Yūichirō Edagawa Knihy

Japanese Identities takes readers on a journey to the most magnificent buildings of Japan, erected anywhere from the seventh century AD to the present. A sweeping survey, this volume covers everything from rural vernacular architecture, temples, shrines and gardens to innovative solutions for contemporary urban architectural issues by Kengo Kuma, Kenzo Tange and Kazuyo Sejima, among others. An important hallmark of Japanese architecture is its juxtaposition of traditional styles and materials with contemporary concerns and aesthetics. Primary aspects include the frequent use of organic materials, a lack of cluttered decoration and a timeless sense of openness. In this affordable paperback, informed yet intimate photographs and texts by Japanese architect Yuichiro Edagawa offer a glowing insider's view of Japanese cultural history. It is a pleasure to read, whether as a travel guide, a straight architectural photography book or an introduction to Japanese cultural history.

What lies at the root of Japanese creativity and its architectural artifacts? In his new book, the Japanese architect Yuichiro Edagawa explores this question in detail. By analyzing a wide variety of unique exemplary buildings from the sixth century to the present, he determines twelve distinctive characteristics of Japanese architectural creativity and composition, including: intimacy with nature, importance of materials, bipolarity and diversity, asymmetry, devotion to small space, and organic form. The key understanding, which pervades all these characteristics, is that “parts precede the whole.” The Japanese process of creation begins with designing parts and details and ends with combining them to one edifice. With Japanese Creativity—Contemplations on Japanese Architecture Edagawa provides a personal and comprehensive understanding of Japanese creativity and the architectural process. The book gives us an inspiring insight into Japanese culture and identity, which in its essence is deeply traditional and modern at the same time. With a preface by Kengo Kuma.