On a large site in Katsu-shika, in Tokyo, stands a modern prison complex built in 1929. The prison administrative office complex consists of office wings and a control/ observation/ clock tower. Shigeo Kambara, a young in-house architect in the Ministry of Justice, designed the complex. While the frontal view evokes an image of a bird with wings spread, the composition is the last specimen of the Japanese expressionism, since the movement that had begun in the early 1920's ended around the end of that decade, about the same time as the construction of this building. The complex was constructed in reinforced concrete, still a relatively new construction method at the time in Japan, with a cleverly developed foundation system to counter poor soil conditions of the site. Although the complex was built in the era of not really democratic socio-political condition in Japan, this work of Kambara surely belongs to a kind of architecture with a particular virtue that illustrates another facet of the early phase of Japanese modernism. The administrative office building was repainted in its original color, pastel light water green in 1983.

The administrators and educators of Keio-Gijuku Primary School, which was founded in 1874, had high ideals toward education, and placed an importance on a modern school environment with innovative systems and facilities. Yoshiro Taniguchi, the architect-in-charge, considered the health and well-being of pupils as the top criteria in designing this school. Consequently, he designed a 3-story school structure in reinforced concrete construction with setbacks on the second and the third floors to provide a terraced roof-deck space in front of each classroom for better natural lighting and ventilation. He also implemented a gentler radiator heating system with paneled heater units. As Taniguchi paid particular attention to ecological concerns and human ergonomics, the building became among the earliest modern architecture based on the concepts of environmental design in Japan. The simple and graceful composition of this school is not only a representative early work of Taniguchi with an imaginative primary school design backed up by thorough planning and research, but also qualifies as a major pre-WWII, modernist building in Japan.

Within the Hassho-kan complex -- a ryo-tei, or luxurious Japanese style restaurant -- in the suburbs of Nagoya, stands a Japanese style building called, Miyuki-no-ma, or a casual lodging facility for the imperial family. It was constructed to accommodate a visit of the Emperor and Empress in 1950. Therefore, the owner commissioned Sutemi Horiguchi, an esteemed architect, to do the design. The detached structure consists of a main 16-tatami-matted room and a subsidiary 10-tatami-matted room, along with a 6-foot wide buffering corridor, and a deck on the northeastern corner. As true to the innate nature of Japanese traditional architecture, this building was designed to be flexible via removable shoji screens, and was adorned with many exquisite traditional details that recall the design of Villa Katsura. Because he believed the essence of Japanese architecture could be discovered in tea ceremony room design, many parts of the building offer such details. Nonetheless, the Japanese Sukiya concept and its style was never simply a mere source of design, instead, for Taniguchi, it was an expressional carriage for his representation of modern architecture.

On a trapezoidal site in a hill that overlooks the Port of Yokohama, stands a public cultural complex made up with a library and a music hall. Through the process of an invitational competition, the design commission was given to the first place winner, Kunio Mayekawa, a renowned architect who apprenticed under Le Corbusier from 1928 to ’30 in Paris. Mayekawa utilized a parti that featured the two structures to be slid fore-and-aft with a connecting concourse, to create an inviting piazza space in front for the music hall and a serene garden space in back for the library reading rooms. He also placed the load-bearing earthquake resistant walls to be positioned internally so that the perimeter walls were liberated structurally to create bright and cheerful interior spaces with expansive glass curtain walls, white lightweight concrete panels and perforated brick-blocks. He designed the complex with Corbusien details and expressed structural elements. The complex continues to be used today, and the quality of acoustics in the wood veneer finished music hall is highly regarded among performing musicians and artists.

In Takamatsu city in Kagawa prefecture on Shikoku Island, facing the inland sea coast of Seto, stands a tour de force modern prefectural hall complex. The complex consists of a brand-new 8-story administrative office tower and a low-rise legislative assembly hall in reinforced concrete construction. It was Kenzo Tange, and was completed in 1958. The design for the office tower features a square plan with a square central core that affords a flexible open plan for the spacious work area. Since the columns on the elevations were designed to carry only the vertical load structurally, Tange was able to design them very thinly to give the entire facade a crisp, stylish composition with large glass surfaces. The legislative wing is elevated on pilotis, which act as a suggestive gate for an honorific entry promenade that leads to the office tower. Tange managed to consolidate the notion of functional office and the notion of an open, public architecture, in a striking modern edifice with an interpretation of abstracted traditional style. Accordingly, Tange is acclaimed for the design of this complex, which qualifies as one of his finest projects.

Standing on a huge open site in the area next to Yoyogi Park and Meiji Shrine is the gymnasium complex, Kenzo Tange, for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. It consists of two arenas, used primarily for a variety of athletic events, however, it also accommodates today such non-athletic events as concerts, and other cultural venues. Set against the context of streets, JR railroads, a huge park and a solemn shrine, as well as the beckoning urban dynamism from near by Shibuya and Harajuku, it casts a sharp image as an impressive urban architectural object sitting on an enormous piazza with its bold composition derived from the city axes. His design of a unique suspended roof structure with its beautiful roof silhouette captivated the people with delight and amazement. This multi-functioned athletic and cultural facilities offer, in addition, a spatial realm that bestowed the visitors with creative sensations to be one with architecture.

In downtown Kyoto, stands a significant modern telephone exchange building that represents as the architectural milestone of the early modern movement in Japan. The modern movement of architecture in Japan was initiated circa 1905, by deviating from the accepted practice of just following the western architectural historic styles as the only legitimate expressive model, and in the 1910's, the creativity and rationalism was adopted as the guiding fundamental in design. The architect responsible, Roku Iwamoto (1893-1922) was especially radical, and in conjunction with other forms of the fine arts, he had come to consider the architecture as a mind game to play. This building was his debut work. The laissez-faire facade design is a remarkable specimen of the early Japanese architecture of the modern movement, and testifies that he created independently a striking composition of his own similar to the compositional quality of the German Expressionism.

Only a short distance away from the bustle of the Ikeburo Station, in a surprisingly quiet area, stands a school complex Frank Lloyd Wright. Yoshikazu and Motoko Hani gave the commission to Wright while he was in Japan for the Imperial Hotel project. The complex, built in the American style of wooden stud and plywood 2 by 4 construction system, consists of the west and east wings of classrooms and a central structure in a meticulously symmetrical “U” shaped layout. Wright fully implemented his Prairie Style concept; e.g., the lawn design for establishing the prairie like ground base, the adoption of a smaller, house scale as opposed to the public scale in design for a more human, personal feel, and the setting of the first floor level at the same level as the ground plane for horizontal emphasis. Consequently, it succeeded in giving a warm and unified ambience. The complex was designated as an Important Cultural Property in 1997.

In historic Kyoto, stands an amazingly modern house, built in 1924, and Seigo Motono as his own home. Its structure employs an easy to use concrete block construction system with steel reinforcement developed by Chin Nakamura. The small house, with a minimal, yet reasonable and comfortable space, offers an open space adequately proportioned to accommodate the requisite domestic activities. This house was designed with some convincingly modern and logical concepts as seen in the design of deep, oversized eaves to cope with the strong summer sun rays and high precipitation, and in the conception of a designated open space, combining the kitchen and dining functions in one. Thus, it qualifies as among the earliest houses built in the world with its architectural dispositions based on the modern movement.

Located in Nihombashi, is a 7 story modern building completed in 1931. It is a debut work of Togo Murano and the first project he undertook after he left the office of Setsu Watanabe in 1929. The rectangular shape windows are well proportioned and placed on the facade in an orderly manner. The windows are set deliberately flush with the wall surface so that the flat facade may highlight by contrast such exquisite details as the softly rounded building corners, the delicately elaborate design on the tip of eaves, etc. It seems almost that he was approaching and employing the methodology of modern architecture while simultaneously vacillating and distancing from it. Although the 8th floor was added on in 1960, the building is well maintained today with most of the original intricate details intact, including the exquisite glass mosaic of the entrance foyer ceiling and.

This is the debut work of Kunio Mayekawa, commissioned by a businessman from Hirosaki, Ryuzo Kimura with whom Mayekawa had become acquainted during his residency at Le Corbusier’s atelier in Paris. Thus, he brought in with him this project to Antonin Raymond’s office. The building reveals some clear influence of Le Corbusier’s Villa Garches upon his design. Bruno Taut, in exile in Japan in 1935, on visiting it in Hirosaki, wrote in his journal; “a white, Corbusien building”. In March 2004, this building was selected, for the first time among Mayekawa’s works, as the Registered Tangible Cultural Properties.

Osaka is known for its rivers and canals that roughly divide the city into two halves, as the division encouraged a tandem growth of centers. On the northern half is Umeda with the Osaka Terminal Station and its downtown district, and on the southern half is Namba with a corresponding railroad station and shopping center. Wherein, by the 1920’s, there arose a need to better connect the two centers along the Mido-suji Boulevard. The underground subway system was combined with the Mido-suji widening project in 1925, and the construction of the Mido-suji subway line began in 1930. As the subway was dug deep underground to cross the rivers, it effectively made possible for the stations to be designed with large high-ceilinged barrel vaulted spaces.

The Osaka Gas building by Takeo Yasui was built in 1933, as the corporate headquarters, which also provided a showroom, a restaurant, a cooking class and a multi-use hall spaces to the public. On the elevation, Yasui broke away from the common prejudice of avoiding black color by featuring the black mikage-ishi, or Japanese granite, on the lower, the ground and second floor levels, in contrast to the ivory color tile finish on the upper levels. The deep set eaves above each floor give a dominant horizontal emphasis to the building while the provision of pilasters supplement the auxiliary vertical accentuation. The tautness of contrasts on the facade by the black and white, as well as by the horizontality and verticality bestows a positively modern look that fits well with the spirit of the new showcase street, the widened Mido-suji Boulevard. The addition in 1966, by Shoichi Sano, follows the basic parti of the original in terms of the color scheme and the gridded composition with a more contemporary interpretation on the lighter fenestration design.

Across from the Kyoto Station, stands a modern building completed in 1937. It is the work of Goichi Takeda, a main character who introduced the Art Nouveau movement in Europe to Japan at the turn of the century earlier in his career. More than 30 years later, having since become a member of the elder and respected architects of his time, he was set to demonstrate his mastery of techniques in modern architecture. He took a field trip in 1932, whereby he visited and studied at close hand numerous up-to-date examples of architecture in Europe and in the US. The austere modernity of this building with its simple, ornament free design and expressive emphasis on the structure reflect what he learned in the field trip. Upon visiting it, a successive presentation of a domed ceiling of the foyer and an array of astute design on the elevator doors will still marvel the beholder today with the same sparkle as it did before.

Along the great Kurobe River in the Japanese Northern Alps, stands a complex, known as the Kurobe No.2 power plant facilities and dam, constructed by the Kansai Electric (ex-Nippon Electric) Power Co., in an unusual collaboration with an architect, Bunzo Yamaguchi. Because of the site limitation, he integrated such normally separately placed facilities as transformer, high voltage apparatus etc., with the power generator in one structure based on the three dimensional and functional requirements. Wherein he let, the internal forces caused by the various components, be reflected on the massing, in creating a structure with striking expressiveness. A rewarding facade in perfect composition is the result of contrasting the horizontality of the eave lines and terraces, the flatness of large glassed surfaces as well as the post and beam expressions on the elevation. Yamaguchi created, by combining civil engineering and architecture into one discipline, a structure with dynamic forms that situate well in nature and its breathtaking scenes. The complex is the only surviving example of the International Style design in Japan.

On a corner site by the Osaka Station, stands one of the most pivotal architectural examples of Japanese modernism. Tetsuro Yoshida, a principal architect in the Building and Repairs Section of the Ministry of Communications, designed this building in 1939. Yoshida and the Ministry paved the way for an acceptance of architecture of the modern movement. Throughout his life, he consistently sought to express in his design the beauty of Japanese traditional wooden architecture with its timeless clarity and simplicity in a modern architecture of reinforced concrete. Thus, the disciplined facade is composed with the column and beam structure with large glass infill in a simple and rhythmical fenestration design, while offering a sense of vertical accentuation upward, until it culminates with the horizontal line of the wide eaves at the top. He designed the building using a specific proportional system in the modern minimalist practice with no decorative frills or any other unessential elements whatsoever, to bestow the structure with a sharp image.

At the corner of Gofuku-bashi crossing near Tokyo Station’s Yaesu entrance, stands one of the forerunning office buildings in post-World War II Japan. With this building, Kunio Mayekawa attempted to create an open and vibrant office space as typical of modern architecture design through making the entire structure lighter by jettisoning the heavy earthquake resistant walls, and by adopting of new industrially manufactured products as building materials. The cutting edge items of the time such as aluminum window sashes and lightweight pre-cast concrete panels were used on the exterior finish, and the ground floor was awarded with a limpidly modern teller space.

Halfway between the Peace Memorial Park and JR Hiroshima Station is the site for Catholic Cathedral for World Peace. The original church was destroyed by an atomic bomb dropped in 1945 during WWII. Togo Murano was given the design commission. The modern rectilinear church and belfry design based on a basilican profile, feature the exposed concrete columns and beams with the bricks inserted in seemingly the traditional Japanese wall, ”Shin-kabe” style, as well as the perforated windows with the Japanese, “Shuhama-gata” pattern. The space inside the church is rendered in a modern interpretation of the Romanesque style with the coarse simplicity. With the handcrafted appearance of various details, Murano successfully created a spatial realm with a unique religious connotation.

Mamoru Yamada designed this hospital as he left the Ministry of Communications after the World War II. While he had done a numerous hospital buildings in his career, most of his hospital works have been torn down or drastically renovated today because of increasingly complex hospital requirements. This building is among few of his surviving hospital works. Even during his tenure of the Ministry, in contrast to Yoshida’s characteristic crisp straight lines, Yamada was known for his fluid, curved lines. Accordingly, he strategically incorporated some curved lines and surfaces in this project as well, providing the building with a desired spatial sense of soothing softness that inspires a uniquely original quality that belongs to Yamada.

The Nagasawa Water Purification Plant complex, while located in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa, actually belongs to the Bureau of Waterworks of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The complex was built in 1957, and Mamoru Yamada, the architect in-charge, designed it with an exceptionally compelling quality for such facilities. Yamada previously belonged to the Japanese Secession Movement and worked in the Building and Repairs Section of the Ministry of Communications, the legendary purveyor of modern architecture in Japan. Through his career, Yamada designed in the architectural style of the Expressionist tendency with the sumptuous use of the parabolic and streamlined curves in compositions. The elegant curved lines are used in the main building facade and with the colonnade in the interior of the control facility at the filtration pool, to metaphorically express gushing spring water. Indeed, what Yamada aspired in his design was to merge the structure and function in an expressional synthesis.

Hideo Kunikata, a principal architect, continued the former Ministry of Communications, Dept. of Building Management, Architectural Section tradition of the rigorous pursuit of modern, functional and rational architecture in the Nippon Telegram & Telephone Public Agency. Accordingly, he designed a new headquarters for the Public Agency, with a rational central core parti, utilizing fully the 31m maximum height regulation to give 9 floors, and to achieve a high cost performance by adopting the optimizing 7m x 7m structural grid. The criticisms like, “the former Ministry buildings merely resemble porcelain toilet sets” notwithstanding, Kunikata specified the Taizan wall tile patterns on the main entry wall, and on the western side of the facade, the randomly set rubble cut Izu-aoishi or blue stones, and effectively created with seemingly slick and cool materials an expressive tactile surface details.

On a knoll that leads to the eastern hills of Higashi-yama in Kyoto, stands an annex of the Miyako Hotel. Togo Murano designed this annex called Kasui-en, and it was built in 1936. The site plan of Kasui-en is laid out to encase a traditional Japanese garden with its guest rooms set along the cascading corridors that follow the leisurely slope of the site. The composition of Kasui-en features the extremely thin-set wood shingle roofs and the edge lines with the conspicuous convex curvature of the upper part of the guest rooms’ gable, the wider than normal setting of roof rafters’ spacing, the low eaves and floor-height details, the intricately overlapping roofs, and so forth, which collectively reveal Murano’s inclinations toward the use of unusual materials and unique conceptions in design.

Kyoto Kaikan, neighboring Heian-jingu shrines, sits as a multi-purpose cultural complex comprised of a concert hall, a theatre, and an international convention center. It was designed to be harmonious with the rich surroundings with a vista of Higashi-yama (hills). The complex was laid out to form a courtyard, and an assertive strip of oversized and deep concrete eaves binds the assembled buildings horizontally. Mayekawa sought to create a modern architecture complex that would fit in with the historic tradition of Kyoto cityscape and that would appreciate in its quality by aging well as time passes by.

The Parliamentary Museum stands on a site along the Imperial Palace’s inner moat on a small but discernible tree covered mound. The complex was initially conceived as a memorial hall for Yukio Ozaki (1858-1954), a legendary Parliamentary politician who staunchly stood for the government under the rule of constitution/ law. The design for the complex was chosen through a competition held in 1958, and the proposal of Ichiro Ebihara won the first place award. The design features a central courtyard with a bronze statue of Yukio Ozaki placed in a pool of water with an arrangement of elements such as auditorium, conference hall, gallery space, library-archives and reception hall around the courtyard. As the distinct images of the roof folded in accordion pleats and the coffered ceiling with the grid of beams impress those who visit, the wide open modern design of the fenestration toward the park expresses metaphorically the ardent belief of Yukio Ozaki in the open, fair and liberal government under the rule of constitution. As such, this complex qualifies as a representative building of the modern movement in Japan.

In historic Kurashiki, stands a museum annex building, Shizutaro Urabe, presenting a way in which a modern architecture design could be fitted harmoniously in the historic townscape of Kurashiki. Traditional Japanese roof tiles, inlayed pebble stones, and white exterior stucco walls are integrated with modern concrete and glass blocks etc. Urabe designed with his original Kurashiki module, derived in part from the local measuring tradition. Thus, the building exemplifies an architecture based on crafts and humanistic expressions by identifying itself with the genius loci. This building, along with the neighboring Kurashiki Kokusai Hotel (1963), also by Urabe, has cast a characteristic disposition on the metaphor of Kurashiki.

While many public halls were built during the late 1950’s through the ’60’s, today, few are enjoying the success of the one in the city of Nagasaki, Motoo Take. The building is setback deeply, leaving a large open space in front, together with the mirror-image site plan of the civic hall across the street, collectively the two public halls define and provide an enormous piazza/ open space for the public that is as precious as it is rare in a hilly city. While the profile of the building offers a horizontal emphasis with an extending roof skyline signature, the facade is capped with the cantilevered roof on both sides as the corners are cut to form an octagonal plan, which in turn, bestows the building with a more animated and dynamic compositional figure. Because both sides of the balcony level in the auditorium cascade down to merge with the main seating area in a horseshoe shape, the stage and the seating areas are seemingly linked tighter to generate a feeling of oneness between the performers and the audience.

In Karuizawa (Japan’s choice resort), stands a house, a half villa for the Raymonds and a half studio for his summer office. Antonin Raymond designed a robust dodecagonal main space with a central reinforced concrete column and spoke-like logs, and a twin winged extensions for bedrooms and services. The entire southern front of the main space is outfitted with the set of fully operable shoji-screens and wide engawa-deck outside. Raymond stayed here with his staff in summer as much for avoiding heat and relaxation as well for continuing his design work. This is among Raymond’s major works in the later part of his career with a perceivably free spatial composition style.

On the middle pier of the Port of Kobe, stands a 108m tall tower in steel construction. The tower was built in 1963 to be a new landmark for Kobe with a striving international port. The tower is open to the public for the magnificent panoramic view from the top, viewing platform. Nikken Sekkei was responsible for the design of the tower, which is constructed with the circular steel tubes combined in the form of an elongated drum with a stylish hyperbolic curve silhouette. To maximize the beautiful curved profile of the tower, the connecting parts were subdued, and the red and white horizontal border painting required under the aviation regulations was specially omitted, likewise, the glass surfaces of the viewing platform were tucked inside of the steel structural members so as not to be too obtrusive. In designing the tower, Nikken Sekkei concentrated, not on the mere height, but on the aesthetics of the form itself, and created a tower that is as unique as beautiful among more conventionally designed towers with solid, rectilinear sectioned, steel construction like the Tokyo Tower.

Antonin Raymond, a Czech born architect, originally came to Japan with Frank Lloyd Wright as his assistant. The commission and design of a new campus plan with 8 buildings for the Catholic based, Nanzan University in Nagoya marks as large project as he undertook during the later phase of his career. The campus was spread over the rolling hills and was organized with a north-south axial, main campus street that traced along the pre-existed ridge road. The 8 new campus buildings were located in such a way by utilizing the various contours of the site, to maximize the advantage of sloping terrains and not to interfere with the natural surroundings. Accordingly, a large classroom building with theater style seats was placed on the slope with a similar angle. The standard building style adopted was the exposed, poured-in-place, reinforced concrete construction method, and louvers were applied on to all of the 8 buildings, giving a unifying feature. The initial project was completed in 1964, and in 2004, all the buildings were given a major earthquake resistant, structural reinforcement without altering the look of each structure.

In a small city of Tosa-Shimizu, in Kochi prefecture, on the Pacific Ocean side of the big island of Shikoku, along the coast of Tatsu-kushi is a site for the Maritime Gallery. It was built in 1966 as a museum to exhibit the collection of variety of mollusks or seashells. Masako Hayashi designed the building using the metaphor of two seashells with a pair of structurally independent concrete shell structure roofs with domed skylight of acrylic glass (a.k.a., plexiglass) in the middle. The sunlight coming through the skylight shimmers with the ceiling painted in brilliant marine blue color to produce the interior space with the ambience of underwater world. Her design synthesized the ensemble of her structural and spatial concepts, filling the building with an eloquent rhapsody of architectural milieu. Currently, a project to preserve and renovate this building is underway in a joint effort of local architects and the municipal government.

This library, architect Arata Isozaki, represents one of his major early works. The three-story building, completed in 1966, is in reinforced concrete with the super structure, square tubes finished in exposed concrete. Isozaki challenged to cast an anti-parallel hypothesis against the metabolism architecture of possible hardware changes/ transformations according to the time passage and the shift in need; i.e., to maintain the original form and disposition. Thus, he responded by composing the super structure, square tubes to be abruptly cut off in mid air at the end without any ado. Although, the overall design of this building can only be identified as a composition with the metabolistic vocabulary, indeed, in denying any prospect for future changes, he expressed a powerful statement by ceasing the building in frozen stasis. In 1998, it was converted, under Isozaki’s supervision, to a multi-faceted cultural center, featuring art galleries. Today, the building illustrates the original concept by clearly emphasizing the spatial composition.

Located by the inner moat of the Imperial Palace, is the National Theatre of Japan. Through the process of an open design competition in 1963, the proposal by Hiroyuki Iwamoto was bestowed with the first place award, which also established him as a notable architect. It provides theatre spaces, promotional venues, preservation and support spaces for the classical performing arts of Japan such as Kabuki, Bunraku, dance, folk arts, etc. Being conscious of its Imperial neighborhood as well as being aware of its use, the design Iwamoto adopted follows a cue from the Azekura style architecture of Shoso-in in the late Heian period (late 12th C) by coloring the pre-cast concrete in the burnt umber to echo the original square logs of Shoso-in. He exercised a different approach to the design of modern architecture, i.e., to take specifically Japanese contexts, connotations, traditions and history into consideration in design.

On a vast site in northern Kyoto, stands a complex for international conferences. The Japanese government held an open design competition for the project in 1962-63. The first place was awarded to a group led by Sachio Otani. A series of trapezoidal structure made of horizontal beams and canted columns with the 22○ tilt was formulated, along with the recurrent derivative convergent details in the same form. He applied it, as a system of an all-unifying device, to the overall structure and all the way down to the detail design. While the spaces inside inspire futuristic images with a feeling of an endlessly expanding, three dimensional trapezoidal grid, on the outside, there is an evidence of a challenge to express the traditional Japanese context in modern architecture, as seen in the silhouette of the complex, which recalls the elusive images of the Japanese shrines, the thatched roofs of Gassho style houses and/ or the row of rice harvest hung. Isamu Kenmochi, a renowned industrial designer, was in charge of its comprehensive interior and furniture design.

This building earns its honor as the first skyscraper built in Japan. The major revision of the Uniform Building Codes of Japan in 1963, which effectively removed the regulations limiting building heights, and the approval in the following year for the application of the Specified Blocks System, together, laid the ground for the realization of this skyscraper project. The design presented a unit based on an ergonomically derived dimension of 3.2mx3.2m as the guiding module for establishing a spatially comfortable human scale in offices, and utilized this module to uniformly standardize the building in its entirety.

The Tokyo Tower was Tachu Naito, structural engineer, in response to the necessity to construct a facility for television broadcasting antenna during 1950s, when Japan was expecting the Rapid Economic Growth to come soon. At the time of completion, it was the world’s tallest self-supporting tower. Naito also designed towers in Nagoya and Osaka. However, Tokyo Tower, which was modeled after the Eiffel Tower in Paris, achieved the most sophistication and lightness of impression in design, as the amount of steel was much less than that of other two structures.

During the 1950s, Japan was suffering from the housing shortage after the WWII. Against such historical backdrop, Kenji Hirose worked on the issues on industrialization and standardization of architecture and creation of new residential style. He invented a series of steel houses called “SH house series”to embody his ideas. Kamikozawa House is one of his representative works. Although constructed of reinforced concrete, Kamikozawa House is similar to SH series in that each room is placed in a row with terrace laid out in front and its exterior design emphasizes horizontal line, and well presenting the characteristics of Hirose’s residential buildings. The owner of the house has preserved, renovated the building and is still used as a restaurant.

This facility is located within the first technical university campus established in Kyushu Area of Japan, and consists of an auditorium and office. As the auditorium is placed in the naturally sloped site, the floor of the seating area follows the gradient. The building is covered by the folded slab roof. The wood wool cement board of the (original) internal ceiling was used as both mold and finish. The office is a single-story building with square units laid out on the floorplan. While having beams placed diagonally to maintain horizontal stiffness, the facade on the longitude side has floor-to-ceiling windows.

The stadium was built as part of redevelopment project for the National Sports Festival held in Niigata City in 1964. It was considered to be a pioneering work due to its use of steel HP shell for its roof structure. HP shell was employed to minimize the weight of the roof in the heavy snowfall area. In addition to accommodate large space without columns, several benefits of the hp shell was anticipated such as aligning the audiences’ sight line with the section of the building, better acoustic effect and efficiency in the use of facilities such as lighting fixtures. It is a work jointly Wataru Kato, structural engineer and Eiji Miyakawa, architect, who both taught at Department of Science and Engineering at Nihon University.

This is the one of his early works by Azusa Kito after he left Kunio Maekawa’s office where he was in charge of Kanagawa Prefectural Library and Concert Hall. He succeeded in creating a strong sense of place by locating high-rise laboratory building and low-rise library building with glass facades on all fours sides around the plaza on a sloped ground. Kito won the AIJ Award at this building. Since then, Kito was commissioned to design several other libraries and presented how new libraries after the war should be.

This was built to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of Nippon Life Insurance Company.Exterior is a stylistic representation covered by Mikage stone, Japanese granite　and massive columns. On the other hands, in the Nissey theatre, walls and ceilings covered by Mosaic and Acoya shell (mother of pearl) are waving like a cave undersea.This is a highest peak of the Murano work from which original Murano's technique is seen everywhere though unsuitable points for the expression of the modernism brewed the cause of discussions at that time.

Kawai was an independent engineer without professional architectural education who was responsible for designing such facilities of Kagawa City Hall by Kenzo Tange, etc. in 1950s. He has built his own house for self-sufficient living in Toyohashi, Aichi prefecture, his local.The idea of stronger and cheaper material for housing, he has converted engineering corrugated tube to residential construction. Adapting a honeycomb structure to the facade, he has secured column-free living space.

Concrete slab floor is stretched to make the outside terrace with steps, a steel roof is braid radially and creating a unique look like a porcupine. Facility systems such as air conditioning and lighting equipments are also built into the radial steel beams integrated.
The works shows imagination and creativities of Kiyonori Kikutake who had proposed metabolism.

This is the first multi-purpose City Hall for concerts and theatre in a tropical region Okinawa Prefecture. Brick tiles which cited from “ Amahaji”, deep eaves of a house in Okinawa, cover the building composed by unfinished concrete columns and beams. In the terrace hall, a waist height stone wall from an image of “Hinpun” , a traditional screen in Okinawa which stops a flow of air is set up in the entry hall. This is an experimental building of a fusion combination of traditional methods of Okinawa and environmental technique in modern architecture.

The capsule Tower , second home for business is regarded as a typical architectural trend of metabolism, the first Japanese architectural movement happened in 1960s.
 The minimum private room capsule made from the iron plate and the light gauge steel by all welding at the factory was installed in two towers where the elevator etc. of an iron frame ferroconcrete had been built in, the equipment piping was made in a unit, and both were enabled to interchangeable. Continuing is feared though it can be said the symbol in the 70's.

As a communication site in which it aimed at the wireless telecommunications business with foreign countries for corresponding to the modernization of Japan; It was the building in the first period in the country, and the communication business was borne with the Iwatsuki Reception place. It is not used now though it is the only existence building that had a similar function. Arches and curves were treated everywhere on surfaces of the RC walls were Expressionism feature that was a state-of-art at that time. It was applied to the building where an up-to-date technology of wireless telecommunications was treated by Teturou Yoshida , the engineer of the Ministry of Communication.

The building showed the essence of architectural modernism precisely in Imai’s works in 1959. The deployment of the earth in the farm area is expressed by the single story house construction (partially two layers),which is represented by a combination of exposed concrete , precast concrete structure with 9.0m span of rigid frame, and steel sash that make up the clear-cut facade. This is his first work to show a mural that combines pieces of pottery from his longing for Gaudi.

Located on a hilly land developing by silkworm, cotton industry in Gunma, is the Matsuida Town Hall Shirai, who declared a Japanese traditional aesthetic,Jomon, while the another idea, Yayoi by Kenzo Tange, among the debates of Dento-Ronso (Debate of Tradition) in the 1950’s in Japan. Through the debates, Shirai tried to find the unique investigating dark and folklore cultural aspects to realize architectural space. Especially, the façade of this building is composed of quarry stone to sustain the curved balcony, was named “ Pantheon on the Field”.

Naruto Civic Hall and City Hall are located in the Tokushima of the east edge of Shikoku Island. Tomoya Masuda and Kyoto University Laboratory had designed twenty buildings in the city for decades to realize civic facilities at the sites of disused saltern industry. Two buildings are the point of departure, connected each other by pedestrian deck, composing open urban space for public. The goal of this town design in Naruto City had not completed on the half way, but he had continued to design his idea for the several buildings in the campus of Kyoto University

In the dwelling area of Shinjuku in Tokyo, stand three cubic boxes gathering surrounding courtyard, which stems from the naming of this house. Mayumi Miyawaki, who had designed a series of cubic box houses to realize dwelling space in the dense area. This house was constructed in separating two stages, 1971 and 1978. Miyawaki planned to design the first stage in considering the image of next stage. The structure was composed by reinforced concrete and wooden frame, which was one of first and typical examples for composite structural house at that time.

A redevelopment plan of this area that includes the possible demolition of this building is underway.

It is built using traditional Japanese elements, but with Murano's unique and highly original design. It can be said to be both commercially straightforward and artistic at the same time. Before the war, Murano learnt how to create architecture that would be popular with the public under Watanabe Bushi. The exterior of the New Kabuki-za reflects Murano's unique view of Osaka architecture.

The Center was closed in 2011.

In 1965, the hotel was transferred to Mukogawa Women’s University and converted to an educational facility.

Renovation work in 2014 with supervision by Mitsuru HIRAI (Meguro Architecture Laboratory Co., Ltd.).

Registered as a Historic Building by the City of Yokohama in 2011.

"Nippon Budokan" (1964,Tokyo), Mamoru YAMADA in his final years, has a different feel from his other work. In fact, it received particularly bad reviews within architectural academism at the time. It resembled the classical architecture of "Horyuji-Yumedono,"(748, Nara) a design on banknotes at the time, and so it was treated as a replica of a straightforward classical style and labeled as being against the style of the modern movement. Certainly, having a sloped roof with octagonal flat panels hung on a steel frame and the "giboshi" [ornamental railing top] atop it are reminiscent of classic Japanese architecture; moreover the eaves and vertical"lattice" attached to the horizontally running windows and "kumikoran" railings portray dominant Japanese motifs. It is almost certain that Yamada was aiming for "Japaneseness" for Japan's Judo venue at the Olympics. During the same period, Kyoto Tower became an issue due to controversy over the landscape of the ancient city, and due to these two controversies Yamada came to be assailed on all sides. He fell ill and died two years later in 1966, amidst this headwind. Yamada himself believed that these buildings would come to be accepted by future generations. Today, the Nippon Budokan is used not only for martial arts tournaments, but also for national events, university entrance ceremonies, and graduation ceremonies. In particular, it has maintained a high rate of usage for concerts since 1966 when the Beatles visited Japan and held a concert thereit is widely familiar with the public. It is said that young musicians first aim for their "Nippon Budokan performance." In particular, the "roof that imitates Mt. Fuji" that is symbolic of the Nippon Budokan and its "giboshi" atop it are familiar from the lyrics of the popular song "Tamanegi." There is no doubt that Yamada's free molded expression is tied to the value of this building.