japan

Japan: Art, Architecture & InteriorPALACES AND SHRINES

- Japanese architecture:

- Originally heavily influenced by Chinese architecture from the Tang Dynasty

- Has also developed many unique differences and aspects indigenous to Japan as a result of dynamic changes throughout its long history.

The most notable is Daisen-kofun, designated as the tomb of Emperor Nintoku. This is the biggest funeral ground in the world.

THE KOFUN PERIOD (ca. A.D. 250-ca. 600)

- KOFUN = old tomb of earth mounds.- The mounds contained large stone burial chambers.- Shaped like keyholes.- Surrounded by moats. - By the late Kofun period, the distinctive burial chambers, originally used by the ruling elite, also were built for commoners.

Japan: Art, Architecture & InteriorPALACES AND SHRINES

Asuka Architecture

- the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world :the Hōryū-ji – as the private temple of Crown Prince Shotoku.

- consists of 41 independent buildings; the most important ones, the main worship hall, or Kondo (Golden Hall), and Goju-no-to (Five-story Pagoda), stand in the center of an open area surrounded by a roofed cloister.

- The Kondo (Golden Hall), in the style of Chinese worship halls, is a two-story structure of post-and-beam construction, capped by an irimoya, or. hipped-gabled roof of ceramic tiles.- The five-storey pagoda, also constructed around 700. It was built by carpenters from Paekche, a kingdom in southwest Korea.

- irimoya, hipped-gabled roof of ceramic tiles