An Analysis of Bruno Taut s Thoughts on Japanese Architecture The Expression of Dualism

OpenAlex · English

This paper aims to clarify the significance of dualistic way of thinking in Bruno Taut's findings in Japan and is organized as follows. Since the roots of dualism goes back to Taut's writings in Expressionist period, first in chapter-II, background of dualistic attitude is discussed through his earlier writings in order to prove the firmness of this kind of way of thinking in Taut's thought. Following that, from chapter-III onward, we focus our attention on dualistic characters of Taut's theories related to the traditional Japanese architecture. Since we shall refer traditional buildings, the most famous of which are traditional farmhouses, the shrines of Ise (Ise Jingu), and above all, the Katsura Detached Palace, the first part of chapter-III bears on the question of why Taut admired these buildings and how these buildings could be connected with his theories on modern architecture. Then in the second part, we trace Taut's dualistic attitude through his writings on Japan. What Taut praised most in Japanese architecture will be studied in the following chapter (IV) under the title of 'The Unity of Dualistic Elements' by means of concentrating on the key conceptions in three subchapters-Expression (IV.1), Total simplicity (IV.2), and Philosophic attitude (IV.3) that shares certain similarities with Taut's ideas of Expressionist period.