Bruno Taut: "Ich Liebe die Japanische Kultur"

Gbr Mann Verlag, Berlin ISBN: 3-7861-2460-4

Already recognised as one of Germany's outstanding architects, this series of essays from 1933-36 were written in Japan for a variety of magazines and journals following Bruno Taut's emigration from Germany after being blacklisted by the then newly installed Nazi regime. He wrote for foreign language pulications, such as 'Japan in Pictures' and 'Travel in Japan', before opening an office to practise once more as an architect.

The most substantial essay in this collection, 'New Architecture in Japan' was written for 'L'Architecture d'aujord'hui'. Taut draws attention to new public buildings, housing and industrial architecture by Bunzo Yamaguchi (Dental Hospital, Tokyo), Yoshiro Taniguchi (Technical University, Tokyo), Sutemi Horiguchi (Kikkawa House), Kameki Tsuchiura (Yamamoto House) and Antonin Raymond (Toyo Otis factory). Beginning with a theme that would reappear in 'The Japanese House' (1937), the importance of the Japanese Farmhouse in contrast to the Chinese influenced Temples and Tea-Houses, Taut also emphasises the problems faced by architects in Japan, who had to overcome the tendency of developers simply to want traditional style buildings contructed with modern materials and had to contend with the low status of their profession in contrast to other artists, such as painters, or poets. Taut highlights the need to discover an appropriate modernist form of Japanese architecture, in particular to enable slum clearance and the creation of new housing.

Taut's own architectural projects covered here include proposals for the Ikoma Mountain Peak development, a hotel and housing with spectacular views towards Osaka and Nara. An essay with Gonkuo Kume on the Villa Okura is almost a manifesto for Taut's ideas to integrate the demands of Japan's climate and habits with modernist architectural concerns, while his description of the Hyuga Villa proceeds room by room, including features such as stepped seating, a built in writing desk and the colour schemes for various walls and surfaces, "Everything reflects the spirit of Zen, serious and classical, in the long tradition on which the entire culture of Japan is based."

Other essays cover design, theatre, the Kimono, the old city of Nara and the Villa Katsua, Japan's 'Sans Souci'.

Despirte his reservations, Taut's essays are full of enthusiams and being in Japan clearly suited his temperament. Most of these articles were written out in longhand by his wife Erica Wittich and it is only due to her efforts that they survived following his death in 1938. This documentation and much else is now preserved in the Taut Collection at the Akademie Der Kuenste in Berlin. An English translation would be well worthwhile.

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