Beauty to the Modernist Eyes: Katsura Imperial Villa as an Experience of Modernism and Modernity

Abstract

This article explores a 1960 book project on the Japanese Imperial Palace and Garden complex Katsura, entitled Katsura: Tradition and Creation in Japanese Architecture (1960), in collaboration with Walter Gropius, Kenzo Tange, Yasuhiro Ishimoto, and Herbert Bayer, as an experience of modernism and modernity. Through photography and written records, this article traces the rediscovery of the villa by modern architects since the 1930s, from Bruno Taut to Walter Gropius to appreciate the beauty of Katsura and, finally, Yasuhiro Ishimoto’s photographic rendering in 1983, to understand the visual interpretation of authenticity and objectivity through developing perspectives of observation. The 1960 book project was a modernist reinvention on the traditional architectural and garden landscape of Katsura. Through Ishimoto’s lens, a series of observations and impressions were projected in the modernist eyes that were distinct from traditional experiences of the villa. The meticulous capture of spatial dynamics and layered material presented in this visual tour have provided a new perspective of interpreting the Katsura Palace, which is fundamentally different from traditional ways of documentation and continues in Ishimoto’s visual reinterpretation in 1983, mirroring a developing conversation of cultural exchange between Japanese tradition and the West.

Keywords:

• Katsura Imperial Villa
• modernism
• modernity
• visual representation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 One note to add here, is that they don’t necessarily resemble previous modernist photography, as for instance, works of by Moholy-Nagy (recalling Benjamin’s quote of Moholy that the article discussed at the beginning). Moholy’s work, probably due to his own research in painting and photography on the expression of ‘objective’ concept of the subject, most often presents a sense of motion, movement and the sense of time and space seen for instance, in his photogram works in 1927–1929, as well as his ‘truthful reportage’ of the London market in 1936 (Moholy-Nagy 1973) (Benedetta 1936). Also see Newhall (1941).

2 Further to note is that Ishimoto also has two other images that duplicate the similar view as Kawakami’s photograph in the 1960 and 1983 publications respectively, but they nevertheless provide a wider perspective in viewing the space connected within the interior of the Old Shoin.

Additional information

Funding

GRANT/Research supported by Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts/ Postgraduate Education Reform Research Project / GAFA [2023] 32.

Notes on contributors

Sa Xiao

Dr Leah Hsiao 肖馺 is an art historian whose research and writings explore the relationship between the Bauhaus and China, particularly through the dissemination and translation of Bauhaus art and design principles through the work of architects such as Walter Gropius and I. M. Pei. Hsiao’s research has been published in The Architectural Review and West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture. She was a research fellow at the Bauhaus Lab: Global Modernism Studies at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation in 2016, research fellow at the Humanities Research Centre at the University of York in 2019 and research fellow at the M + Museum & Design Trust in Hong Kong in 2023. Hsiao received her PhD in History of Art from the University of York in the UK and is a lecturer at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in China.