The Imperial villa of Katsura (1615-1662) is considered as one of the most refined examples of Japanese residential architecture. Since the thirties and Bruno TAUT's sojourn in Japan, the literature on Katsura villa has flourished and since the end of the Second World War, Katsura villa has been at the center of discourses of the Japanese tradition and "Japanese-ness." Considering the architectural discourses of thre generations of architects: KISHIDA Hideto (1929), Bruno TAUT (1936), HORIGUCHI Sutemi (1952), TANGE Kenzo and Walter GROPIUS (1960), ISOZAKI Arata (1983), we will focus on the presentation of Katsura villa as a model of Japanese architecture.

Why, in architectural discourses, Katsura villa does represent "Japanese-ness"? How has the complex architecture of Katsura villa been reduced to a representation of the essence of Japan, its tradition and modernity? From both the perspectives of modern history and philosophy, this paper will try to answer the issue of the 'Japanese-ness" of Katsura villa.

The construction of a discourse on “Japanese-ness" is the result of a crossed history (created by both Japanese and Foreign architects) since the the when architects have tried to define what is Japanese architecture. The need to define Japanese architecture was prompted by the importation of Japanese modern architecture. From the thirties, and moreover in the forties, the debate within Japanese architecture centred in the relation to Occidentalism and the desire to overcome the western modernity. After the war, during the controversy on Tradition, Katsura villa was eventually promoted as a model for the creation of Modern Japanese architecture.

Phenomenological approaches to Japanese architecture have insisted on the specific relation to nature—especially in the case of religious (Buddhist and Shinto) architecture—and the thought of WATSUJI Tetsurô and NISHIDA Kitaro have been advocated for the analysis of the Japanese architectural culture. However in HUSSERL's philosophy, the starting point of his Phenomenology is the Transcendental Reduction. The Reduction "brackets" all ideas tha are unrelated to our perception of the object as it is in itself. Thus the Reduction is a precondition for the fundamental purpose of phenomenology, that of a study of the essence of objects as they appear to consciousness.

By investigating the idea of Transcendental Reduction, what it means both within HUSSERL's philosophy and how it relates to the discourse on Katsura villa, we can see how the 'Japanese-ness" which has often been taken to be an "essence" of that particular building, is in fact a misrepresentation of the term "essence" and just another example of the "natural attitude," which phenomenology must attempt to avoid. The discourse of 'Japanese-ness" mirrors HUSSERL's concept of "sedimentation": the addition of layers of meaning beyond the originary vision of the object.

Architecture + Phenomenology - Kyoto

A+P | Benoit Jacquet - Reduction to Japanese-ness: Discourses on Katsura Villa

csxlab.org is Francisco Vasconcelos, self-taught photographer born in Portugal and currently based in Berlin. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture, and has worked for architecture offices such has Kyiokazu Arai Kyoto & Sou Fujimoto Architects Tokyo.

Amateur photographer since the age of 12 (1990), carrying the Father Zeiss Voigtländer Icarex 35cs camera until 2006 when the arrival of the Digital allowed me to photograph almost in a diary like. Together with the Canon EOS 350D I started to carry it with me to everywhere I went, including ... Clubbing.

With time my photos started to get some appreciation and i got some works for some clubs, mainly Pitch through 2007, and started with a more professional attitude (not just photographing because i was there) but requested to do the cover of the events, an invitation by 1ªLinha from Portugal; an event producer now based in Brazil.

From 2007 until today, I have been photographing music events such as Goa-Festivals, concerts, clubbing, in many countries in which I lived, Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, Greece, Japan.