Study On The Cultural Collision And Integration In The Modernization Of Japanese Architecture

Contemporary Japanese architecture enjoys a strong international reputation in the field of architecture,and the architecture creation that integrates modernity and national characteristics is a successful model of modern architectural creation for the countries which beyond the mainstream of western cultural value system.However,all these are based on the success of modernization movement of Japanese architecture from 1850s to 1950s.From 1850s when Japan was forced to terminate its seclusion by western countries,to 1950s when a large number of Japanese modernism architects emerged in the stage of international architecture and gained a wide reputation,it is astonishing that it took only about a hundred years for Japanese architecture to stand out from the accumulation of architectural traditions over the past one thousand years to a worldwide leading position.Most of the previous studies on the modernization of Japanese architecture has focused on the statement of historical facts,but a thorough and systematic discussion on the reasons for the smooth realization of the modernization is insufficient.This study regards the modernization of Japanese architecture as a part of Japanese social modern transformation.Through the analysis of the political,economic and cultural aspects of social transformation,it is believed that the biggest obstacle for Japanese social modernization was the cultural conflict,and this phenomenon was also manifested in the field of architecture.Therefore,the study focuses on the cultural collision and integration of Japanese traditional architecture and western modernism architecture in the modernization era of Japanese architecture from 1850s to 1950s.This study builds a two-dimensional coordinate system,which on the origin sets the modernization of Japanese architecture during the century,as its logical system.On the vertical axis,by using the method of historical research,this study traced back to the cultural characteristics of traditional Japanese architecture,discussing the particularity as the basis of transformation,and extended to the cultural integration in contemporary Japanese architectural creation,analyzing the influence of the architectural modernization on contemporary Japanese architectural creation.On the horizontal axis in the other hand,by using comparative research method,this study compared the process of architectural modernization between the West and Japan during the period from 1850s to 1950s,analyzing the common cultural characteristics formed by their mutual influence.By using inductive research method,the results of research on vertical and horizontal axes are summarized into four aspects:Functionality-the cultural characteristics of Japanese traditional architecture;Naturality-the influence of Japanese traditional culture on the development of western architecture;Mechanicality-the influence of modernization of western architecture on the development of Japanese architecture;Simplicity-modernists' re-recognition on Japanese traditional architectural culture.Functionality,naturality,mechanicality and simplicity become the basic cultural characteristics of Japanese architecture after the modernization movement for a century,which were compatible with the characteristics of the western culture of modernism architecture.Consequently,Japanese traditional architecture was finally able to achieve cultural integration with western modernism architecture and completed the modernism transformation.This study concluded three main reasons that Japanese architecture stood out from the over-one-thousand-year historical accumulation of traditional architecture,successfully merged with the western modernism architecture and completed the modernism transformation in a very short period of time of only about a century,which are as follows:Firstly,there're characteristics of Japanese traditional architectural culture per se which are very similar to western modernism architectural culture,which is,functionality;Secondly,the architectural modernization in Japan and in the West occurred contemporaneous,and common characteristics were formed in the cultural communications,which are,naturality and mechanicality,among which,Japan's recognition on the concept of modernism mechanism architecture in the West is particularly important;Thirdly,by interpreting and modifying the simplicity of Japanese traditional architectural culture,making it conform to the standards of modernism architecture,the Western modernism architecture has been endowed with the cultural connotation of Japanese traditional architecture,and its development in Japan is hence justified.