06 - NIPP N

Nihongo 101
Morning! – Ohayou gozaimasu!
Good Night! - Oyasumi nasai!
I'm Filipino - watashi wa Filipin-jin desu
do you often come here? - koko ni wa yoku
kimasu ka?
sorry, I don't understand -
sumimasen, wakarimasen
Japan: Geography and Early History
 Japan is an
Archipelago
(Chain of many small Islands)
 Japan is very mountainous (4/5ths of
Japan is a mountain!!!!) and has very little
arable Land- so it uses terrace farming
Mount Fuji
Terrace Farming examples
 Japan gets a lot of its food from the sea.
This is another way they adapted to their
geography
Japan has very few natural resources

Iron ore

Coal
 Japan has a very high Population Density
(a lot of people in a small space)
Land mass Population:
(sq. km)
• California:
• California 38,802,500
423,967
• Japan:
• Japan 127,103,388
377,915

Japan is a little smaller than California but has more than 3 times the population
 A capsule hotel is a type of
hotel developed in Japan that
features a large number of
extremely small "rooms"
(capsules) intended to provide
cheap, basic overnight
accommodation for guests who
do not require the services
offered by more conventional
hotels. There are also “regular”
hotels in Japan, but these are
helpful to provide more cheap
rooms for such a big population
 Japan is a
homogeneous Society
(people all have the
same genes, ethnicity
and basic culture)

(America is the opposite of a

homogenous culture)
 Island isolation
encourages them
to be
ethnocentric
Japanese religion is a blending of Confucianism,
Buddhism, Daoism and Shintoism
• Shintoism is based on a belief
in, and worship of, kami.
• Kami can be elements of the
landscapes or forces of nature
• Shintoism has no gods.
• Nor does it provide a moral
code as most other religions
do.
• The shrine entrance is
called a torii, and one
survived the atomic bomb
blast at Nagasaki while
another torii survived the
2011 tsunami.
The Japanese have a true
respect for nature
 They practice Selective Borrowing which is when a
country deliberately takes on only certain aspects of a
culture (ideas mostly came from China and Korea)
– Missionaries from China introduced Buddhism, Confucianism
and writing
– Japan sent people to China to study their government, art,
science, literature, etc.
– Ignored ideas like the civil service test which did not fit with
their culture (in Japanese culture you inherited your position
rather than having to earn it through a test)
 Japanese
Feudalism
 Feudalism:
Social Hierarchy Comparison
The Church: The Emperor:
Also had Rulers Was just a
political power figurehead
King Shogun

Nobles Landowners Daimyo

Knights Warriors Samurai

Peasants/Serfs Lowest Class Peasants

(Farmers, Craftsmen, Merchants)

Europe Japan
Feudalism is a system in which land is exchanged
for military service and loyalty

• It provided social & political stability because

everyone had a clear place/role in society

• It provided a way for rulers to preserve law and order

• It is very similar to European feudalism

Samurais followed Bushido (a strict code of behavior)
similar to chivalry that European knight’s followed
 Tokugawa Shogunate
• The Tokugawa shoguns gained control of Japan in
the 1600s
o Tokugawa= the name of the warrior family that ruled
Japan from 1603-1863
o Shogun= the leader of Japan’s military (this job was
hereditary/inherited)
• Increase in social order/ stability
o More peaceful conditions
o More trade and travel on rivers and roads
o Growth of cities
• Tokugawa shoguns enforced a policy of isolationism.
o 1600-Missonaries, Japanese Christians, and foreigners are
persecuted
o 1639 - They banned almost all contact with the outside world
Foreigners cannot come in
Japanese cannot come back if they leave
Not allowed to build oceangoing ships
o Strengthens homogeneous culture & leads to a more unified
nation
• Betray their code then they were expected to commit
seppuku, ritual suicide

• Dying an honorable death better than living a long life

that was dishonorable
Influences in
Architecture
Features of Japanese Architecture
• Roof is made of heavy timbers.
• Made of wood
• Post-and-lintel structure
• Interior - multitude of partially-screened,
geometricallyarranged rooms with sliding
doors
• built with few nails or sometimes none
Traditional
• The distinctive feature of a traditional
Japanese building is the way in which the
house is open to nature.
• The main materials used are wood, earth,
and paper
paper, and the construction spreads out
sideways rather than upwards.
Traditional
Prehistoric
• Jomon Period
– Dwellings were built directly
over an earth floor with a
wood foundation and a
thatched straw roof
– Inside the house, their
floors are hollowed in that’s
why they’re often called “pit
dwellings”
Prehistoric
• Yayoi Period
– Yayoi architecture is
similar to Southeast Asia
where buildings were
raised up from the
ground
– Used gable roof
– Houses were built on
stilts to keep away pests
Prehistoric
• Kofun Period
– marked the appearance of
many-chambered burial
mounds or tumuli (kofun
literally means "old
mounds").
– similar mounds in Korean
Peninsula are thought to
have influenced by Japan.
• Makomanai Takino Cemetery
– Sapporo; Tadao Ando
– concealed a huge stone statue of the buddha within
a hill covered in lavender plants.
– Made up of arches of folded concrete, the tunnel is
dimly lit to create a "womb-like" atmosphere
– "One of the cemetery's charms is how well it achieves
harmony with the natural landscape,"
Japanese Stupa
Buddhist Architecture
• Japanese Architecture
was heavily influenced
by Buddhism.
• They took on the
Indian “Stupa”.
• A mound that serves
as a reliquary and
usually holds relics of
dead Buddha and
used for worship.
Buddhist Architecture
• The main hall contained the most prominent object of
worship
• The lecture hall, which in early temples was most
often the largest structure, was used by monks as a
place for study, instruction, and performing rituals
• Two types of towers predominated:
• one with bells that announced the times of religious
observance each day and
• another in which canonical texts were stored (the sutra
repository)
Buddhist Architecture
Buddhist Architecture
• Most important buildings in the temple are the main
hall (Hondô, Kondô or Butsuden) and the pagoda.

• Worshippers stand in the outer chamber facing the

inner sanctuary, with its images of the Buddha, to
pray, pressing their palms together.
Buddhist Architecture
Buddhist Architecture
• Pagodas
• Square Plans
• Five-Storey High (45m)
• In Construction, they are
virtually suspended around a
central timber to provide stability
to earthquakes
• Ground storey contains images
and shrines
• Wide projecting roofs to each
storey, subtly curved
Buddhist Architecture

• Pagodas
Buddhist Architecture
Important Structures
• The earliest Buddhist structures still
extant in Japan, and the oldest wooden
buildings in the Far East are found at the
Hōryū-ji to the southwest of Nara.
• First built in the early 7th century as the
private temple of Crown Prince Shōtoku.
• The most important ones, the main
worship hall, or Kondō (Golden Hall),
and Gojū-no-tō (Five-story Pagoda),
stand in the center of an open area.
Buddhist Architecture
Important Structures
• Temple building in the 8th century was
focused around the Tōdai-ji in Nara.
• Constructed as the headquarters for a
network of temples in each of the
provinces, the Tōdaiji is the most
ambitious religious complex erected in
the early centuries of Buddhist worship.
• Appropriately, the 16.2-m (53-ft)
Buddha (completed 752) enshrined in
the main Buddha hall, or Daibutsuden,
is a Rushana Buddha.
Buddhist Architecture
Important Structures
• Todaiji's main hall,
the Daibutsuden
(Big Buddha Hall) is
the world's largest
wooden building
• Deer, regarded as
messengers of the
Gods in the Shinto
religion, roam the
grounds freely.
Shinto Architecture
• The nature of Shinto worship changed, following the
introduction of Buddhism, and shrine buildings borrowed certain
elements from Buddhist architecture.
• For example, many shrines were painted in the Chinese style:
red columns and white walls.
• The jinja, or shrine, is where believers in Japan's indigenous
religion, Shintô, go to worship.
• Shintô originated in ancient peoples' fears of demons and
supernatural powers, and their worship of these.
• It has no written body of doctrine, but it is Japan's main religion
and is practised widely through ceremonies and festivals.
Shinto Architecture • Shrine buildings are
situated according to
the environment
• Komainu, pairs of
lion-like figures
placed in front of the
gates or main halls
of many shrines,
serve as shrine
guardians.
Shinto Architecture •Torii
• Monumental, free-standing
gateways to a Shinto
shrine
• Derived from the Chinese
pai-lou
• Two upright pillars or
posts supporting 2 or more
horizontal beams, usually
curving upward
• Worshippers have to pass
under this for prayers to be
effective
Shinto Architecture
Shinto Architecture
Shinto Architecture
FUSHIMI INARI SHRINE, KYOTO, JAPAN
• It is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which
straddle a network of trails behind its main buildings.
• The shrine became the object of imperial patronage during the
early Heian period.
• Foxes (kitsune
kitsune)) shrines. One attribute is a key (for the rice
granary) in their mouths.
Shrine Architecture
• The main sanctuary of a shrine is called the Shinden
or Honden.
• There are also ancillary buildings such as the Haiden,
or outer hall, and the Hômotsuden, or treasury, but
these are not arranged according to any particular
specified layout.
Shrine Architecture
Castles
• Castles in Japan underwent their most intensive
phase of development in the Sengoku (Warring
States) era from the 15th to the 16th century
Castles
Castles
Castles
Castles
• Ni-jo Castle
• A flatland castle in Kyoto.
• was built in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of Tokugawa
Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo Period
• The castle consists of two concentric rings (Kuruwa) of
fortifications, the Ninomaru Palace, the ruins of the Honmaru
Palace, various support buildings and several gardens.
Pavilion
Pavilion
• The Golden Pavilion was remodeled in 1397 by Ashikaga
Yoshimitusu as a retirement retreat where he planned to
become a monk
• Originally built in the Kamakura Period, it reflects three
different styles of architecture. The first floor reflects Heian
architecture, the second Kamakura architecture and the third
Muromachi architecture. The major type of Muromachi
architecture seen at the Golden Pavilion is shoin or study.
• Zen Buddhist Temple
Features of Traditional Home
• made of wood
• has tatami mat floors
• sliding shoji doors
• coffered ceiling
• lath-and-plaster walls
• tokonoma (display alcoves)
• Genkan(entrance)
Ken
• The Japanese Traditional Unit of Length
• equal to six Japanese feet (shaku).
• exact value has varied over time and location but has
generally been a little shorter than 2 meters (6 ft 7 in).
now standardized as 1 9/11 meter.
• used as a proportion for the intervals between the pillars
of traditional-style buildings
• floor surfaces are still commonly measured not in square
meters but in "tatami" which are equivalent to half of a
square ken.
Tatami
Construction Method:
Traditional House
Construction Method:
Roof Components
Construction Method:
Roof Components
Modern Japan
• Kenzō Tange 丹下 健三
– 1987 Pritzker Prize for Architecture
– Combines tradition with modernity.
– Tange was also an influential patron of
the Metabolist Movement
• was a post-war Japanese architectural movement that
fused ideas about architectural with those of organic
biological growth.
Modern Japan • Kenzō Tange 丹下 健三
Peace Center in Hiroshima
• The museum is constructed from bare reinforced concrete.
• The primary museum floor is lifted six metres above the ground on huge pilot and is
accessible via a free-
free-standing staircase.
• The rhythmical facade comprises vertical elements that repeat outwards from the
centre.
Modern Japan • Kenzō Tange 丹下 健三

Yoyogi National Gymnasium, Tokyo

• The gymnasium and swimming pool were designed by Tange for the 1964 Tokyo
Olympics, which were the first Olympics held in Asia.
• The buildings were inspired by Le Corbusier's Philip’s Pavilion designed for Brussel's
World Fair
Modern Japan
• Fumihiko Maki 槇 文彦
– 1993 Pritzker Prize for Architecture
– Often explores pioneering uses of new materials
and fuses the cultures of east and west.
Modern Japan • Fumihiko Maki 槇 文彦

Republic Polytechnic, Singapore

• It is conceived as a campus with a central nucleus which contains 11 learning Pods (8(8--
9 storeys high) which are unified by 2 elliptical decks of common facilities, namely The
Lawn and The Agora.
Agora.
Modern Japan
• Tadao Ando 安藤 忠雄
– 1995 Pritzker Prize for Architecture
– Self-taught Architect
– Ando's architectural style is said to create a “Haiku"
effect, emphasizing nothingness and empty space
to represent the beauty of simplicity.
• Haiku - a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of
five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.
– “to change the dwelling is to change the city and to
reform society"
Modern Japan • Tadao Ando 安藤 忠雄
Church of Light, Osaka
• Tadao Ando often uses Zen philosophies
when conceptualizing his structures.
• The space of the chapel is defined by
light, the strong contrast between light and
solid.
• In the chapel light enters from behind the
altar from a cross cut in the concrete wall
that extends vertically from floor to ceiling
and horizontally from wall to wall.
• At this intersection of light and solid the
occupant is meant to become aware of the
deep division between the spiritual and the
secular within himself or herself.
Modern Japan • Tadao Ando 安藤 忠雄

Tokyo Skytree
• The design is based on the following
three concepts:
•Fusion of neofuturistic design and the
traditional beauty of Japan,
•Catalyst for revitalization of the city,
•Contribution to disaster prevention –
"Safety and Security".
•Tokyo Skytree also resembles a 5-
story pagoda from historical Japan helping
it fit to the historical area of Asakusa.
Modern Japan • Tadao Ando 安藤 忠雄

Nagarawa Convention Centre, Gifu

• The convention center was built to promote Gifu as a good location for large
conventions and has many enticements to attract both domestic and
international groups to hold events in the city.
•giving it a unique, egg-
egg-shaped look from the outside, making it immediately
recognizable.
Modern Japan
• SANAA (Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates)
– 2010 Pritzker Prize for Architecture
– It was founded in 1995 by architects Kazuyo Sejima
and Ryue Nishizawa
– Notable works include the Toledo Museum of Art's
Glass Pavilion in Toledo, Ohio
Modern Japan • SANAA

CD Building in Zollverein School of

Toledo Museum of Arts’ Management and Design
Glass Pavilion, OHIO Japan
(Essen/Germany)
Modern Japan
• Toyo Ito 伊東 豊雄
– 2013 Pritzker Prize for Architecture
– known for creating conceptual architecture, in which
he seeks to simultaneously express the physical
and virtual worlds.
Modern Japan • Toyo Ito 伊東 豊雄

Taichung National Opera House, Taiwan

• The design is notable for its cavernous, curved and folded interior forms,
which produce a dramatic and complex section that is neatly resolved into a
rectilinear exterior form.
Modern Japan • Toyo Ito 伊東 豊雄
Tower of Winds, Yokohama
•By day the tower, clad in perforated
aluminium panels, reflects the city through
the reflective surfaces covering the steel
core.
•The project is rather humble, literally
reflecting the city through the complexity of
its material.
•Come night time, the Tower of Winds
takes a more pro-active role, translating
sound and wind into light through two
computers sensing the varying wind and
noise levels and accordingly powering
1300 lamps, 12 neon rings, and 30 flood
lights at its base.
Modern Japan
• Toyo Ito 伊東 豊雄
Modern Japan
• Shigeru Ban 坂 茂
– 2014 Pritzker Prize for Architecture
– known for his innovative work with paper,
particularly recycled cardboard tubes used to
quickly and efficiently house disaster victims.
Modern Japan • Shigeru Ban 坂 茂

Cardboard Cathedral, Christchurch New Zealand

• The building rises 21 metres (69 ft) above the altar. Materials
used include 60-
60-centimetre (24 in)
in)--diameter cardboard tubes,
timber and steel The roof is of polycarbon
polycarbon,, with eight shipping
containers forming the walls. The foundation is concrete slab.
Modern Japan • Shigeru Ban 坂 茂
Modern Japan
• Kengo Kuma 隈 研吾
– is a Japanese architect and professor at the
Graduate School of Architecture at the University of
Tokyo.
– he founded the "Spatial Design Studio“
– Kuma's stated goal is to recover the tradition of
Japanese buildings and to reinterpret these
traditions for the 21st century.
Modern Japan • Kengo Kuma 隈 研吾

Asakusa Culture Tourist Visitor Center , Tokyo

• The building is located near the outer gate to
ancient Buddhist temple Sensō-ji, which was
constructed in the sixth century and is the oldest of
its kind in the city.
• Horizontal slices divide the tower's eight main
storeys, creating sloping ceilings in conference
rooms and an exhibition space, as well as a tiered
floor inside the multi-purpose hall.
• Wooden louvres shade each of the four
glass elevations and are spaced differently
depending on the shade and privacy required by
the rooms inside.
Modern Japan • Kengo Kuma 隈 研吾

Starbucks, Daizafu
•For this Starbucks,
the architects used
diagonal weaving in
order to bring in a
sense of direction and
fluidity, improving the
weaving method to a
greater level of
complexity.
Modern Japan • Kengo Kuma 隈 研吾

Starbucks, Daizafu
•The space invites
visitors inwards,
bringing them
further into the
architecture. It is a
fluid, cavernous
space.
Modern Japan • Kengo Kuma 隈 研吾

Commune at Great Wall, China

• The Bamboo Wall has six bedrooms. The host bedroom and guest rooms all
have separate bathrooms. A tea room, the climax of the Bamboo Wall, is
encircled by lean bamboos on four sides. While sipping tea inside, one can spot
a beacon tower on the Great Wall looming through the crevices in the bamboo
walls. The ten-
ten-odd-
odd-square
square--meter tea room hangs over water, emanating a
strong spirit of Zen Buddhism.
Modern Japan • Kengo Kuma 隈 研吾
Modern Japan • Kengo Kuma 隈 研吾

Taikoo Li Santilun
Santilun,, Beijing China
• The design of the Taikoo Li Sanlitun is inspired by
Beijing's Hutongs and Siheyuan courtyards, comprising a mix of unusual
shapes, textures and vibrant colours, and blending the Beijing of the past with
its more worldly, cosmopolitan present.
Modern Japan • Kengo Kuma 隈 研吾