context: architecture > modern

Postmodern Appearances

Arata Isozaki's Mito Tower

There is a distinctly playful and eclectic postmodernist look to a surprisingly high proportion of Japan's most distinguished modern buildings. I don't think this is often strictly speaking a result of a postmodern movement or condition - partly in that Japan barely had a Modernist movement to react against*, and partly because Japan has never been terribly interested in philosophy generally. My instinct is that it's a result of a comparatively sudden exposure to the range of Western architecture, old and new, and the new forms it offered, from the arch and dome to the use of metal, concrete and glass in skyscrapers. The Japanese are exceptionally good at absorbing what they like of other cultures and blending it into their own - see for instance the adoption of buddhism and the reconciling of it with the native shinto. My feeling is that, at a time that also offered great opportunities for architects, there was this immense new selection of toys to play with, materials and techniques and styles and images and symbols, and the Japanese have selected from these without the same sense that Western architects have of lineages and schools to choose from or follow. It's also a country with strong architectural traditions of its own, of course, which gives another reservoir of ideas to play with, and a completely separate set of techniques and styles that can only be at all reconciled and mixed with the new Western opportunities by fresh and imaginative means. All this leads to a freer play (and you don't have to look far to justify my repeated use of ludic terms) with historic styles, a freer blending of components from all countries and styles, which is characteristic of postmodern architecture.

* Having said that, it does strike me that Japan's traditional certainties were thrown aside at the end of World War II. The country had not been successfully invaded in almost 2000 years, and then it suffered total defeat. The emperor, a divine figure throughout the country's history, was forced to admit that he was merely human. I'm not aware of any genuine parallel to Modernism, which can be considered a reaction to Darwin, Freud, Einstein, Nietzsche's death of god, and so on - perhaps because of the range of choices that came along, encouraging a more eclectic approach rather than a search for some new overarching way of seeing the world. Again, the willingness to accept Buddhism and Shinto simultaneously may be telling.

forwards: why so exciting?