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SPECIAL INTERVIEW ABOUT WORLD HERITAGE SITES AND THE SPIRITURAL CULTURE OF KANSAI
3/10/2010

Architecture in harmony with nature standing on a chain of mountainous islands covered in green...

Many years ago, I got a chance to look at photographs of Japan taken a few thousand meters above the land. The photographs were all green, which made me realize 70% of the land of Japan is mountainous and covered in forests. The culture and religions of Japan is, as a matter of fact, inevitably tied to this natural landscape.

For instance, in concepts of some European civilizations, architectures were built on the flat land by cutting down trees and limiting the presence of nature. Conversely, in the Japanese civilization, because of the terrain, they were built-up in close harmony with nature. In Japanese ancient cities of Kyoto and Nara, for example, nature surrounds ancient temples, shrines and large buildings that cannot be viewed from far away. They gradually come into view the nearer you get. A word “Leaf concealment” exists in Japan. It means exactly that, leaves can hide many things, large and small. Japanese people esteemed nature and also buildings that coexisted with nature so it was understood as their first priority...

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