ABSTRACT
The mass of a building occupies real space in the wilderness by replacing rocks, trees, or earth; in the city, buildings replace open space or other buildings. But there is an alternate way of looking at making architecture and places. Shinto deities dwell in places at times announced by unusual geographic features. At the Shinto shrine all visitors pass through the sanctified precinct, but the most sacred celebrants alone are privy to the interior of the centermost structures. The gradual separation of the practice of Shinto religion from the person of the reigning chieftain—in time, the emperor—necessitated religious structures distinct from residential types. In Zen, the tradition of the yuniwa, the gravel field, thrived the confines of Shinto and has become a basic element of the Japanese garden vocabulary. The pure geometry of the rectangular zone—divided into two sites and built upon in alternating cycles—is softened by the native Japanese acceptance of natural incident.
