A comprehensive and beautifully illustrated study of the Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan, considered the most outstanding example of 17th century Japanese architecture and precursor of modern tendencies
Includes a wealth of photographs, some specially commissioned for the title and others taken from archives, supported by detailed drawings and text from experts such as Walter Gropius and Bruno Taut
An in-depth analysis of a complex that has long been a pilgrimage site for architects around the world, this is an indispensable reference work
A detailed history of Katsura, the seventeenth-century Imperial Palace in Kyoto, Japan, a pivotal work of Japanese architecture, often described as the 'quintessence of Japanese taste'. First revealed to the modern architectural world by Bruno Taut, the great German architect, in the early twentieth-century, Katsura stunned and then excited the architectural community of the West. Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, pillars of the Modernist establishment, were fascinated by Katsura's 'modernity'. This book documents the palace in detail, combining newly commissioned photographs, detailed drawings, archival material, and historical analysis.