Discover
Hōryū Temple
Main building at Hōryū Temple, Ikaruga, Nara prefecture, Japan.
Japanese architecture
- Related Topics:
- tokonoma
- Metabolist school
- shoin
- chigai-dana
- sukiya style
Japanese architecture, the built structures of Japan and their context. A pervasive characteristic of Japanese architecture—and, indeed, of all the visual arts of Japan—is an understanding of the natural world as a source of spiritual insight and an instructive mirror of human emotion. An indigenous religious sensibility that long preceded Buddhism perceived that a spiritual realm was manifest in nature. Rock outcroppings, waterfalls, and gnarled old trees were viewed as the abodes of spirits and were understood as their personification. This belief system endowed much of nature with numinous qualities. It nurtured, in turn, a sense of proximity to and ...(100 of 10126 words)