Architecture
Japan: Wooden Temples, Shrines, Castles
In Japan, some wooden temples of Nara are over 1,000 years old. Although some parts have been replaced, much of the original structure is said to be intact. Ise Shrine, also a wooden structure, is completely rebuilt in exactly the same style every 20 years. The primary reason behind this may relate to the ancient Japanese imitation of rebirth in nature and the impermanence of all things. This practice also helps to preserve traditional carpentry skills and techniques (building without nails). Wooden castles were destroyed or dismantled during the shift from feudalism in the Meiji Restoration. Intact examples are Himeji Castle (17th century) and Hikone Castle (15th century). Reconstructed examples are Osaka Castle and Himeji Castle.
Other cultures might build from stone, but the jungles and forests might overgrow the buildings, as in Angkor Wat.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Asia
Famous quotes containing the word architecture:
“I don’t think of form as a kind of architecture. The architecture is the result of the forming. It is the kinesthetic and visual sense of position and wholeness that puts the thing into the realm of art.”
—Roy Lichtenstein (b. 1923)
“And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind’s night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Defaced ruins of architecture and statuary, like the wrinkles of decrepitude of a once beautiful woman, only make one regret that one did not see them when they were enchanting.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)