PHOTOS SANS FRONTIERES - PARTIR A LA DECOUVERTE DU MONDE ET SORTIR DES VALEURS CONNUES POUR RENCONTRER DES GENS ET DES PAYSAGES MERVEILLEUX...
Pictures from Japan taken from 2005 to 2008
TOKYO - Japan has many gardens. The most important one is Tokyo. Although Paris, London, and New York had long-established urban cultures with central concentrations of multistory buildings, Tokyo's retooling former farmers preferred to stay far from the center, close to the land. The vast majority of properties in the city, then and now, are two-story single-family dwellings. So the city was, in effect, feudal and suburban before it was industrial and urban. Even with frequent necessity to rebuild--after the 1923 earthquake and devastating attacks during the last two years of World War II--the renewal didn't fundamentally change the scale and type of buildings constructed. For decades, Tokyo resisted high-rise development, but a new vision of the city is rapidly taking shape. The capital of the world's second largest economy is clearly an international city, but its built form remains utterly unique and defiantly Japanese.
KYOTO - Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture. Although there was some consideration by the United States of targeting Kyoto with an atomic bomb at the end of World War II, it was decided to remove the city from the list of targets due to the "beauty of the city". As a result, Kyoto is the only large Japanese city that still has an abundance of prewar buildings.
HIDA - Besides two historical hotspots in Hida region (Takayama city and Shirakawa village), you will discover in this gallery one of the fundament of the Japanese culture. The Japanese gardens concept allows us to understand better the Japanese culture as a whole.
REAL GARDENS - Gardens or "niwa" were a means of achieving the peace of mind for which rulers so desperately sought during the periods of strife and conflict which marked much of Japan's history. The character of most of today's famous gardens in Japan owe much of their development to the influence of Zen Buddhism brought from China in the thirteenth century. The visual entities which may appear as a design in the Western sense of forms, textures, and colors are less important than the invisible philosophical, religious, and symbolic elements.
Pictures from Japan taken from 2005 to 2008
TOKYO - Japan has many gardens. The most important one is Tokyo. Although Paris, London, and New York had long-established urban cultures with central concentrations of multistory buildings, Tokyo's retooling former farmers preferred to stay far from the center, close to the land. The vast majority of properties in the city, then and now, are two-story single-family dwellings. So the city was, in effect, feudal and suburban before it was industrial and urban. Even with frequent necessity to rebuild--after the 1923 earthquake and devastating attacks during the last two years of World War II--the renewal didn't fundamentally change the scale and type of buildings constructed. For decades, Tokyo resisted high-rise development, but a new vision of the city is rapidly taking shape. The capital of the world's second largest economy is clearly an international city, but its built form remains utterly unique and defiantly Japanese.
KYOTO - Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture. Although there was some consideration by the United States of targeting Kyoto with an atomic bomb at the end of World War II, it was decided to remove the city from the list of targets due to the "beauty of the city". As a result, Kyoto is the only large Japanese city that still has an abundance of prewar buildings.
HIDA - Besides two historical hotspots in Hida region (Takayama city and Shirakawa village), you will discover in this gallery one of the fundament of the Japanese culture. The Japanese gardens concept allows us to understand better the Japanese culture as a whole.
REAL GARDENS - Gardens or "niwa" were a means of achieving the peace of mind for which rulers so desperately sought during the periods of strife and conflict which marked much of Japan's history. The character of most of today's famous gardens in Japan owe much of their development to the influence of Zen Buddhism brought from China in the thirteenth century. The visual entities which may appear as a design in the Western sense of forms, textures, and colors are less important than the invisible philosophical, religious, and symbolic elements.
Keywords: japan
