Japanese Architecture

The History and Future of Wooden Architecture in Kansai

MIWA Hiroshi
Architects Regional Planners & Associates, Kyoto

Kansai is the treasure house of Japanese architecture, architecture that is known for its use of wood. Almost every type of building, be it house, Buddhist temple, Shinto shrine, or castle, uses wood as its major structural material, with bricks generally made from baked soil for roofing until the dawn of the modern era. Forms of and techniques used in wood construction reflect the climate of Japan and are deeply rooted in the evolution of the Japanese culture. The Japanese climate features four distinct seasons, seen clearly in Kansai. In addition, Kansai, which for centuries held the nation's capital, in Kyoto, has within it a large number of objects now classified as national treasures and important cultural assets. So it stands to reason that many wooden structures still exist in the Kansai area. In particular, because they were spared major damage during World War II, a large number of wooden buildings survive today in the ancient Kansai cities of Nara and Kyoto.
It is not well understood why Japanese people chose wood, rather than stone or soil, as a major building material. One theory speculates that people came first from the south and then from the north to the Japanese archipelago to become the nation's ancestors. This theory is supported by a local custom still practiced today in Wakayama Prefecture, along the Pacific coast, found to be similar to a custom in Polynesia. The Kotai Jingu of the Ise Jingu Shrines, Mie Prefecture, is built with plain, unembellished wood, even for roofing. Almost identical wooden structures are found in an area near Lake Baikal. Wood is far less subject to weathering in cold areas, so it does not need painting. Such a structural style reminds me of houses used by people in the 2nd century or earlier who originally came from places in the north of the Asian continent. It is a characteristic of Japanese culture to introduce aspects from other cultures and then shape these into a unique culture of their own.

Sumitsubo
A tool used by carpenters and stonemasons to mark straigh lines on work surfaces.

Periodic dispatch of Japanese envoys to the Tang Dynasty in China was stopped 100 years after the construction of the Heian-kyo capital, in today's Kyoto, at the end of the 8th century, and this official disconnection with China started the "Japanization" of cultural assets received from China. Japanese people gave birth to and refined architectural styles and techniques that thus became unique to Japan, just like they invented their own phonetic letters or kana based on Chinese characters.Five-storied pagodas seen at some Buddhist temples are a typical wooden architectural technique.The wooden towers we see today have survived repeated earthquakes and typhoons over the centuries.A type of bracket called a tokyo, made up of smaller wooden pieces, is used as a roof support; as the tower is swayed by an earthquake or the wind, the bracket becomes heated through the friction of its component pieces as the lateral kinetic energy is converted to thermal energy. In this way, disastrous forces are alleviated.
The Buddhist temple Hosshoji, built at Okazaki, Kyoto, in 1083 by Emperor SHIRAKAWA, is recorded as being an 82-meter tall, octagonal, 9-story pagoda. Buddhist and Shinto structures and sukiya, a kind of tea room, avoid the use of decoration so as to emphasize a simple beauty, a characteristic of Japanese architecture. Wooden structures in Japan feature a unique proportion demonstrated through columns and beams and combinations of gentle curves, such as karahafu, a type of rounded gable. This beauty of this type of architecture is genetically different from that of masonry structures featuring decorations on the surfaces of stones or bricks. Horyuji Temple in Nara was rebuilt at the end of the 7th century. Through ongoing repairs, however, many of the original building materials have been replaced, and in doing so, the building itself has slowly undergone a rebirth. In contrast, the Kotai Jingu of the Ise Jingu Shrines holds a rebuilding ceremony every 20 years. In this ceremony, called Shikinen Sengu, the Kotai Jingu buildings are razed and identical ones are erected on adjacent sites. This ceremony provides an excellent opportunity to maintain the building's technical inheritance.

Twice during the past century Japan experienced threats to its culture of using wood. The first was at the time of the Meiji Restoration, in 1868. The new, modern government wanted the people to fully understand that the start of the new Emperor-centered constitutional monarchy meant an end to the ways of the past, and to this end, the government promulgated an order to separate Buddhist temples from Shinto shrines. In Japan, Shintoism, the native belief of the Japanese people, had over the centuries found a way to harmonize and cohabit with the newer religion of Buddhism that had come from the continent in the 7th and 8th centuries. Consequently, Shinto shrines came to have Buddhist images and Buddhist priests as well as Shinto priests. Wanting to restress the original beliefs of the Japanese, the new Meiji Government outlawed this custom of integrated Shintoism-Buddhism and ordered the removal of everything Buddhist from Shinto shrines all over the country. This idea was spread among the people and evolved into a nation-wide movement to raze Buddhist temples. As a result, many Buddhist temples were destroyed up to about 1973. At the same time, many castles were also destroyed, to be replaced by new governmental offices, schools, or military posts.
The second crisis occurred during World War II. Even in many of the cities spared bombing, large numbers of wooden houses were pulled down after the residents fled to the countryside, ostensibly for the purpose of preventing the spread of fire. In the post-war years, the American lifestyle was widely adopted by Japanese people, and American architectural structures introduced to Japan ousted traditional wooden structures. Fire-resistant structures were promoted, while the construction of traditional wooden structures was discouraged. Wooden Buddhist temple buildings with their impressive high roofs were banned under the height restrictions of the Building Standards Law. Since the rebuilding of the main hall of the Higashi Honganji Temple in Kyoto in 1895, no big wooden structures have been built except for some designated as cultural assets. This is a classic case of technology, information, and law jointly alienating the national culture from the climatic characteristics of the country.

Courtesy of the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum

There is definitely no denying that wood is susceptible to fire. Japanese cities have been repeatedly devastated by wars, earthquakes, and fires. But after every such destruction, better cities were reborn. This rebirth, in a way, symbolizes the vitality of the Japanese people. The recent Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake that hit the Kobe area and the northern part of Awaji Island collapsed a huge number of wooden structures, which completely burned in the resulting fires. Detailed analysis of disaster damage reveals, however, that wooden structures designed with appropriate structural considerations are sufficiently resistant to seismic forces. This kind of knowledge may also be obtained from the traditional wisdom represented by five-storied pagodas. Thus there is a growing voice calling for the revaluing of the architectural beauty and urban grace most suited to the climate of Japan and warning of the threat posed to the global environment by modern build-and-scrap practices. Japanese people are enchanted by the life force of wood, by structures whose wooden components can resurrect themselves so as to live as parts of buildings even after being cut from trees.

Professor UEDA Atsushi, of Kyoto Seika University, says, "Wooden structures are associated with the sense of life and death lying in the heart of the Japanese." Research on the creation of new designs and technologies incorporating the use of wood is rendering excellent results. Architects in Kansai are developing proposals for future city planning, as they believe the Japanese culture finds its identity in the wooden architecture of the city. In 1995, TAKAMATSU Shin and UCHII Shozo held an exhibit in which ideas of creating a grand city using wood were proposed. Their efforts not only suggested new horizons in architectural form and technology but also caused a stir in the present mindset regarding lifestyles and laws.