Architecture

Japanese architecture, like Japanese culture, is distinct and unique but at the same time incorporates elements imported from China, notably Buddhism. The native religion of Japan, Shinto, is described as a form of nature's idealization, and was largely responsible (some scholars have suggested) for Japan's being able to retain a distinct cultural identity in the face of the strong Chinese influence. The "way of the gods" (the literal meaning of Shinto) is based on deep respect for kami, an eternal superconsciousness believed to be inherent throughout nature, in ancient trees, in remarkable boulders, in streams, and other natural manifestations, provoking profound awe. Shinto as a religion is itself unique, having neither dogma, scriptures, nor form. The religious content of Shinto, reflected in a native focus on purity of form, material, and construction in objects and architecture, is thought to have been formulated during the Yayoi period (c. 300 B.C.E. to c. 300 C.E.). Kami is considered present also in human constructions of utmost simplicity of form and purity of construction. This is demonstrated by the ritual reconstruction, every twenty years, of the most sacred Shinto shrines, as at the Ise Jingu precinct or shrine on the eastern coast. There, since the reign of Emperor Temmu (672–686), now some sixty times, on identical adjoining sites, the complex of buildings has been meticulously duplicated and rebuilt with new carefully prepared cypress timbers and thick perfectly trimmed thatch roofs, leaving only the most sacred central pole covered and protected on the adjoining site, awaiting the next rebuilding.

Beauty as a principle pervading all nature and, ideally human construction, reshaped Buddhist architecture, introduced from China after 552 C.E. Factions of the imperial family, early converts to Buddhism, strongly endorsed this new religion that was seemingly so contradictory to native Shinto, and supported the building of a temple and monastery complex that became the Horuji temple complex, marked by its tall five-storied pagoda. Other larger temple and monastery compounds followed elsewhere, but perhaps the perfection of Sino-Nipponese Buddhist architecture was reached in a private residential compound converted by its owner, Fujiwara Yorimichi (994–1074) into a realization of the Pure Land Buddhist Paradise as illustrated in the Taima Mandala brought from China in the late ninth century. Built in 1053 in Uji, near Kyoto, the Byodoin contains the regent's private chapel, the Amida Hall, called the Hodo (Phoenix Hall) because its plan with central tail and outstretched wings is said to resemble the phoenix, and also because of the ceramic phoenix images crowning its roof. Reflected in the waters of the lake, the outstretched wings might be seen to suggest flight. Inside sits a gilded wooden image of the Buddha, seated on an open lotus, hands serenely folded in meditation.

An exceptionally ascetic form of Buddhism—Chan (Zen) Buddhism—was introduced from China around 1200. Emphasizing pragmatism while shunning elaborate external rituals, Zen Buddhism held strong appeal for the ruling samurai warriors. Replacing perfunctory ritual with highly focused meditation and stern self-discipline, Zen Buddhism proposed a different path to enlightenment, and its reduction to pure essence is well illustrated by the austere meditative rock gardens of Zen monasteries, most notably in the rock garden at Ryoanji, built in the 1480s in Kyoto. Within this temple courtyard, five groups of judiciously placed rocks are set into a broad bed of carefully raked white pebbles, presenting an image resembling islands in a shimmering sea or mountain tops poking through layers of clouds.

A fine residential example showing the Zen Buddhist focus on essentials and on refinement of detail can be found in the Katsura Villa, built from c. 1616 to 1660 in stages by Prince Hachijo Toshihito and his son Noritada on the Katsura River southwest of Kyoto. The plain-frame construction of now-darkened unlacquered cedar, contrasted with white plastered walls and white paper screens, the studied angles of its gentle gable roofs, and its internal spaces governed in their proportions by the standardized tatami floor mats measuring roughly 3 by 6 feet, perfectly realize Zen ideals. But as part of the villa complex itself, the purest manifestation of Zen artlessness, painstaking attention to detail, and careful balance of differing textures in building materials and garden elements is found in the five dispersed teahouses placed with subtle precision in the surrounding garden. With absolute simplicity of building materials and intimate human scale, the Japanese tea-house is the perfect setting for the austere, stylized, slowly choreographed quasi-religious tea ceremony in which partaking a beverage can be considered a Zen meditation.