Das japanische Haus und sein Leben - Houses and People of Japan

Bruno Taut

Herausgeber: Manfred Speidel, Gebr Mann Verlag, Berlin

ISBN: 3-7861-1882-5

Written in 1936, this new edition of Taut's study of Japanese architecture has already reached its third printing, since being republished in 1997. Bruno Taut was branded a Cultural Bolshevik by the Nazi's and left Germany on March 1, 1933 to live in Japan as a migrant until his death in 1938. Probably the most influential architect for Berlin since Schinkel, having built over10,000 houses, notably in the Berlin districts of Britz, Zehlendorff and Jungfernheid Seimensstadt, Taut published "Ein Wohnhaus" in 1927 describing his approach to housing, developing ideas from the 'Garden City' movement to encompass site, orientation and landscape. He was to write three books in Japan, 'Nippon mit europaische Augen gesen' (Japan seen through European Eyes) and Japans Kunst mit europaeische Augen gesen' (Japan's art seen through European Eyes). 'Das Japanische Haus und sein Leben' was the last to be written and published as 'Houses and People of Japan' by Sanseido in Tokyo.

What makes this book so interesting is that Taut brings the experience of someone intensely engaged in housing and sensitive to the detailed elements of architectural form and design to fulfill a wide range of functions. So this description of Japanese architecture not only addresses the broadest elements of building and construction, the pitch of roofs according to climate and similarities between the Japanese and European vernacular, but begins with basic distinctions between traditions and proceeds to detailed arrangements and design solutions. We are given a clear impression of how people behaved in these buildings, how they could act and move, activities quite different to those that Taut had catered for in his European designs.

Taut provides powerful reminders for the source of differences between Japanese and other major architectural traditions, most importantly that European building is based on the use of stone and brick, whereas Japanese construction derives from the use of wood. Farmhouses resemble shrines. Temples and palaces combine architectonic devices. The carpenter was therefore decisive and their influence survived as steel and concrete construction became common. Most striking of all, the traditions of Japanese building, partly derived from China, partly local, had survived from prehistory and were, as Taut was writing and photographing, about to change forever. Taut is completely unsentimental. Though he describes the 'tea culture' and its pavilions in detail, he is also sceptical, "While the tea culture lies at the heart of Japanese culture for most people, in my opinion it is only one of many centres and is also the starting point for a deal of 'bad taste'."

He refers to the reconstruction work following then recent earthquakes and urban blight, "much that is hideous, much modern and much that is kitsch', unable to foresee that the firestorms of World War Two bombing and the nuclear bombs used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki would herald decades of new building and urban transformation.

Illustrated with more than 500 diagrams, plans, sketches, photographs and graphics, Taut's text has a curious style, written from the viewpoint of a visitor travelling through Japan. This rather clumsy personalisation is nevertheless packed with detail, as architectural motifs and structures of roofs and walling, floors and balconies are clearly described, with his contextual accounts of furniture, domestic tools and cooking utensils, sleeping and bathing arrangments, toilets, clarifying the general structure, logic and layout of buildings. These precise descriptions include people's habits and behaviour, according to their trade and social status, farmers and fishermen, temple priests, spinners, or restauranteurs. As Taut was writing, 80% of Japanese lived in rural housing, 5.6million homes, with an average income of about 319 yen, sharing only 18% of national income.

How much has Japan changed since this book was first published? Sufficient to say, among the many street scenes and landscapes, photos of building sites and bridges, people are walking, bathing, floating on logs, carrying goods on their backs, cycling, with horses and oxen, however not a single car, or lorry is to be seen. Like Pugin's 'Contrasts' in early nineteenth century Britain, though lacking the sentimental historicism, Taut was writing just as the physical character of Japanese towns and cities were to be changed forever by industrialisation and modern construction techniques. This book could not be written today.

We should be grateful that its author was both a detailed observer, a distinguished architect and a competent photographer. This edition, edited for the Mann Verlag by Manfred Speidel, also includes a group of essays from Kurt Junghans and others, including examples of correspondence between Taut and his associates. Not just for architects, this is useful and informative for anyone interested in Japanese history and culture, who needs a convincing account of conditions before the Second World War.

jc.