Tokyo Story : Looking Without Trying to Prove Anything
Between 1932 and 1962 Yasujiro Ozu made a series of films that provide a slice of Tokyo life during the arrival of Modernism in Japan.
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John Barr
- Dec 12, 2018
- 9 min
Do|Co|Mo|Mo|Japan|05 : Kagawa Prefectural Government Offices : Takamatsu : Kenzo Tange
The Kagawa Prefectural Government Offices (1958) offered a radical new vision of what Japanese public buildings might be.
John Barr
- Nov 21, 2018
- 6 min
Do|Co|Mo|Mo|Japan|04 : The Hiroshima Peace Centre : Kenzo Tange
The background to the Hiroshima Peace Centre hardly needs to be explained: the first use of the Atomic Bomb and the deaths of over 200,000.
John Barr
- Nov 3, 2018
- 3 min
Do|Co|Mo|Mo|Japan|03 : International House of Japan : Kunio Maekawa, Junzo Sakakura, Junzo Yoshimura
The International House of Japan reflects the changed realities for Japan after WWII.
John Barr
- Oct 12, 2018
- 5 min
Do|Co|Mo|Mo|Japan|02 : Dojunkai Apartments : Tokyo : Dojunkai Corporation
The real value of Tokyo's Dojunkai Apartments has been ignored in the rush to maximise economic gain from the land that they occupied.
John Barr
- Oct 5, 2018
- 2 min
Do|Co|Mo|Mo|Japan|01 : Tokyo Women's Christian University : Antonin Raymond
Tokyo Women's Christian University is Antonin Raymond's first major building in Japan.
John Barr
- Aug 21, 2018
- 8 min
Yoshio Taniguchi : The Man in the White Suit
In the 1951 film, The Man in the White Suit, chemist Sidney Stratton invents a fabric that will never crease or get dirty or wear out.
John Barr
- Jun 29, 2018
- 13 min
Kiyonori Kikutake (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
The widow of Japanese Architect Kiyonori Kikutake has described different facets of her husband's personality, one gentle and reflective.
John Barr
- Apr 25, 2018
- 16 min
Katsura Imperial Villa (All Things to All Men)
In the 20th century Katsura Imperial Villa became a kind of touchstone for the essence of Japanese architecture.
John Barr
- Mar 6, 2018
- 6 min
Tadao Ando : Romanesque Architect
Tadao Ando is possibly the most famous Japanese architect of the modern era. But Ando's work is neither modern nor Japanese.
John Barr
- Feb 2, 2018
- 10 min
MOMA Kamakura : The Last Japanese Building
One of the qualities of traditional Japanese architecture rarely acknowledged is that, for the most part, it was built cheaply.
John Barr
- Oct 1, 2017
- 11 min
In Search of Japan-ness : Part 2 (We're All Japanese Now)
An examination of Jun'Ichiro Tanizaki's essay In'ei Raisan (In Praise of Shadows).
John Barr
- Sep 3, 2017
- 13 min
In Search of Japan-ness : Part 1 (Putting Lipstick on the Gorilla)
For Japanese architects, 1933 was a pivotal year in their search for a Japanese modernism.
John Barr
- Aug 1, 2017
- 9 min
Two Houses: Bonus Track (Sticking it to The Man)
The Akatsuka House is perhaps the only example of architecture making a political statement in Japan.
John Barr
- Jul 6, 2017
- 18 min
Two Houses : Part 2 (Azuma House)
TÅ-no-ie (Tower House) is the house designed by Takamitsu Azuma for himself and his family in Tokyo.
John Barr
- Jul 6, 2017
- 9 min
Two Houses : Part 1 (Maekawa House)
The Maekawa House is a product of the seismic political and cultural upheavals that wracked 20th century Japan.
John Barr
- Apr 30, 2017
- 4 min
Bullshit from the Barbican
Are we still indulging in 19th century Exoticism and Orientalism in our view of Japan and Japanese architecture?
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