ABSTRACT
Maintaining the essential characteristics that make traditional Japanese architecture distinctively Japanese has been a preoccupation of Western commentators since at least the 1920s, yet the qualities identified as representing that essence have varied widely. Ultimately, the West’s perception of “Japan-ness” cannot be definitively agreed in terms of architectural characteristics, only as an underlying sense of other-ness. The difference the West has most frequently sought in contemporary Japanese architecture has been rooted seen in Japanese traditions. Japan’s contemporary buildings could always be considered other as long as they were linked to the nation’s distant, and hence inherently inaccessible, past.
