of earthquake, and Kigo's privi-
comprehensive interiors not only encapsulated but appro-
leged knowledge of palace architecture as a master builder
priated history, legitimizing and authenticating the Meiji
associated with the imperial family. Ostensibly practical,
regime by presenting it as the inevitable culmination of
this reasoning also served the new political program.16
Differences between the palace designs submitted by
Japan's past. Although the Meiji Palace did not survive
World War II, its creation marks an occasion when the tide
architects and by the Imperial Household carpenters
of change was temporarily reversed: prominent state archi-
underscore the divergences, not only in style but in plan-
tects negotiated design decisions with master carpenters,
ning and building methods, between architect and carpen-
who finally prevailed.
ter. The plans submitted by Conder and other European
architects were symmetrical, with carefully designed
facades that produced a monumental frontality. Their
In 1889, the year after the completion of the Meiji
Palace buildings, Kigo offered the first course in Japanese
architecture at the Imperial University. Tatsuno Kingo, one
schemes displayed a comprehensive spatial geometry and
of the participants in the Meiji Palace project and later the
subjected the program to an overall organizational logic. In
head of the Department of Architecture at the Imperial
contrast, Kigo and his staff of master builders laid out
University, explained why these courses began then with
spaces and circulation based on adjacencies of use and
structural exigency-a series of local decisions resulting
the following story. During Tatsuno's stay in England his
mentor, architect Anthony Burges, asked him about the
in an irregular plan (fig. 3). Their organizational logic was
ancient architectural monuments of Japan. Tatsuno,
not overall geometry but north-south orientation and the
ashamed that he was unable to answer, decided to institute
relationship of interior rooms to outside courtyard and gar-
courses on the history of Japanese architecture upon his
den spaces, a mode typical of residential planning in the
return to Japan. Architectural historian Inaba Nobuko has
premodern era.17
recently pointed out, however, that Tatsuno's meeting with
In the end, the residential section of the palace was
tatami-floored and contiguous to the public halls, as it had
Burges took place almost four years before Kigo began
teaching at the university, and that Kigo's appointment was
been in the Kyoto palace and in the residential quarters of
more likely owing to his triumph in the Meiji Palace pro-
the great castles of the Momoyama and Edo periods
(1568-1868). The public halls of the new palace were like
ject.19 The final design of the palace signals the beginning
the earlier ones at the Kari Kyuden, with parquet-floored
practice of Japanese construction.
of the movement to educate architects in the history and
interiors to support Western furniture. The interior was to
The crediting of Burges for this change in the intel-
be decorated by the head of the newly created Imperial
lectual climate constitutes yet another myth of origins in
Museum, who was to choose important objects of art from
the reevaluation of Japanese tradition. A conservative revi-
the full span of Japanese history for placement in the
sion could be received as progress because the interest of
reception rooms. This recapitulative historical program
the foreign expert constituted a kind of mandate. In that
recalls the interior decoration of another building created
anecdote, Burges parallels the role attributed to Ernest
as a national symbol, the Ho-O-Den designed by Kuru
Masamichi for the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in
art, and later to Bruno Taut (1880-1938) in the apprecia-
Fenollosa (1853-1908) in the appreciation of Japanese
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31
profound effect on architectural history as well as historicist
design. Kigo's student Ito worked closely with him on these
field surveys and other projects. One of the most important
figures in Meiji architecture, he made significant contributions as a designer, historian, preservationist, and theoreti-
cian. Ito's graduation thesis on Horyuji, "Horyuji
kenchikuron" (An architectural theory of Horyuji), was
published in Kenchiku Zasshi in 1893. Ito proposed that the
entasis (the tapering of the upper ends of the columns) of
the main hall at Horyuji, as well as the proportions of the
hall, were evidence of a trans-asian connection between the
temples of Japan and those of ancient Greece (fig. 4). Ito's
theory long remained a standard part of the architectural
curriculum, and has only recently been reconsidered.25 Its
enduring importance can be understood in terms of the
FIG. 4 Ito Chuta, comparison of Greek temple columns with Hdryuji columns,
1893; from "Hbryuji no Kenchikuron," Kenchiku Zasshi.
likely reason for its genesis: the article effected a theoretical integration of Ito's training in Western engineering and
design with his simultaneous involvement in Japanese
tion of modernity in Japanese architecture.20 The anecdote
3 also masks the dominance of the master carpenter in the
palace project and other public projects of the time. Kigo's
architecture and architectural history as Kigo's student.
Whether the proposed linkage with Greek civilization originated with Ito, or, as recently suggested, with for-
lectures have been devalued by some scholars as dealing
eign scholars such as Fenollosa, it enhanced the status of
not with Japanese architectural history at all, but rather
with kiwariho, the techniques of traditional timber con-
the Japanese architectural patrimony both in Japan and in
the Western world. In Japan and in Europe, this was an age
struction.21 But perhaps Kigo was influential precisely
of much theoretical writing on the links between East and
because he taught kiwariho. He was not trained as an histo-
West.26 At the same time, the treasures of the Shosoin were
rian, and although little is known of the content of his lec-
tures, it is clear from his surviving notes and the work of
celebrated as symbols of the cosmopolitanism of the
Tempyo period (710-794), when Chinese influences-
his students that he taught not a distant past history but a
themselves much enriched by borrowings from Central and
living tradition of design and construction.22
Following his appointment to the faculty of the Impe-
rial University, from 1889 to 1891 Kigo and his students
Western Asia-infused Japanese culture. For Ito, Greece
was the source of the neoclassical Western design tradition
in which he was being trained. The Greek orders were still
conducted detailed field surveys of thirty-eight shrines and
an important part of European design vocabulary, and Ito
temples in the Nara and Kyoto area.23 Some of these stud-
proposed to fashion a similar set of orders based on Japan-
ies were the basis for a series of articles beginning in 1889
ese antiquity.27 Japanese carpentry tradition already pos-
in Kenchiku Zasshi (Architecture magazine), then the pri-
sessed the conventions of a proportioning system and a set
mary publication of the architectural profession. The mea-
of design elements, familiar to Ito from the classes taught
sured drawings Kigo and his students produced were
by Kigo. Ito's study of Horyuji thus can be seen as a natur-
eventually used not only in the classroom but in prepara-
al effort to integrate these two traditions.
tion for preservation legislation and in actual restoration
work. Kigo and his students worked on the ancient Bud-
One the most interesting architectural projects of the
late Meiji period began soon after the publication of Ito's
dhist temples of Horyuji, T6daiji, and Byodoin, but the
Horyuji article, combining historical study, contemporary
majority of the sites they surveyed were important Shinto
carpentry, architectural design, and modern city planning.
shrines of no great antiquity.24 The extensive program of
Kigo and Ito became involved in the design and construc-
shrine building and reconstruction that continued through
tion of Heian Shrine, an ambitious edifice that was to
the 1890s related to the establishment of State Shinto.
become a structural metaphor for the Meiji Restoration
Kigo's survey of historic and other shrine buildings can be
(fig. 5). Kigo's field surveys and other studies had given
seen not so much as an exercise in academic history, but as
him an understanding of ancient construction beyond a
an effort to record and codify models for shrines and other
conventional knowledge of Meiji carpentry. His experience
buildings to be designed by himself and his students. The
and his reputation as a master of palace architecture made
material they collected also formed an important resource
him a logical choice to design a reconstruction of the long-
for the designation and repair of monuments that followed
lost Heian palace in Kyoto.
the passage of the first national legislation in 1897.
The collaboration of architects and carpenters had a
The city of Kyoto had suffered greatly during the years
just before and after the Restoration. The departure of the
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FIG. 5 Kigo Kiyoyoshi and Ito ChOta, Heian Shrine, Kyoto, restoration, 1895; from Murai Yasuhiko, Zusetsu Heiankyo.
emperor and the impoverishment of Buddhist temples exac-
change in scale was not thought to compromise the authen-
erbated a general economic decline. By the late 1880s a
ticity of the design. Temporary sheltered scaffolding, used
newly formed municipal government was eager to redefine
during construction, also functioned as an armature for the
Kyoto as a scenic and historic city. The emergence of new
meticulous and somewhat experimental assemblage of a
Kyoto was planned around the celebration of the eleven
novel wooden structure. This project, completed in 1895,
hundredth anniversary of its founding and the city's hosting
was one of the first examples of Japanese architecture exe-
of the Fourth National Industrial Exhibition in 1895. A new
cuted by an architect trained at the Imperial University.
civic center was to be built on land that had once belonged
The collaboration of architects and carpenters was facilitat-
to the Kaga, a former daimyo family, at Okazaki on the east-
ed by the vocabulary of sophisticated representational tech-
ern side of the city. The centerpiece of this project was to be
niques, including scale models and complex drawings, that
a reconstruction of a part of the main hall of the Imperial
had long been part of carpentry practice, and not very dif-
Palace as it was thought to have been in the Heian period.28
ferent from the drawings produced by modern architects.30
To design the Heian Shrine, Kigo and It6 worked
from two main sources: the overall building layout and
As Ito's first responsibility after his graduation, it placed
him in the difficult position of supervising carpenters older
many structural details were taken from Heian-period nar-
and more experienced than himself. Ito's quest for historical
rative scrolls, particularly a seventeenth-century copy of
authenticity was questioned by older carpenters who con-
the late twelfth-century Nenju gyoji scroll. To this was
sidered themselves more experienced and better able to
added their knowledge of the proportions, roof form, and
judge the quality of the design. The uneasy relationship
joinery of extant historic buildings in the Kyoto and Nara
between master carpenter and architect continues to some
area. Toshodaiji, a Buddhist temple in Nara, has been
extent in the present day.
identified as a source based on a comparison of Kigo and
Contemporaneously with this project, another Kigo
Ito's design sketches and field survey notes. The working
student, Takeda, was asked to produce working drawings
drawings for the reconstruction, done by local carpenters
and supervise the construction of the timber-built Nihon
according to conventional practice, illustrate the level of
Kangyo Bank in Tokyo.31 The bank had been designed by
skill in drawing and design possessed by Meiji carpenters.
German-trained Tsumagi Yorinaka (1859-1916), but
Ito then edited those drawings, flattening the vertical pro-
Takeda had the advantage of training from a master car-
portions to approximate those of more ancient buildings,
penter. Neither a conventionally trained carpenter nor an
and eliminating what he judged to be overly ornate con-
architect without training in Japanese carpentry would
temporary detail (fig. 6). Although the Meiji period is often
have had Takeda's fluency in manipulating the conventions
of timber construction. Takeda's later career included a
viewed as a time of decline in traditional arts, the carpen-
ters of the day had more sophisticated tools and more
number of buildings that demonstrate his sustained inter-
refined methods than their ancient predecessors, as well as
a taste for ornate form and decoration.29
est in rethinking traditional timber prototypes to accommo-
The final design was estimated to be a reduced-scale
version of the original Heian structure, a shrinkage made to
accommodate budgetary and material constraints. Yet the
date modern programs, although he quickly turned his
attention to residential design.
The training of young architects in wood construction
also had an important effect on the work of historic preserART JOURNAL
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33
FIG. 6 Kigo Kiyoyoshi and Ito Chuta, design for the reconstruction of the Heian Palace based on a study of narrative scrolls and textual description, 1895. Kyoto
City Hall, Kyoto Municipal Government.
34
vation, a field that developed out of modern historical
awareness. In 1897, just two years after the completion of
Another legacy of the close collaboration of architects and carpenters at restoration sites at the turn of the
the Heian Shrine, the Koshaji Hozon Ho (Law for the pro-
century was the invention of kaitaishiri (complete disman-
tection of ancient shrines and temples) was passed. This
tling and repair). Its purpose, to restore monuments to their
law provided the first public funding for the restoration of
form at the time of initial construction, was predicated on
historic buildings, and many of the men discussed above
the belief that a building's historicity-and, by extension,
participated in the early restorations. The stated objective
its structural integrity-was located in this initial form.
of the preservation program was the preservation of ancient
Kaitaishari was intended not only to repair but also, in the
shrines and temples (koshaji). Protected monuments were
process, to cleanse structures of stylistic and structural
thereby limited to those religious structures, with the stip-
impurities resulting from later alterations.34 In premodern
ulation that they must be at least four hundred years old
Japan wooden structures had been routinely dismantled in
and have some form of national importance. The impor-
order to move them from one site to another, but large-
tance of temples and shrines (shaji) as national symbols
had already been reflected in the creation of the shajiyo.32
scale dismantling for the purpose of academic restoration
was a new idea. Restorative reconstruction was favored in
However, shrine buildings and other structures with asso-
nineteenth-century Europe as well, but in Meiji Japan the
ciations to the emperor, or otherwise of national signifi-
erasure of recent alterations to historic buildings had a
cance, were exempted from the age requirement. For
instance Nikk6 T6sh6gu, built in the early seventeenth
powerful ideological connotation, often amounting to erad-
ication of an Edo-period legacy in favor of a return to an
century and already with substantial private endowment
imagined form of antiquity. In this sense kaitaishari was a
for repairs, was named an important national shrine. Oe,
compelling metaphor for the political Restoration itself,
another graduate of the Tokyo Imperial University, worked
and was practiced to purify the ancient shrines and monu-
on this restoration from the turn of the century into the
ments that were appropriated as national symbols. Both
1930s. Oe's mandate seems to have extended to erasing
written history and the physical patrimony thereby became
some of the more salient examples of Buddhist iconogra-
constructs of Meiji-period values.
phy at the shrine, a continuation of the early Meiji govern-
Kigo Kiyoyoshi is associated with the first large-
ment initiative to separate the two religions and to
establish a purified State Shinto. It remains unclear just
repair to date, at the T6daiji Great Buddha Hall.35 His col-
how much of what we see today at Nikko is a product of
laborator, the German-trained engineer-architect Tsumagi,
scale restoration and the largest complete dismantling and
Oe's redesign, but the results were criticized by priests as
eventually took over the project, and as in the other pro-
neither restoration nor repair, but redesign.33 This criti-
jects described, the contributions of carpenter versus
cism exemplifies the extent to which the early study of
architect remain unclear. As at the Heian Shrine, a shel-
Japanese architecture, and even its restoration, was not
tered scaffolding was built at Todaiji, here to protect and
academic history but mastery of a living tradition.
support not experimental construction but the meticulous
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FIG. 7 Structural section of Great Buddha
Hall, Todaiji, Nara, repair completed 1911;
from Report on the repairs to the Great
Buddha Hall at T6daiji.
35
dismantling, radical repair, and reassembly of a historic
Japan, interest in the use of timber for institutional build-
monument in a critical state of decay. Eventually it was
decided to use imported Shelton steel trusses in the recon-
ings waned among Japanese architects, who returned to the
belief that it was outmoded and hazardous.39 Interest in a
struction of the Great Buddha Hall's main span (fig. 7).
Japanese-style architecture did not fade, but efforts shifted
This decision has been ascribed to scarcity of both large
to the replication of the forms and details of wood construction in reinforced concrete. The notion of Japanese
timber and skilled carpenters.36
Just a few years earlier, however, Kyoto carpenters
style was still linked to the literal forms of traditional con-
had commanded sufficient skill to construct the intricately
struction. When ferroconcrete-based Japanese-style archi-
detailed Heian Shrine; the same year an enormous wooden
tecture developed in the first decade of this century, the
Founder's Hall at Higashi Honganji was built that rivaled
the Great Buddha Hall in scale.37 The decision to use Shel-
collaboration of architects, engineers, and carpenters was
ton steel trusses at Todaiji was probably made by Tsumagi,
still necessary. The ferroconcrete Kyoto Takashimaya
Department Store of 1911 was designed and built by a
who had designed the Nihon Kangyo Bank. His integration
prominent carpenter within Takenaka Komuten, a carpen-
of Western technology with a traditional structure can be
try workshop that was fast becoming a modern design-and-
seen in relation to his earlier collaboration with Takeda on
build-style construction firm. Higashi Honganji, the Kyoto
the Nihon Kangyo Bank. Where his earlier design for the
temple complex whose enormous Founder's Hall had been
bank had employed traditional materials and forms, here a
built of wood in 1895, undertook the construction of a
historic building was being rebuilt with a modern steel
Main Hall in ferroconcrete in 1911-15 (fig. 8).
structure, more evidence of the integration of technologies
Even in the first decade of this century, these pro-
Kaitaishari required the new academic knowledge of
jects utilized the design and construction supervision
skills of old carpenter families rather than academy-
ancient structures, as well as hands-on knowledge of tradi-
trained architects.40 For a time, the elite carpenters of the
tional construction processes. Although carpenters
late Meiji era defined a new role for themselves as rival
and trades that was to continue into the postwar period.
remained important to the process, in the late Meiji a new
design professionals in the new materials, taking advan-
professional emerged, the architect-conservator. The first
tage of their closer connection to the construction industry
person associated with this role in Japan is Sekino, another
and its practices. By exploiting their knowledge of struc-
of Kigo's students at the Imperial University, who became a
tural detail, master carpenters took the lead, in collabora-
supervising technician for Nara prefecture. He is responsi-
tion with structural engineers, in a new kind of Japanese
ble for a number of important contributions to the field of
style. That collaboration further exemplifies the modern-
restoration practice in Japan, and his systematic approach
to timber conservation has had international influence.38
ization and integration of the building trades into the twen-
In the early twentieth century, especially after news
the use of ferroconcrete in Japanese-style design, which by
of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire reached
tieth century. Architects such as Oe and Ito soon took up
the 1930s was called the teikan yoshiki-the Imperial
ART JOURNAL
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FIG. 8 Ito Hirazaemon, drawings for the construction of Main Hall, Higashi Honganji, Kyoto, 1911-15; from Hatsuda, Kindai wafui kenchiku.
Crown Style associated with the pre-World War II years.
By the late Meiji period architects (and, by extension, architectural historians) had become familiar with
kiwarih6, the traditional dimensioning system used in tim-
Notes
I would like to thank Inaba Nobuko of Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs for shar-
ing sources on Kigo Kiyoyoshi. Prof. Hiroyuki Suzuki of Tokyo University and
Master Carpenter Fumio Tanaka of Maki Construction offered valuable critical
comments
1. Muramatsu Teijiro, in Nihon kindai kenchikushi saiko (The history of mod-
ber construction; a number of elite carpenters had rede-
ern Japanese architecture reconsidered) (Tokyo: Shinkenchikusha, 1977),
fined themselves as designers within a rapidly modernizing
includes a historical outline and summary biographies of 101 important figures in
construction industry; and a new professional, the architect-conservator, had appeared to assume stewardship of
historic buildings. Although Kigo and other traditionally
educated carpenters had been instrumental in training
these new professionals, they were essentially transitional
figures. By the end of the Meiji period, traditionally trained
architectural history, including only two carpenters at the very beginning of the
Meiji period. Ten years later the same author turned his attention to many anony-
mous carpenter-built wood residences, hotels, and other buildings considered to
be modern and Japanese in style (referred to as kindai wafu) in Kindai wafu
kenchiku (Modern Japanese-style architecture) (Tokyo: Kajima Shuppankai,
1988). One of the best surveys of extant buildings from 1868 to World War II
focuses most attention on Western-style buildings. Nihon kindai kenchiku soran:
Kakuchi ni nokoru Meiji Taisho Showa no tatemono (Survey of modern Japanese
architecture: Extant buildings from Meiji, Taisho, and Sh6wa) (Tokyo: Architectur-
master builders had been largely replaced by university-
al Institute of Japan, 1980).
educated architects, engineers, and academics. Gradually
sha, 1987), 33-62.
3. In 1894 the architect Ito Chuta (1867-1954) wrote an essay in Kenchiku
the master builder became less important as a designer
and construction supervisor and was increasingly relegat-
2. David Stewart, The Making of Modern Japanese Architecture (Tokyo: K6dan-
Zasshi stressing that, in Japan as in the West, architecture should be considered
one of the fine arts rather than a branch of engineering. The Department of Archi-
tecture at the Imperial University had already been placed within the School of
ed to on-site carpentry.
Ironically, the skills and knowledge that Kigo impart-
ed to his students ultimately enabled them to assume positions and responsibilities once held by state carpenters such
as himself. Important Japanese architects, embracing his-
Engineering, which remains the norm in Japan today. Ito's and other early essays
on the nature of architecture are collected in Fujii Shoichiro and Yamaguchi
Hiroshi, eds., Nihon kenchiku sengen bunshu (Collected manifestoes in Japanese
architecture) (Tokyo: Shokokusha, 1973). See also Jonathan Reynolds, "Maekawa
Kunio" (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan), 45-48.
4. Eleanor Westney documents the development of Meiji public institutions
toricist design, also applied themselves to historical study,
based on European models in Imitation and Innovation: The Transfer of Western
preservation, and reconstruction. These developments of the
1987).
late Meiji period not only reflected nationalist sentiment and
stylistic change, but also signaled a tectonic shift-the integration and redefinition of the building professions in the
course of industrialization-and the waning of the authority
of the master carpenter. _
Organizational Patterns to Meiji Japan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
5. See Ardath W. Burks, The Modernizers: Overseas Students, Foreign Employees
and Meiji Japan (London: Westview Replica Editions, 1985). For a recent discussion
of foreign architects and engineers in early Meiji, see Dallas Finn, Meiji Revisited:
The Sites of Victorian Japan (New York: Weatherhill, 1995); Koshino Takeshi provides a well-illustrated survey of early Western-style Meiji architecture in Kaika no
katachi (The form of the Restoration), vol. 2 of Nihon no kenchiku: Meiji, Taisho,
Showa (Japanese architecture: Meiji, Taisho, Showa) (Tokyo: Sanseido, 1979).
FALL 1996
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6. For a review of the changes in architectural design in the late Meiji period
see Inagaki Eizo, Nihon no kindai kenchiku: Sono seiritsukatei (The formation of
modern Japanese architecture) (Tokyo: Kajima Shuppankai, 1979), vol. 1; and
Fujimori Terunobu, Nihon no kindai kenchiku (Modern architecture of Japan)
(Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1993), vol. 1.
7. See Muramatsu Teijiro, Kindai wafu kenchiku (Modern Japanese-style
architecture) (Tokyo: Kajima Shuppankai, 1988), 152-53.
8. Stewart, Making of Modern Japanese Architecture, 33-62, discusses the
introduction of the Queen Anne and other European revival styles to Japan; Fuji-
19. Inaba, "Kigo Kiyoyoshi no Teikoku Daigaku," 111-12.
20. Inoue Shoichi, in Horyuji-e no seishinshi (The moral history of Horyuji)
(Tokyo: Kobundo, 1994), emphasizes the importance of the role that Ernest Fenollosa and other foreign scholars played in the Meiji-period evaluation of Horyuji.
Yet in Tsukurareta Katsura Rikyu shinwa (The constructed myth of Katsura)
(Tokyo: Kobundo, 1992), he minimizes the originality of Taut's evaluation of Katsura in the 1930s.
21. For example, Ota Hirotaro, in Kenchikushi no sendatsutachi (The development of Japanese architectural hjistory) (Tokyo: Shokokusha, 1983), 9-19, men-
mori, Nihon no kindai kenchiku, vol. 1, chap. 8, reviews the yoshiki ronso, the crit-
tions Kigo in passing, stating he did not teach architectural history, and focuses on
ical debate over architectural style in late Meiji.
the contributions of Kigo's well-known student Ito Chata.
9. In the late Meiji period the notion of Japanese style in architecture was
specifically linked to the historicist notion of an architecture based on "ancient
shrines and temples" (koshaji). By the 1920s the prototypes for Japanese style had
22. See Inaba, "Kigo Kiyoyoshi no Teikoku Daigaku," 115-18.
23. Inaba, "Kigo Kiyoyoshi ga Meiji nenkan shashu, sakusei shita Nihon
widely used term to describe Japanese-style architecture is stylistically the most
kenchikugaku kanren shiryo" (Research materials on historic Japanese architecture compiled in the Meiji period by Kigo Kiyoyoshi), Nihon Kenchiku Gakkai
Keikakukei Ronbun Hokokusho 413 (July 1990): 151-59.
24. A detailed inventory of the buildings Kigo and his students surveyed is
found in Inaba, "Kigo Kiyoyoshi ga Meiji nenkan shiisha," 153, 156.
25. Inoue, Horyuji no Seishinshi, 5-20.
26. See, for example, James Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern Archi-
nonspecific, wafu kenchiku, a term that also originated in the 1920s in the context
tecture (London: John Murray, 1891), 709-10; and Ralph Adams Cram, Impres-
of hybridized residential design.
sions of Japanese Architecture (1905; reprint, New York: Japan Society, 1930), 32.
secularized and broadened to include references to castle and tea architecture.
Through the 1930s, Japanese style in architecture and the decorative arts was dis-
cussed using the term Nihon shumi (Japanese taste) that referred, among other
things, to the ferroconcrete-based teikan yoshiki (Imperial Crown style) discussed
in Stewart's Making of Modern Japanese Architecture, 111-12. Today the most
10. For a study of the role of religious and moral traditions in the emergence of
nationalist ideology in late Meiji, see Carol Gluck, Japan's Modern Myths: Ideolo-
27. See Inoue, Horyuji no Seishinshi, 5-69.
28. See Murai Yasuhiko, Zusetsu Heiankyo (The illustrated Heiankyo) (Tokyo:
Kobunsha, 1994), 38-41; a detailed analysis of the design process is given in
gy in Late Meiji, esp. 102-56.
11. Carpentry practices were handed down in manuals that outlined a complex
system of structural proportioning, in conventions for the detailing of complex
joinery, and in pattern books for the design of interiors and building elements.
William Coaldrake discusses kiwariho in The Way of the Carpenter: Tools and
Japanese Architecture (New York: Heibonsha, 1989), 23-28; the subject is treated
in detail in Waga kuni daiku no kosaku gijutsu ni kansuru kenkyu (Research on the
building techniques of the carpenters of our country) (Tokyo: Rodo Kagaku
Kenkyujo Shuppanbu, 1984).
12. The details of Kigo Kiyoyoshi's career were unclear until his heirs' donation of Kigo's personal library, drawings, and other family records to the Tokyo
Municipal Library in the late 1980s. Architectural historian Inaba Nobuko, now of
the Agency for Cultural Affairs, has researched and curated the collection; see
Inaba Nobuko, "Kigo Kiyoyoshi no Teikoku Daigaku (Tokyo Teikoku Daigaku)
jugyo ni okeru Nihon kenchikugaku ni tsuite" (A study of Kigo Kiyoyoshi's lectures in Japanese architecture at the Imperial University), Nihon Kenchiku Gakkai
Keikakukei Ronbun Hokokusho (Research Journal of the Architectural Society of
Inaba, "Heian Jingu" (Master's thesis, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 1987).
29. See Inaba, "Heian Jingu," passim.
30. For a collection of pre-Meiji carpenters' drawings that include site plans,
structural details, and building sections, see Kokuritsu Minzoku Hakubutsukan,
Kozu ni miru Nihon no kenchiku (Japanese architecture seen in old drawings)
(Tokyo: Shibundo, 1989).
31. See Muramatsu, Kindai wafu kenchiku, 152-53; and Fujimori, Nihon no
kindai kenchiku 2:15-18.
32. See Nishimura Yukio, "Kenzobutsu no hozon itaru Meiji zenki bunkazai
hogo gyosei no tenkai" (Architectural preservation and the protection of cultural
properties during the early Meiji period), Nihon Kenchiku Gakkai Ronbun
Hokokusho 351 (May 1985): 38-47.
33. For a discussion of Oe's work at Nikko and information about practices at
other early restoration projects, see Ota Hirotaro, Rekishitekifudo no hozon (The
conservation of historic landscapes) (Tokyo: Dai'ichi Hoki, 1982).
34. For a description of kaitaishari and a cultural history of the preservation
Japan, Planning Division) 374 (April 1987): 111-21.
13. The reconstruction of the Kyoto palace, with emphasis on the paintings
used as sources, is discussed in Chino Kaori's "Kenchiku no naibu kukan to
program in Japan, see chap. 2 of my "Living with the Past: Preservation and Devel-
shohekiga: Seiryoden no shohekiga ni kansuru kosatsu" (Interior space and murals:
a consideration of the murals of the Seiryoden), vol. 16 of Nihon bijutsu zenshu:
35. See Takahashi Masao, in "The Development and Training Programme for
Conservation of Wooden Architectural Monuments in Japan," in Proceedings:
ISCRP Wood Preservation (Tokyo: ICCROM, 1983), 231-40.
Katsura Rikya to Toshogu (Survey of Japanese art: Katsura Villa and Toshogu)
(Tokyo: Kodansha, 1989), 158-65.
14. After the completion of the permanent palace at the Edo castle site, the
opment in Modern Japan" (Ph.D. diss., Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
1993).
36. For a description of the reconstructions and restorations of the Great Bud-
dha Hall, see William Coaldrake, "The Architecture of Todaiji," in The Great
reception hall of the Kari Kyuden at Akasaka was given as a gift to Ito Hirobumi,
Eastern Temple (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago Indiana University Press, 1986),
who moved it to his estate outside of Tokyo. Only this reception hall, which became
33-47.
the site of the conferences on the imperial constitution, has survived. Since a sub-
37. Nara Prefecture, "Todaiji Daibutsuden shari koji hokokusho" (Report of
repairs to the Great Buddha Hall at Todaiji) (Nara Prefecture, 1911).
sequent move to a site behind the Meiji Shrine, it has been known as the Meiji
Kinenkan, or Meiji Memorial Hall. Though fallen into relative obscurity, it remains
important as the only surviving structure from the Meiji Palace.
15. The series of proposals for the Meiji palace is documented in Onogi
Shigekatsu, Meiji Yofu Kyatei Kenchiku (Meiji Western-style palace architecture)
38. A summary of Sekino's ideas and methods is available in English; Sekino
Tadashi, "The Conservation of Ancient Wooden Buildings in Japan," in Proceedings: World Engineering Congress (Tokyo, 1929).
(Tokyo: Sagami Shobo, 1983), 44-52.
16. Ibid., 21-23.
39. Hatsuda Toru, Kindai wafu kenchiku: Dento o tsutaeta sekai (Modern
Japanese-style architecture: The transmission of tradition) (Tokyo: Kenchiku
Chishiki, 1992), 142, 312.
17. See Hashimoto Fumio, Architecture in the Shoin Style: Japanese Feudal
Residences (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1981), for a discussion of grand residential architec-
40. See Okawa Mitsuo, "Shin Nihonshiki no kirameki" (The appearance of a
new Japanese style), in Hatsuda, Kindai wafu kenchiku, 132, 141-45.
ture prior to Meiji.
18. The design of the Ho-O-Den was based on the Hoodo, the eleventh-century pavilion at the Byodoin in Uji. The Ho-O-Den is noted in the history of moder
American architecture as a possible influence on Frank Lloyd Wright, the firm of
Greene and Greene, and other architects in the late nineteenth century. A detailed
description of the Ho-O-Den is found in Okakura Kakuzo's pamphlet, The Ho-ODen (Phoenix Hall): An Illustrated Description of the Buildings Erected by the
Japanese Government at the World's Columbian Exhibition (Chicago: K. Ogawa,
1893), passim.
CHERIE WENDELKEN teaches in the Department of Fine
Arts, Harvard University. Her researchfocuses on the history
of modern architecture in Japan and the history and theory of
architectural preservation.
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37