58 Irène Vogel

Fig. 1: Engawa and Veranda. Isaya Iwasaki Japanese house (1885) and Residence, Tōkyō. Designed by Josiah Conder, 1896.
 The Architecture of Discovery, Assimilation and Conder the Way

The Architecture of Japan: Discovery, Assimilation and Creation—Josiah

Conder Opens the Way

Irène Vogel Chevroulet



















Introduction

What do you think our culture can learn from cultures that are relatively intact and hold
emptiness at the core of their belief system? Certain Asian cultures have the idea of empti-
ness within everything – daily life, ritual, building, architecture. How can we use their idea
of emptiness without superficially copying it?

Well, if you take from those cultures, it is yet another form of eclecticism,
isn’t? It has to come from you, somehow. You could say almost the opposite:
if you go to a place where it moves you deeply, you should almost take a vow
not to copy it.1

The architect’s creativity is triggered by the discovery of new spatial and building systems,
new images and symbols. His or her mind is constantly chasing these elements for finding
solutions to problems of conception. By assimilating these elements, the architect associ-
ates them in unexpected and surprising ways. Fascinating, fresh projects come to life from
this assimilation. We propose here the hypothesis that what is at stake is not so much from
which culture these elements are borrowed, but the level of their difference, whether low
or high compared to the architect’s native cultural elements and the assimilation process,
simple or complex. This process is generated in order to fulfil the design’s requirements. At
stake is firstly the intuitive discovery of solutions and secondly, as explained clearly by Peter
Smithson, the appropriation, the personal interpretation. The process should travel further
than just a simple copy of a pattern or an idea. Why so? Probably it is because the architec-
tural project is a resolution. The architect works so that the final built work is a harmonious
system and tries to prevent dissonances born from the introduction of any foreign element.
 Irène Vogel



Of course, purposely dissonant architecture exists and has to be taken into account. In this
case too, we would argue that coherence between all elements is necessary. They should be
assimilated and belong to a new system. Coherence is naturally a better guarantee for better
overall performance: technical and functional as well as aesthetical. Therefore, the assimila-
tion process takes place within – and should take into account simultaneously – the three
architectural conditions of solidity, use, and beauty or firmitas, utilitas and venustas, as the
Roman engineer Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (80–15 BCE) explained in his treatise De Architec-
tura. In this essay, we consider style as the expression of the building in its three intertwined
structural, use and aesthetic systems.2
Ever since the progressive commercial and political closure of Japan that took place du-
ring the 17th century, the archipelago’s architecture remained mysterious. Its discovery at
the end of the 19th century aroused a fascination fuelled by its striking differences. Even
today, these architectural specificities act as creative turning points in Western minds. Until
the opening of the country in 1853, this architecture teased architects’ imaginative powers as
it revealed itself only in rare drawings and prints. But what were the initial accurate reasons
for its spell of attraction? It bore no contamination marks of any foreign styles due neither
to colonisation nor gigantism or material confusions brought by the industrial revolution.
This architecture stayed other: pre-modern. As such, it had a high potential for giving new
solutions. All its materials were natural. Its styles were mature, as they did focus on a unique
cultural frame during centuries of isolation. It had stayed apart from all Western debates on
composition and ornamentation: as such, Japanese pre-modern architecture could validate
researches. Architects looked at Japan in search of a confirmation of their own hypothesis,
for example, the nostalgic search for the architectural truths of the Middle Ages. Yes, the ap-
parent material and conceptual common sense of the Middle Ages had for example given
way to a free composition of the buildings on a site. Now, architects had to find means for
solving the present architectural complexity due to industrial materials and bigger programs.
Tired of the battle of styles, they were perplexed in front of the choice of an appropriate or-
namentation. They looked for simplicity, for abstraction. As we shall see, it is precisely in
Japanese pre-modern architecture that they found values of austerity and asymmetry. They
were pleased by the asymmetrical patterns and the irregular disposal of buildings in sites.
This compositional mode seemed far more attractive than the tyrannical exigencies of the
classical composition.
In this discovery, the search by Western architects acted as a mirror: they looked for so-
lutions to their specific problems. So, Japonisme as a cultural movement focused more on
copying patterns than on really assimilating the fundamentals of Japanese architecture. How
could these architects, in a second step, have gotten access to a deeper level of inspiration
resulting in a process exceeding pure imitation? How could they have seen under the appea-
rances, understanding and assimilating this foreign culture? Foreign, this architecture was
perceived in its very materiality: wood, straw, bamboo, and adobe. We will see to what ex-
tent Japanese architecture was particular in its refined ornamentation and use of miniaturi-
sation. It was utterly different in her performative mode of conception, which had been im-
proved during centuries by skilled carpenters; in the calculation of proportions; in the subtle
 The Architecture of Discovery, Assimilation and Conder the



shades of indirect light sifted by light paper screens; in the spatiality that challenged Western
intimacy and requirements of individualism.
To these ends, we take you on a long journey. We will firstly analyse – in the inaugural
articles written by Josiah Conder (1852–1920), the major Western protagonist of this assi-
milation – how these pre-modern Japanese specificities were transcribed into modernity. We
will then look at how this protagonist took advantage of the domestic values of Japanese ar-
chitecture in one of his project. Naturally, this genuine first assimilation process took place
in Japan. Then, we will briefly travel back to the West and acknowledge how his contem-
poraries found some inspiration in his writings, discovering which specificities gave them
hitherto unthought-of solutions and how they ultimately adapted these in their own pro-
jects. This panorama will allow us to present our hypothesis and conclusions on the major
steps specific to architectural assimilation processes, in Japan and in the West. Our thinking
concentrates thus on active assimilation processes situated in lands and cultures grounded
on opposite sides of the world, with architects from both sides suddenly joining and com-
municating around a common passion: Japanese pre-modern architecture.



Discovery

The first records of Japanese architecture in theoretical and historical manuals appeared only
at the end of the 19th century. Previously, only short architectural descriptions had existed.
Two authors are famous for having thrown sparks into the minds of Western architects. The
first one is the German physician and botanist Engelbert Kaempfer (1651–1716). He prac-
ticed as a doctor at the Dejima commercial counter in Nagasaki, the only place where for-
eigners were allowed. His unique knowledge gave him a privileged and indispensable posi-
tion. He was able to obtain the exceptional authorization of travelling through the whole
country from 1690 to 1692. Kaempfer synthetized his observations in his History of Japan,
published in London in 1727. His book remained the unique reference on Japan in the West
until the 19th century. Its dozen engravings revealed the architecture of dwellings in Dejima
and of the main temples he visited. Kaempfer’s references were of greater value in geography,
philosophy, and politics. European intellectuals such as Voltaire, Kant and Goethe referred
to his first-hand information.3 The second author was Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796–
1866). In 1823, he arrived in Dejima as a resident. He worked there as a physician and sci-
entist, teaching medicine and the history of natural sciences at the Dutch School. Though
Japanese were eager to learn new sciences from the West, strict laws were nevertheless writ-
ten concerning foreigners’ rights. Siebold was expelled from Japan in 1829 for having pos-
sessed a map of its northern frontiers. His book Nippon, published in 1832, showed more
than three hundred representations of sites, including several drawings of temples. These re-
mained mostly unknown as the book was printed in few hundred copies only.4 Nevertheless,
these descriptions showed that Japanese architecture had reinterpreted Chinese architecture
– temples, pagodas, palaces, residences and gardens – in models that had been introduced
via the Buddhist cultural importation that had taken place in Japan between the 6th and the
12th centuries. They also showed some Western building techniques such as the ones used
 Irène Vogel

Fig. 2: Josiah Conder

for castle stonework. These had been learnt during the commercial exchanges of the 16th
century. After these exchanges stopped, Japanese architecture matured for several centuries
nearly without any external stylistic input. In so doing, it showed a great unity in character.
It had somehow already fully assimilated Chinese architecture and Western medieval tech-
niques. This is this «balanced» architecture that Westerners discovered when commercial and
cultural exchanges with Japan began to flourish again.
On 8 July 1853, Matthew Perry (1794–1858), Commodore in the U.S. Navy, succee-
ded in convincing the Japanese authorities – the shōgun bakufu – to open its borders to trade.
This event provoked years of political turmoil. In 1868, the bakufu lost the battle against the
aristocracy that restored the power of the Emperor Meiji. The Meiji Era (1868–1912) can
be synthetized within two major cultural movements that had already been germinating du-
ring the centuries of closure. Japanese intellectuals looked forward in the most daring way
as well as backwards in a search for identity. A new architecture was going to be built using
industrial materials and technologies. The pre-modern architecture had to be evaluated by
Western standards as well as being estimated for its high value as a depository of the Japa-
nese soul. What was extraordinary in this process of modernisation is that one single author
wrote the articles of references in both fields: Josiah Conder (fig. 2).
 The Architecture of Discovery, Assimilation and Conder the



Assimilation: Transcription, Valorisation and Dissemination

Lose no opportunity of sketching and studying the remains of your own an-
cient Architecture; for though they mostly consist of religious buildings, and
have many ornaments and forms inseparable from their religious meaning,
there are many ideas expressed in them, and lessons to be learnt from them,
which will be of very general use, especially as regards suitability to the clima-
te, and the disposal of ornament and colour artistically.5

The first cultural movement to be noted here consisted of modernisation via Westerniza-
tion. The Japanese government adopted a Western model for its new institutions and hired
more than two thousand experts, engineers, and advisors that came to Japan to update and
develop all fields of specialisation. These so-called oyatoi worked for a period of four years
after which their pupils would become the leaders and professors. Concerning the teaching
of architecture, the first professor at the Imperial College founded in 1873 was a young Bri-
tish architect, Josiah Conder. In 1876, he won the Soane Medallion Competition with his
country house design in Gothic style. Immediately hired by the government, he moved to
Japan and started teaching the fundamentals of contemporary architecture. A useful syn-
thesis of his thought is found in his report «A Few Remarks upon Architecture», written in
1878. The title showed that Conder was looking for principles of international validity. In-
deed, this was one of his strong points: the ability to synthetize abstract fundamentals. He
advised his students to give their buildings better solidity and resistance through the use of
stone and brick. He encouraged them to look for an architectural beauty designed in simple
forms. Conder recognized the major qualities of Japanese architecture consisted in the ap-
propriate use of wood to achieve structural, climatic, and aesthetical ends. He encouraged
his students to observe and draw their ancient architecture. He particularly insisted on the
artistic education and on the development of imagination by drawing. He was convinced
that this technique would give students the means for taking inspiration from the cultures
of the past without imitating them in a slavish way. In doing so, Conder probably reacted
against the traditional Japanese way of learning by pure imitation of the techniques and of
the master’s mind until the student’s full possession of expressive means. In such a learning
process, the apprentice may not feel concerned about the development of his own point of
view, or about innovation.
Intentionally, Conder gave students the necessary tools so that they would be able to
negotiate several difficult transitions: of structure, use, and aesthetic means. Somehow, they
had to take the lead that had been dominated for centuries by carpenters. Conder’s students
now had to change the traditional thought and realization patterns suited to wood and think
how to design with stone, metal, and glass. They were asked to adapt the traditional mode
(of creating spaces made of mats and some light furniture) to the new exigencies of a modern
lifestyle requiring other spaces such as offices and heavier furniture like tables and chairs.
The building plans themselves also had to be fundamentally modified, adapted to heating,
electricity, and lifts. Conder taught his students the principles of structure and composition
as well as city-planning laws and the development of modern amenities. He explained acou-
stics, electricity, and hygiene. In his atelier – for the new Japanese architectural expression
 Irène Vogel

Fig. 3: Mitsubishi offices, main elevation, Tōkyō. Josiah Conder 1894 Fig. 4: Mitsubishi offices, window’s details, Tōkyō.






had not yet been born – he trained his pupils to master the Victorian Gothic and French
Neoclassical styles. But he also exhorted them to find and choose ideas coming from their
own decorative tradition that could be adapted and transcribed to a modern aesthetic. Du-
ring these years, the majority of new government buildings in Japan were built in Western
styles. The future of medieval wooden architecture and its mode of production were crucial
issues for Conder. He encouraged his students, the future Japanese architects, to remain cri-
tical towards an aesthetical expression unsuited to the climate. He dedicated himself to this
first cultural movement towards technological and comfort innovations. The exceptional
quality of his services led to the uncommon renewal of his contract for another four years,
until 1884. Afterwards, he returned for two years to England before establishing himself per-
manently in Japan.
Conder has been considered since then as the father of modern architecture in Japan.
He opened the path for the new architecture, both with his teachings and by building
major earthquake-proof works such as the Ueno Imperial Museum (1881), the Rokumeikan
(1883), or National Banqueting Hall, University of Tōkyō’s Faculty of Law and Literature
building (1884), and the Nikoraidō or Holy Resurrection Cathedral (1891). He completed
in 1894 the first office building for the Mitsubishi Ichigōkan Company in Tokyo. Looking
at his preparatory drawings on window details, one sees how Conder applied his theoretical
principles in his practice. His subtle treatment of window patterns evoked a reminiscence
of the traditional shōji screen (fig. 3–4). He was quite reluctant to use ornamental patterns
coming from other cultural traditions than the Japanese one. These office buildings were de-
molished in 1968 and have since been rebuilt, in 2010.
Conder also practiced in domestic architecture and designed several residences. In 1906,
he built a house for himself and his wife Kume Maenami, which also served as his architec-
tural office. In the second part of this essay, we will analyse this fascinating residence and
show how he assimilated Japanese specificities and combined them in a modern plan.
Somehow, living during this Meiji Era meant leading a double vie: choosing constantly
between enjoying some hours and activities in a Westernized lifestyle – dress code, pattern of
 The Architecture of Discovery, Assimilation and Conder the



thought and work, interiors – and then changing for other hours to wear a Japanese yukata
and kimono in somehow quieter, darker matted floor interiors. No wonder that major in-
tellectuals searched for the wisest way to keep the appropriate traditions while heading to-
wards modernization. Thus, the Westernization process also acted as a strengthening, a crys-
tallisation of Japanese specificities. A second major cultural movement naturally took life
via natural selection as an empowerment of pre-modern traditions: only some traditions
could survive, the ones that could fit into modern life. During the Meiji era, modernity and
a reading of the past were associated in a fascinating hybridity. For instance, the old Shintō
cult became the new state religion with the emperor as higher divinity or kami. As a conse-
quence, many Buddhist temples and gardens received no more financial support. They be-
came derelict or were destroyed in the wave of modernization that included a tremendous
building activity.
Travellers and oyatoi alike took up their pens and testified to this architecture’s value.
Among them was Aimé Humbert (1819–1900), an industrialist from La Chaux-de-Fonds,
who worked as Swiss Ambassador in Japan from 1862 to 1864. He travelled the country to
develop trade opportunities for clock manufacturers. In 1870, he published Le Japon illus-
tré, a pioneering book in two volumes showing for the very first time in the West more than
four hundred views of Japan: daily life, temples, dwellings, and scenery. The original doc-
uments had all been redrawn in Paris along Western standards.6 A few years later, in 1876,

Fig. 5: Conder and his wife dancing in Japanese costume

 Irène Vogel

Fig. 6: Nijō Palace reception room, 1626, Kyōto. Josiah Conder’s painting


Christopher Dresser (1834–1904), the British artist and eminent specialist in Buddhist art,
travelled four months in the major provinces of Japan. The government had asked him for
a report on the modernization of art manufacturing. In his book Japan: its Architecture, Art
and Art Manufacture, Dresser devoted a whole chapter to religious architecture.7 At that
time, his accurate observations, together with Humbert’s, provided the second major testi-
mony for Western architects. Lastly, the American zoologist Edward Morse (1838–1925),
who had taught at the Imperial College from 1877 to 1880, became internationally re-
nowned for his work on the ethnography of the Japanese house.8
Conder played the first role in this movement of collecting information and giving
value to the art, architecture, and gardens of pre-modern Japan. His knowledge of Japanese
culture was varied, deep, and subtle. He practiced several arts and wrote books on flower
art and painting. After 1881, he invested himself in painting by taking lessons with the fa-
mous painter Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831–1889). Kyōsai had travelled through Europe and was
thinking of adapting Japanese techniques to Western ones. He belonged to the circle of in-
tellectuals and artists seeking for a synthesis. In his free time, Conder was also a performer
in theater and dance (fig. 5–6). Finally, he provided the first professional knowledge in four
articles on architecture and two books on landscape art gardening. Why did he write on
gardens? One reason was that gardens were being destroyed and there was an urgency to es-
tablish a corpus of the major designs. Another reason was that Japanese architecture main-
tained a strong relation with its surroundings. Circulation, access, and a multiplicity of
views on the garden had to be carefully taken into account while planning diverse inner and
outer spaces. Thus, Japan’s garden art became most precious specificity for Conder. Gardens
were not yet planned this way in the West. His book Landscape Gardening in Japan was full
of drawings, and its Supplement of garden pictures, published in 1893, had a major influ-
ence on Western gardeners.9 With the same methodology used for architectural principles,
Conder explained Japanese gardens’ universal principles and specificities. We shall now see
 The Architecture of Discovery, Assimilation and Conder the



how his work for an accurate understanding of pre-modern Japanese architecture reached
Europe via his articles sent to the Royal Institute of British Architects. Moreover, his expla-
nations and illustrations reached a wider audience and gave inspiration to architects and his-
torians in France, Belgium, and America.



The Paving of the Way

Before his departure for Japan, the young Josiah Conder had been following lectures at the
South Kensington School of Art. This school was at that time a major reference for design-
ers and architects interested in the art of India and Asian countries.10 Medieval, Oriental and
Japanese arts were pretty much in fashion there. Japanese objects and drawings made their
first public appearance at the Universal Exhibitions in 1851 and provoked a growing interest
again in 1862.11 The Arts Nouveaux guided the architects’ research, showing them new ways
of decorating one’s building. They stimulated an eclecticism in which Japanese architecture
kept a particular modern role thanks to its lack of colonial connotations, and its subtle sim-
plicity and abstraction. After his apprenticeship, Conder worked from 1874 with two archi-
tects interested in Japan: his employer William Burges (1827–1881) and his colleague, Ed-
ward William Godwin (1833–1886). The following years, Godwin would become famous
for his designs of Anglo-Japanese interiors. Thanks to the Soane Medallion Conder won in
1876 at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), he received a scholarship for a field
trip study to Italy. After the Japanese government hired him as oyatoi and future professor of
architecture at Tokyo Imperial College, Conder negotiated and promised to send the RIBA
a set of Japanese studies instead.
The first of these studies, Notes on Japanese Architecture, was read at the RIBA on 4
March 1878.12 His drawings were exhibited and his essay published by the association in
its Transactions. Conder presented firstly how climatic and cultural conditions influenced
Japanese architecture. He described in a systematic way the principles guiding the design
of houses from the simplest to the richest: tea houses, hotels, imperial palaces, military ar-
chitecture and tombs, with only these two latter ones presenting stone work. The reactions
of the audience were mixed. Some were excited by the virtuosity of carpenters, while others
criticized the fragility of this wooden architecture. It is important to know that at this time,
Japanese architecture was often criticized, long before it became praised and mythologized
in the 1960s. A comment selected from the discussion following the Notes typified Western
reluctance: «The evidence that the main portions of the buildings are of wood has proba-
bly conduced to the fact that they have no lasting architecture – no lasting style; have never
been able to realize any grand conception which would last for all ages.»13 Godwin replied
two months later:
 Irène Vogel



We know better now and therefore we were not quite prepared for the attack
that our artist friends launched against Japanese architecture. A flimsy wood
and paper construction said one; A congregation of pagodas said another. […]
But even assuming that Japan possesses only timber constructed buildings, is
there, think you, no style − no architectural art − in that wood construction
worthy of our admiration or even our emulation? We are bold to say that the-
re is: that in their wood building there is an art full of refinement capable of
wide adaptation: that we may learn much from their arrangement of masses,
their shaping of outlines, the combination and the opposition of delicacy and
strength, that they exhibit in all their detail: and that nowhere shall we see a
simple building purpose fulfilled with greater propriety, more modesty, or a
keener sense of beauty.14

Two years later, Conder sent a second article, «Theaters in Japan».15 At the end of his oya-
toi contract in 1884, he travelled back to England for two years, bringing with him many
drawings and models. He provided this time a detailed analysis of religious and domestic ar-
chitecture in two conferences published by the RIBA: «Further Notes on Japanese Architec-
ture», given by his brother Roger on 31 May 1886; and «Domestic Architecture in Japan»,
given by Conder himself on 28 February 1887.16 The audience required explanations about
the efficiency of the Japanese house in extreme climatic conditions such as heavy storm,
heavy snowfall, earthquake, and fire. Conder replied that Japanese houses were generally
not very durable. He was not nostalgic about the Japanese house. In his articles, he clearly
demonstrated that Japanese architecture needed somehow to become modern. While such
houses had the advantages of an established and low-cost building system, easy building, ex-
ceptional refinement and delicacy, he thought that there was a lack of thermal comfort and
privacy. Two architectural devices nevertheless reduced extremes in temperature: open spaces
guaranteed good summer ventilation and the daily hot bath compensated for winter cold.
He specified that the interior architecture of the Japanese house was superior to the Western
one thanks to its lack of furniture, its floor made of mats, the numerous openings and the
customs of order of its inhabitants. The quality of life was also much improved by the ve-
randa running all along the building. The veranda guaranteed an intimate communication
between architectural spaces and gardens.17
This superiority of Japanese interior architecture would be fully acknowledged from the
1920s onwards. We give now a survey of the major specificities Conder revealed to his col-
leagues in his articles. Then we will analyse his own modernisation proposals as incorpora-
ted in his home.



The Balanced Consonance of Ornamentation

In his article, Conder firstly answered his colleagues’ critiques. He explained why, on the
contrary, the building and decorative methods qualified Japanese domestic architecture as a
major style:
 The Architecture of Discovery, Assimilation and Conder the



It is this decorative perfection, this application of the arts of painting and
sculpture to the constructive arts, which impart the great charm to Japanese
structures – a charm of endless variety amidst perfect harmony. From the sim-
plest treatment in white wood, carved and tipped with metal, to the most ela-
borate decoration, in which panel, beam and pillar, wall and ceiling, glow in
colour and gold, every degree of adornment has its well-balanced consonance
and its appropriate setting. These methods of building and of ornamentation
can lay claim to rank as an important architectural style.18

Conder explained the three levels of decoration developed by Japanese to a peak during the
16th century. The first one was purely structural, the second was either a painting or a sculp-
ture applied to the structure, and the third level consisted of placing paintings and sculpted
ornaments in the interior of buildings. In 1910, the Japanese Art and Architecture historians
gave credit to Conder’s levels in their beautiful publication Japanese Temples and Their Treas-
ures, a portfolio of engravings revealing major temples throughout Japan.19



The Pleasing Effect of Miniaturisation

Conder’s words on miniaturisation attested particularly well of his understanding and as-
similation of Japanese principles. When Victorians were baffled by a discovery, they used
the word «quaint» to mean curious. Architects frequently used this word when describing
Japanese art.20 For example, RIBA’s members wrote in the summary following the article on
Domestic Architecture:

The refined Japanese gentleman of the old school will generally boast some
acquaintance with the philosophy and ceremonial of tea-drinking, and will
adorn his grounds with one of those curious little buildings called chashitsu
intended for the preparation and enjoyment of this refreshing beverage, amid
the hospitable formalities with which the pastime is surrounded.21

Conder specified that the Japanese took extreme care of details and that they alone conside-
red miniaturisation as an architectural principle. He talked in these terms of a small sacristy’s
spell:

The sensational charm of the diminutive in size is a source from which many
literatures have drawn and to which we owe the attraction of fairy tales and
many pretty stories. The Japanese, however, alone seem to have adopted it as
a principle of architectural design – as a means of pleasing architectural effect.
For other nations the great idea has been to obtain surpassing size – the sen-
sation of grandeur and magnificence of proportion. In Japan, we find in these
and certain apartments the exactly opposite impression of surpassing tininess,
worked out with almost equal success.22
 Irène Vogel



Western architects often criticized miniaturisation, perhaps due to their first discovery of
miniature objects such as netsuke and bonsai trees. Or maybe, as they could not visit Japa-
nese architecture on the spot, they had to imagine the effect of miniaturisation. Or maybe
they could not handle values of monumentality and values of miniaturisation at the same
time in their projects. Conder discovered. He visited, looked, listened, touched, and brea-
thed the wood’s fragrances. He could experiment with the architecture. In his articles, he
admired and defended the ingenuity and perfect execution of the chashitsu tea pavilions in
all their subtle details.



Asymmetry as Relaxation of Form

The systematic reading of these four articles shows that asymmetry intrigued Conder only
in his first article. It demonstrates once more his capacity for assimilation. When writing
on interior architecture, he had been astonished by the asymmetry of shelves: «Shelves are
generally arranged in some quaint unsymmetrical manner, and form an ornament to the
room themselves, while they serve for the display of vases or small ornaments»23 (fig. 7). He

Fig. 7: Examples of asymmetrical shelves
 The Architecture of Discovery, Assimilation and Conder the



used «quaint» here to mean curious or bizarre. We wish to complement here his observation
within a broader context: the understanding of asymmetry’s sources. Kazuko Koizumi ex-
plains that asymmetry was used in Japan in order to release the tension contained in sym-
metrical form:

There had always existed, on the one hand, the symmetrical ideal, from which
asymmetry was sought through the relaxation of form. That is to say, there
were formal levels of stringency or propriety of design, as in the breakdown of
calligraphy into formal, semi-formal and cursive scripts (shin, gyō, sō). When
applied to furniture, the most formal designs display an exacting symmetry,
while semi-formal and informal styles are progressively freer in conception.24

The Japanese played with the severity of the original form. They introduced gyō and sō alte-
rations: moving the centre slightly off its axis in order to reduce the mass, inserting a dyna-
mic contrast into the symmetrical shape, and creating formal humorous shifts. The challenge
consisted of finding the exact dosage in a precise balance. This sensitivity was at the heart of
Japanese art. Aside from his initial observation on the strangeness of asymmetrical shelves,
Conder did not specifically write on asymmetry.
In England, there had been nevertheless a debate on asymmetry in the 1870s. The ar-
chitect Owen Jones (1809–1874) and the designer Christopher Dresser fed this question
with their researches about ornamentation. They were pioneers in their scientific method-
ology that took inspiration from botany and Darwinism. They looked closely at Chinese,
Persian, Indian, and Arabic ornamentation. Jones wrote in his book The Grammar of Orna-
ment, published in London in 1856, that he considered asymmetry as an exception. Before
his four-month trip to Japan in 1876, Dresser also considered asymmetry as a formal anom-
aly. In certain flowers, he even wondered if it could possibly have been caused by a growth
disturbed by insects!25 In 1880, Thomas Cutler (1841–1909), British architect and member
of the RIBA, published the chapter on Japanese ornamentation completing Jones’ book. It
is interesting to note that he reconsidered asymmetry thanks to its subtle use in Japanese
art: «An avoidance of the appearance of symmetry while producing symmetrical effects, a
suggestion rather than expression of proportion, an unobtrusive order, and in repetition of
form an irregularity and changefulness, giving to it an unusual charm and freshness.»26 Cut-
ler explained that when a Japanese artist decorated a space, he never placed the ornament in
the middle, nor did he divide it in equal parts. He threw his pattern slightly off centre and
restored the composition equilibrium by placing a butterfly, or a leaf, or even just a touch
of colour. Cutler observed that in Japanese culture, proportion was not directly expressed
but was suggested. He captured a fundamental characteristic that also concerned architec-
ture and garden art. In Further Notes on Japanese Architecture (1886), Conder did not men-
tion any more that furniture asymmetry looked curious. We think that he had assimilated
this notion as being part of the formal equilibrium. However, he would analyse asymmetry
in his book on floral art theory published in 1889 and in his book Landscape Gardening in
Japan (1893). He would observe this time that asymmetry was an important planning rule
that gave freedom to the overall composition and reinforced its links with the garden.
 Irène Vogel

Fig. 8: The wooden floor for straw mats tatami, the niche tokonoma,
the beam nageshi, frieze and sliding panels



The architectural specificities of ornamentation, miniaturisation, and asymmetry in Ja-
panese architecture surprised and convinced Westerners of the value of this art. These fac-
tors, however, also exist in other vernacular architectures, such as the Chinese one. We will
look now at two major Japanese architectural devices: the overall design and the quality of
light.



Performative Design

Conder described the most fundamental characteristic of Japanese architecture: its building
system was composed of pillars and beams made of wood. From this fundamental principle,
several consequences followed. Dwellings seemed modern to him. Due to frequent fires,
most buildings were regularly rebuilt. To compensate for this fragility came the tradition of
building solid warehouses or kura made of several layers of earth and lacquer on the woo-
den structure. The kura were built nearby for keeping furniture and precious objects (fig.
12). This meant that an alternate use of furniture and objects was possible, such as a seaso-
nal one. Conder also described the niche called tokonoma situated in the reception room.
This impressed Western architects as a clever device to concentrate art in one specific place
and liberate in this way the rest of the room, which contributed to its simplicity. Because of
the frequency of earthquakes, furniture had to be light or built into the structure. The logic
of fire safety probably led to this extraordinary modular and light architecture. People could
dismantle as much as they could of their home and flee with sliding panes and floor mats.
 The Architecture of Discovery, Assimilation and Conder the



Conder described these peculiarities in detail, explaining that Japanese house design follo-
wed the floor modular element (fig. 8–9). This meant the house walls could be open totally,
thanks to light mobile wooden screens. These were crimped with fire-resistant paper, trans-
lucent or opaque, sometimes decorated with paintings. Each space opened into the next one:
corridors were rare. Rooms were always described in number of standard-size mats: 5 feet 10
inches by 2 feet 11 inches. The mats were twice as longer as they were wide. The designing
of the building always proceeded according to this rule: the composition of identical mats
in spaces, spaces placed one along the other with long corridors on their exterior. Conder
did not particularly mention a potential that struck Westerners a few years later: the ability
of creating a larger space by the simple moving of sliding panels. He noted the simplicity of
this plan, even in the richest residences.
At the RIBA, the discussion that followed the reading of Notes on Japanese Architec-
ture questioned the measure system used in Japan. In Further Notes on Japanese Architecture,
Conder explained the method used for dimensioning architectural components. He wrote
that the immense roofs were dimensioned and built so as to resist strong winds.27 The plan
proportions were calculated as multiples of the length unit called ken and its 6th or 7th,
the shaku or Japanese foot (30.3 cm). The tatami mat measured one ken long and was wide
as half a ken. Conder did not explain that carpenters had to work in two systems: the first
called shinshin following axes, where mats had to be cut in order to be adjusted to the pillar

Fig. 9: Elevation and plan of a middle-class dwelling
 Irène Vogel

Fig. 10: Houses with a modern look : a performative conception in empathy with the garden


dimension, and the second called ushinori following mat sizes, where axes did not follow
a rigorous grid. He also admitted not understanding the calculation of the height, which
seemed arbitrary to him. In 1899, when the French architectural historian Auguste Choisy
described the Japanese architectural proportional system, he admitted too that the rule for
this height calculation remained a mystery to him.28 In fact, the conception started with the
placement of pillars in a plan. Then, the elevation was logically deduced from the room sur-
face. When a Japanese counted the mats, he would immediately associate its uses (hall, main,
or secondary room), as well as its interior decoration and height (fig. 9).
This fundamental difference in the structural system was one of the discovery that inspi-
red Western architects. Kurokawa Kishō (1934−) suggested that Japanese architecture could
be considered, in our words, as a kind of origami, a composition of plane surfaces:

In Japan, plans for buildings only came to be drawn with any precision in the
16th century. Before that, carpenters made do with a simple sketch on a board
or a set of verbal instructions. [...] This illustrates my suggestion that Japanese
architecture is by nature an unfolding of plane surfaces and façades.29

Isozaki Arata (1931−) specified the differences between these two ways of perceiving and de-
signing architecture. The first conception, Western, is characterized by the wall. It is mainly
mural and objective: built space has the power of an object. The second conception, Japanese,
 The Architecture of Discovery, Assimilation and Conder the



follows a spatial grid. It is a void: the built space has the power for a performance. Indeed,
Isozaki explains that the Western space being the result of a volume, even if the number
of apertures is high, can be considered as an object, whereas the Japanese space, framed by
pillars and total openings, finds its character in the movement of sliding panels and in the
movement of people.30 Conder did not use the term of performative architecture. However,
he observed in his article Theaters in Japan, the extraordinary similarity between the tradi-
tional house and the one represented on a theatre stage in their ability to be totally open to
the exterior (fig. 10):

The representation of an interior scene upon the stage as we should make it,
namely by converting the whole stage into a single room by means of side and
back scenes, is never attempted, and is scarcely necessary on account of the
facility of representing exterior and interior together. A Japanese house has low
rooms, is often of one storey, and is mostly thrown entirely open in the front.31

Conder’s observations initiated here the relevant argument of comparing architectural space
to theatre space, an argument that would later bear fruit in Japanese theory of architecture.
Indeed, the second major protagonist in the assimilation of Japanese specificities, the Ger-
man architect Bruno Taut (1880−1938), would also present the Japanese house as a theatre
scene: «The most interesting feature of the house is not its material appearance but its life.
The Japanese house, if one wishes to give a characteristic synopsis of its qualities, is like a
stage in an open-air theatre, the background of which, visible through the open wall, is na-
ture.»32



Indirect Light Reflected by the Ground

Conder admired these houses made of open floors of straw mats in empathy with their sur-
roundings. Moreover, their interiors were bathed in a light of particular richness. Paper
screens softened direct daylight. The tatami spread it overall. Sometimes, golden patterns
decorating sliding panels reflected the light into the darkest spaces of the house. He found
in indirect light an example of the most precious architectural specificity. Today, this device
still inspires Western architects. This light treatment was in harmony with the climate and its
hot and rainy summer. The large marquees protected the house from heavy rains and solar
heat. Roofs were always built in a subtle way and adapted to each type of building he recor-
ded. Nevertheless, Conder warned architects that they had to take into account the modern
life style and its lightning requirements:
 Irène Vogel

Fig. 11: Modern residence built in Western Style or yōkan, Tōkyō, 1874


A striking peculiarity of all Japanese buildings is, that direct light from the sky
is rarely obtained, owing to the lowness of the openings and the great projec-
tions of the eaves: the light of the interior is a reflected light from the ground,
except in very isolated buildings, and when the sun is low. This inconvenience,
not so much felt in the old style of sitting, reading and writing upon the floor,
is an insuperable one when raised tables and chairs are employed in purely
Japanese buildings.33

A solution had to be found. How should high windows and glass be designed in Japan? In
1886, after his conference on domestic architecture, he answered British architects’ questi-
ons on this subject:

With regard to the glass I may state that since single glass was introduced, it
has become usual to use it a good deal in place of paper. If the slides, which
run round three sides of the house, were filled up with glass, what a bleak and
bare feeling the rooms would have! This feeling is somewhat relieved by ha-
ving a partially opaque paper between you and the outside, so that the effect of
introducing glass into Japanese buildings, although practically it may exclude
the air and wet a little better, is rather a drawback otherwise. A kind of com-
promise is often used, by making the central pane only of glass and leaving the
remaining ones of paper.34

As we shall see in the conclusion, the assimilation of a borrowing has to be precisely mea-
sured. Conder was very attentive to an adequate treatment of direct sunlight. He worked
on the necessary equilibrium in the proportion of openings, of transparent and translu-
cent glass. We come naturally to a discussion about pre-modern architecture’s adaptation
 The Architecture of Discovery, Assimilation and Conder the



for better thermal comfort, privacy of spaces, and quantity of natural daylight. How did he
transform it into an efficient contemporary architecture?



Creation: Collision

In 1887, after two years spent in England, Conder permanently returned to Japan. He be-
came president of the new Japanese Architects Association. He asked the RIBA to recognize
this association and exchange regular reports and publications: «I think that the Japanese
Society would from time to time be able [to] contribute information of considerable inter-
est to British architects.»35 He proved to be an important East-West link between architects.
Before looking at how British architects eventually took account of pre-modern domestic
architecture solutions, we will firstly look at the ones that were fruitful in Japan. An analysis
of the residence Conder built in 1906 will show which ones he kept and which modern ones
he invented for improving the house’s general comfort.
Since the opening of Japan, some wealthy people wished to live in modern residences
as well as in their traditional interiors. One solution was to build two houses side by side.
They would live in the Japanese house and entertain their guests in the Western style house
that provided the newest technologies and comfort (fig. 11). Another solution was to build
a Western-style house furnished with areas in tatami mats. When Conder built residences
this way, he always kept the traditional corridor between the façade and the tatami room,
thus preventing direct daylight from damaging mats, and also designed a modern elevation.
In this collision with the industrial era, the architectural device of the tatami room survi-
ved. It played a new role in contemporary architecture: the preservation of a reception room
built in natural materials, straw, earth walls, and with wooden cupboards and tokonoma.
The beauty of these textures, natural colours and fragrances were a living part of the Japa-
nese identity. Nature and its poetry kept its importance for example in the entertainment of
guests with a tea ceremony. The miniature chashitsu or tea pavilions survived too.



Hybridization and Surpassing

Between 1903 and 1906, Conder built his own house in Tokyo. Few documents have un-
fortunately survived (fig. 12–13). Imagine this scenario: Your friend Josiah has invited you
to stay at his new home. It is a freezing winter Saturday morning. Walking up the street,
you discover an entrance façade looking rather Victorian. The rear elevation seems Japanese
though. Five smoking chimneys on the front roof reassure you. After going up the stairs,
you ring. Taking off your hat, you are impressed by a grand double height entrance hall wor-
thy of theatrical productions. You give your coat and suitcase to the maid. Finally, here he
is! Heartily welcoming you, he shows you his office and the dark room on the left. After a
few hours spent in the dining and living rooms on the right side, you relax with a whisky in
the glazed veranda, mumbling to yourself: «What a clever device and comfortable place for
reading this is!»
 Irène Vogel



The day is fading. From the hall, you take the grand staircase bathed in northern light.
Standing in thought on the open balcony on the second floor, you admire the paintings. On
your right, a few steps and a narrow wooden corridor suddenly dazzle you with sunset light.
A few meters further you discover the most beautiful reception matted rooms, ready for par-
tying. After a great evening of good Japanese food and drinks, you walk slowly back to rest
in one of the two comfortable heated guest rooms. Conder and his family withdraw to their
three rooms. Your veranda offers heteroclite views of the district’s new houses.
All is quiet now. You are half asleep, comfortably reclining in your Victorian bed («Stu-
pendous invention!»), you recollect these lively hours. Your knees ache after your long knee-
ling on tatami mats. Reflecting on your intimate friend, you indulge in dreamy thoughts,
longing to being invited next time to take a Japanese hot bath downstairs. Down the steep
staircase running from the corridor, off you go! You quickly reach the bathroom on the
ground floor of the cold east wing. After a deep hot bath, being very relaxed, dizzy, baffled
by the extra corridor, you feel lost. The first corridor opens on two reception rooms. You take
a quick glimpse at the beautiful tokonoma. A little farther, you peep into the dark and quiet
Japanese kitchen at the rear. Harshly, the closed door of the kura stops your investigations.
In cold sweat, freezing in your light evening yukata, after a wrong try on the left – Oh! The
grand Hall! At last, for God’s sake! the long twisted corridor toward the northerly direction.
Almost there, while views on a serene, dimly lit garden catch your attention. Finally reaching
your cold matted guest room and futon, you are awakened by baking flavours wafting up
from a modern kitchen …
You conclude that Josiah Conder did not think in terms of conflict between tradition
and modernity, Japan and Europe. He proposed a kinship based on the excellence of the art
of carpentry. His powerful hybrid combined Japanese and English building customs and life-
styles. His plan was exceptionally witty in proposing a modern lifestyle smoothly articulated
around a core of circulation and transitional spaces. Floors were made of ceramics, woods
either covered with carpets or mats. On the one hand, Conder chose solutions coming from
Japanese pre-modern architecture. He designed a genkan or elevated entrance. This device
meant for leaving shoes on the outside, prevented dust from being brought indoors while
also providing more body comfort. He kept several flexible matted rooms and designed a
spacious wooden traditional ofuro or bath. Finally, he built in the rear the warehouse or kura
for preserving art objects. He closed this east wing with shōji and wooden shutters, enhan-
cing the precious qualities of indirect light. On the other hand, he added modern solutions.
Since tatami rooms prevented the introduction of chimneys, Condor designed five chim-
neys and the glazed veranda in the west wing. Cooking could be prepared in two kitchens: a
traditional one characterized by rice cookers on fires and a modern one equipped with a gas
oven. From the 1910s, this kitchen would become the norm for dwellings.
Regarding intimacy, the first difficult problem arose from the Japanese custom of not
inviting people to their homes. How to entertain guests in Western clothes in tatami rooms
where shoes should be taken off at first? As we already know, Conder created two entrances,
a grand hall and a genkan. They were side by side and formed the heart of the home. On the
first floor, the grand staircase faced the wooden corridor of the west wing and the balcony of
the east one. Visitors could either be entertained in matted or modern reception spaces. He
 The Architecture of Discovery, Assimilation and Conder the



also provided an extra corridor between the matted floors, transforming them in more inti-
mate spaces. Now, his new home faced the street: fences, porch and court did not guarantee
privacy anymore. We guess that for this reason, he placed the open veranda on the rear, be-
hind his rose gardens. Finally, he worked on a better supply of daylight. In doing so, he also
worked on the integration of the two types of dwellings into a whole. He applied Japanese
proportions to all elevations, proposing a gradation of three types of openings in two mate-
rials: glass and paper. On the west, he designed high glazed windows giving the best supply
of light to his office and rooms. On the south veranda, he drew horizontal glazed windows
with patterns inspired from shōji. This way, the veranda presented a smart transition with
the shōji of the rear elevation.
Conder worked hard on the kinship of his hybrid house. Its overall proportions and its
slightly flattened roofs were not characteristic of contemporary British domestic architec-
ture.36 He creatively and subtly used Japanese proportions to merge Victorian and Japanese

Fig. 12: House and office, West elevation facing the street Fig. 13: House and office, East elevation with
and ground floor, the square kura is situated on the north- the glazed veranda and 1st floor plan, Tōkyō.
east side, Tōkyō. Designed by Josiah Conder,
1906
 Irène Vogel

Fig. 14: Apartment’s Hall at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs, Paris. Designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens, 1924



styles into a new entity. He used as well the transitional device of the veranda in several of
his residences. The veranda was indeed a major space: a filter linking interiors and gardens.
Social relations as well as ideas had also to be filtered in a neutral ground. In dialogues, talks
were built around hypothesis, as Nicolas Bouvier explained:

Language is full of ingenious trajectories. Ricochets. Typically, when the Japa-
nese debate some important topic, they seek an intermediary who will relay
the questions and responses. When this man is not at hand, it becomes tricky.
Two interlocutors speaking at close range may well hurt themselves. Turnings
of language allow them to send their sentences to a kind of imaginary in-
stance. They say nothing that is not tentative: samukashira (would it be cold?)
when shivering or deskeredomo (Bouvier: if it suits you, but ...). You float
your phrase prominently, halfway between the interlocutor and you. He will
stall it if it suits him.37

Cutler had already identified this specificity: the art of suggestion. Westerners started under-
standing that the veranda and the apparent simplicity of Japanese architecture concealed in
fact many suggestions about lifestyles, themes and imaginary things out of reach to them.
In Japan, Conder could build à la japonaise. What could possibly have connected with
his colleagues in England at the end of the 19th century? Dresser was a pioneer opening a
modern path towards abstraction in decorative arts. He proposed designs with an aesthetics
that followed functionality in the soberest manner. He clearly explained his point of view on
this process of assimilating from other cultures:
 The Architecture of Discovery, Assimilation and Conder the



But I must not be misunderstood: I do not wish to destroy our national art,
and substitute for it the Japanese style. I merely wish that we should avail our-
selves of those methods, which are in advance of our own; not minding where
they originated. […] Broadly stated, my position is this—we may borrow what
is good from all peoples; but we must distil all that we borrow through our
own minds.38

The inner nature of borrowings should be changed. Dresser talked of a distillation process.
Conder had revealed innovative characteristics such as a performative conception. But the
Western wall-building system had to be changed before frame, modular filling and ground
element modularity could be applied. In Japan, Conder built residences in wood thanks to
the skill of carpenters. In England, stone, metal and concrete were the preferred materials.
Compared to them, wood seemed lacking in solidity and was not used for the structures. In
this structural mural context, designers could realize interiors.
British and Scottish architects such as Godwin and Charles Rennie Mackintosh
(1868−1928) cultivated their knowledge of Japanese arts. We know that Godwin read
Conder’s articles. Mackintosh found inspiration in The Studio articles. His own flat looked
Japanese and modern. Rooms could be divided with a curtain instead of a wall. Spaces

Fig. 15: Mediatheque, ground floor, Sendai. Designed by Toyō Itō, 2003
 Irène Vogel



followed the Japanese proportions of ken, and included a horizontal beam or nageshi.39 He
was inspired by Japanese patterns that he transformed into his own abstract style. At Hill
House, he built openings reminiscent of shōji. In the same manner as Conder, Godwin and
Mackintosh built glazed verandas and large flattened roofs. Finally, it is important to men-
tion that at that time, innovations inspired from Japanese pre-modern architecture existed
side by side with the ones coming from their own European vernacular tradition.
Conder’s articles crossed British borders. The Art critic Louis Gonse (1846−1921) ded-
icated one chapter of his book L’Art japonais to architecture. He mentioned Dresser’s book
as a reference and Conder’s articles as a preferable source of information.40 He did indeed
relay the first articles, but not the fourth one focused on domestic architecture. In Belgium,
Fernand Levieux published «Essai sur l’architecture japonaise», an article based on «Fur-
ther Notes on Japanese Architecture».41 Though the French architect Robert Mallet-Stevens
(1886−1945) never travelled to Japan, he discovered Conder’s thoughts via Gonse’s book.
In 1924, he designed in Paris an apartment hall for the Salon des Artistes décorateurs. His
proposal was striking for its interpretation of Japanese interiors. He was certainly radical: By
going closer to abstraction, he was on the way of surpassing assimilation (fig. 14).



Conclusion

Assimilation acts as a permanent and creative process, as a refined engine that mixes and al-
ters references. Architects and artists search for a harmony through distillation of ingredi-
ents, foreign and personal, new and traditional. Passeurs, they take ideas coming from dif-
ferent fields, from all sources of inspiration and introduce them into their own art. The deli-
cate issue is the choice and dosage of each element. The degree of difference of each element,
high or low, will necessitate a simple or complex assimilation. An inspiration coming from
pre-modern Japanese architecture could assimilate firstly its grid made of a timely and mod-
ular wooden structure following the ken, its paper openings and indirect light – no sun; sec-
ondly its lifestyle on tatami mats and, thirdly, its aesthetics symbols, codes and major specif-
icities such as asymmetry, miniaturisation and ornamentation levels. In each of these fields,
several simple or more complex levels of assimilation may be used.42
The first consists of a repliqua. The architect copies a set or device he discovered in an-
other building and introduces it into his own project: for example, a window, a banister
or a construction detail. It is a reproduction: in its form, use and materials. For instance,
Mackintosh reproduced Japanese modular panelling. In the second level, the copy repro-
duces only one element among several. It is a citation. The next level is the adaptation of the
specificity. This time, the architect’s inspiration works during the process of imitation. For
example, he can figure the same reference but choose to build it and express it into a dif-
ferent material. Conder adapted the open veranda made of paper shōji panels, into a glazed
wooden veranda. Another possibility consists of expressing the set into a different use. In
this case, Conder adapted the lack of intimacy of matted rooms by adding an extra corri-
dor. In a way, he isolated groups of mats, giving them a new autonomy. Today, this assimila-
tion is complete. You find these independent tatami rooms in wooden, metallic as well as in
 The Architecture of Discovery, Assimilation and Conder the



concrete buildings. In a mural design, the use of the pillars axes grid or shinshin is no longer
necessary and the design is easier, following only the tatami mat grid or ushinori. This level
expresses hybridization. The fourth and last level is abstraction. The architect takes only one
aspect of the architectural device that inspires him, – design type, structure or material, use
or aesthetic figure, and transposes it into a contemporary expression. This time, the borrow-
ing is deeply modified, but the abstraction preserves its essence. Japanese proportions are a
frequent borrowing. Mallet-Stevens was inspired by the pattern of the shōji, and expressed
it in metal, not in wood.43 Looking at his Hall, experts immediately experience a déjà vu
feeling. In the case of a transposition of the shōji paper into translucent glass, the abstrac-
tion can be considered as a metonymy. The recall is done with the texture: the translucent or
opaque glass is reminiscent of paper. The recall can be done via a principle: the use of natu-
ral materials without paint. In Japanese pre-modern architecture, the elements’ patina was
revered, was a sign of age’s beauty, belonging to the aesthetic specificity called sabi. Western
artists such as Richard Serra worked on this idea, in particular on the beauty of rusted nat-
ural iron.44 The empathy between architecture and garden is as well a principle that can be
transposed by abstraction. When Itō Toyō compares users paths into a Japanese building to
the paths wanderers create when walking through a forest, and gets from this an inspiration
for his Mediatheque in Sendai, he transposes the traditional performative space into an in-
novative space. Firstly, he places metallic pillars like trees in a forest: the orthogonal grid is
abandoned. Secondly, he designs a minimum of closed cells into this fluid space. Itō hopes
visitors will create new uses into this vast empty space, and opens it on the ground floor to
the street via electric sliding doors45 (fig. 15).
Abstraction succeeds in the surpassing of this East-West collision, from pre-modern into
contemporary architecture. It creates a new unity, a new breathing of different cultures. In
our industrial and digital eras, these examples of assimilations inspired from Japan show sev-
eral qualities: the preservation of the human scale harmony with ken or body proportions;
the enrichment of daily life with touch and fragrance qualities of wood, adobe and straw;
and generous openings in empathy with the surroundings. And, last but not least: was it a
coincidence that Le Corbusier, pioneer with his performative or Domino structure designed
in 1914, came from the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds, as well as Humbert who edited Le Japon
illustré? We will never know.46 Abstraction uses all possible sources and references, distil-
lates—and often erases them on its way.



1 Peter Smithson, Conversations with Students, Princeton 2005, p. 80.
2 This article is an homage to Prof. Suzuki Hiroyuki who sadly passed away in 2014 and who shared with us precious
sources concerning Josiah Conder. See for instance Suzuki Hiroyuki 鈴木博之, «Josaia Condoru no kenchikukan
to Nihonジョサイア・コンドルの建築観と日本» (Josiah Conder’s concept of architecture and Japan) in: Ōta Hirotarō
hakushi kanreki kinen ronbunshū kankōkai 太田博太郎博士還暦記念論文集刊行会 (ed.), Nihon kenchiku no tokush-
itsu 日本建築の特質, Tōkyō 1976, pp. 459–507. We thank Prof. Patrick Berger for his theoretical inputs, in particu-
lar his suggestions on the notion of resolution, as well as that of collision and metonymy as presented in the conclu-
sion. Thanks also to Edward Moran for careful proofreading and to Tristan Chevroulet for his insights concerning
assimilation process.
3 Engelbert Kaempfer, Kaempfer’s Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed, edited, translated and annotated by Beatrice M.
Bodart-Bailey, Honolulu 1999, p. 7.
 Irène Vogel



4 Philipp Franz von Siebold, Nippon, Leiden 1832, re-edition: Leipzig 1897.
5 Josiah Conder, «A Few Remarks upon Architecture», Tōkyō Kōbu Daigakkō Imperial College 1878, (pp. 1–15), p.
8. Conder sent this report to the RIBA.
6 Aimé Humbert, Le Japon illustré, 2 vols., Paris 1870.
7 Christopher Dresser, Japan. Its Architecture, Art and Art Manufacture, London 1882.
8 Edward Sylvester Morse, The Japanese Homes and their Surroundings, London/Boston 1886, re-edition: Paris 1996.
In Further Notes on Japanese Architecture, Conder criticized Morse’s lack of critical viewpoint in particular con-
cerning the notion of comfort.
9 In particular on Christopher Tunnard who refers to Conder’s books. Cf. Marc Treib, «Formal Problems» in: id., Set-
tings and Stray Paths: Writings on Landscapes and Gardens, New York 2005, (pp. 86–107).
10 Watanabe Toshio, High Victorian Japonisme, Bern 1991.
11 Ono Ayako, Japonisme in Britain: Whistler, Menpes, Henry, Hornel and Nineteenth-Century Japan, London 2003.
12 Josiah Conder, «Notes on Japanese Architecture» in: London Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects,
Series 1, 28, London 1877–1878, (pp. 179–192).
13 «Discussion on Mr. Conder’s paper «Notes on Japanese Architecture» in: London Transactions of the Royal Institute of
British Architects, 8 April 1878, p. 210.
14 Edward Godwin, «Japanese Building» in: The British Architect and Northern Engineer, 30 August 1878, p. 85. God-
win knew Le Japon illustré. Prof. Suzuki explained us at Tōkyō University 14 August 2007 that in this quote, God-
win probably referred to a carpenter manual brought back by Dresser.
15 Josiah Conder, «Theaters in Japan» in: The Builder, 37, 5 April 1879 (pp. 368–376). He admired the ingenuity of
the turning scene used in Kabuki, a device which would be used later in Germany.
16 Josiah Conder, «Domestic Architecture in Japan» in: London Transactions RIBA, vol. 3, 3 March 1886–7 (New Se-
ries), (pp. 103–127), and id., «Further Notes on Japanese Architecture» in: London Transactions RIBA, 2, 1886, (pp.
185–214).
17 Josiah Conder, «Domestic Architecture in Japan» in: London Journal of the Proceedings of the RIBA, 3, 3 March
1886–7, (New Series), (pp. 193–198).
18 Conder 1886 (cf. note 17), p. 199.
19 Itō Chūta, Okakura Kakuzō, Sekino Tadashi, Japanese Temples and their Treasures (London White City Exhibition
Catalogue Dpt. Of Interior Imperial Japanese Governement), Tōkyō 1910.
20 Anna Jackson, «The Victorian Perception and Acquisition of Japanese Culture» in : Journal of Design History, 5, 4,
1992, (pp. 245–256), p. 247.
21 Anonym, (Abstract synthetizing Josiah Conder’s Domestic Architecture in Japan) «Summary» in: London Trans-
actions RIBA, 3 March 1887, (pp. 193–198), p. 195. Another review is published in: The American Architect and
Building News, 21, 588, April 187, pp. 160–161.
22 Conder 1886 (cf. note 16), p. 208.
23 Conder 1886 (cf. note 12), p. 180.
24 Koizumi Kazuko, Traditional Japanese Furniture, Tōkyō 1987, p. 12.
25 See: Ōshima Ken Tadashi, «The Evolution of Christopher Dresser’s Art Botanical Depiction of Nature» in: London
Journal, 29, 2005, (pp. 53–66).
26 Thomas Cutler, A Grammar of Japanese Ornament and Design with Introductory. Descriptive and Analytical Text, Lon-
don 1880, p. 27.
27 For decades, Western engineers would question the oversizing of beams in Japanese architecture. Tange Kenzō
(1913–2005) will even use it as part of a specific aesthetic expression.
28 Auguste Choisy, Histoire de l’Architecture, 2 vols., vol. 1, chap. 6: Chine Japon, Paris 1899, pp. 147–160.
29 Kurokawa Kishō, Intercultural Architecture, London 1991, p. 74.
30 Isozaki Arata, Japan-ness in Architecture, Cambridge 2006, p. 29.
31 Conder 1879 (cf. note 15), p. 368.
32 Bruno Taut, Houses and People of Japan, Tōkyō 1937, p. 186.
33 Conder 1886 (cf. note 16), p. 189.
34 Josiah Conder’s answer in: London Transactions RIBA, 3 March 1887, pp. 197–198.
35 Letter dated 12th March 1887, RIBA archives V&A: LC/25/8/12.
36 Informations received from Prof. Stefan Muthesius by email 5 November 2007.
37 Nicolas Bouvier, Le Vide et le Plein: Carnets du Japon 1964−1970, Paris 2004, pp. 178-179.
38 Dresser 1882 (cf. note 7), p. 319.
39 For examples, see these horizontal beams on figures 5 and 7.
40 Louis Gonse, L’Art japonais, Paris 1882, p. 123.
 Bibliographie 85

41 Fernand Levieux, «Essai sur l’architecture japonaise» in: Extrait du Bulletin de la Société royale belge de géographie, 3,
Bruxelles 1895, (pp. 229–250).
42 I used the categories of influences, – replication, citation, adaptation and abstraction – coming from: Marc Treib,
«Evocative Parallels, Japan and Postwar American Landscape Design» in: id., Settings and Stray Paths: Writings on
Landscapes and Gardens, New York 2005, (pp. 170–183), p. 181; concerning Metonymy, see: Patrick Berger, «Ci-
tation – Imitation – Métonymie. La soumission d’une antériorité au processus de mise en oeuvre du matériau» in:
Patrick Berger et Christian Eychène, La figure architecturale: un enjeu esthétique, Ecole d’architecture de St Etienne
1988, (pp. 36–42).
43 Irène Vogel Chevroulet, La création d’une japonité moderne (1870–1940) ou le regard des architectes européens sur le
Japon: Josiah Conder, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Bruno Taut et Charlotte Perriand, Sarrebruck 2010, p. 129.
44 http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag99/jan99/serra/sm-serra.shtml (30.04.2015).
45 Itō Toyō, Tarzans in the Media Forest, London 2011.
46 Irène Vogel Chevroulet, «Le Japon illustré d’Aimé Humbert: effet Dom-ino?» in: Imagine Japan, Neuchâtel 2015, pp.
322–333.

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