Abstract

Architectural detective Terunobu Fujimori and photographer Mitsumasa Fujizuka bring deep insight and intense photography to this comprehensive investigation of Japan's wooden heritage sites!

This popular series, which ran in the Kateigaho magazine for five years from 2019, has been turned into a book. Also, be sure to read Mikio Koshihara's column, "32 Wooden Heritage Sites Seen Through the Eyes of a Structural Scientist."

Architectural detective Terunobu Fujimori provides in-depth writing, while leading architectural photographer Mitsumasa Fujizuka takes sharp photographs. The collaboration between these two masters is truly unbeatable—the rook and the bishop in shogi. But it doesn't end there: Professor Koshihara of the University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science contributes a column on each wooden heritage site from a structural science perspective. Kateigaho ran this extravagant series for five years. This book reconstructs the 32 wooden heritage sites in a style different from the magazine, making it a book that "will be preserved for future generations."

Author’s Information

Terunobu Fujimori was born in Nagano Prefecture in 1946. He is currently a professor at Kogakuin University and a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo. He graduated from the Department of Architecture at Tohoku University's Faculty of Engineering in 1971 and completed his doctoral studies in Architecture at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Engineering in 1978. He has previously served as a professor at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science and the Faculty of Architecture at Kogakuin University. His specialty is modern and contemporary architecture from the Meiji period onward. His work as an "architectural detective," unravelling architectural history through meticulous fieldwork and vast amounts of material, has garnered widespread acclaim. His work encompasses a wide range of original architectural projects and publications.

Mitsumasa Fujitsuka was born in Tokyo in 1939. He graduated from Tokyo College of Photography in 1961. After working at the editorial staff of the monthly magazine "Interior," he went independent in 1965. While large format cameras were the norm in the world of architectural photography, he was an early adopter of 35mm cameras, capturing the live images of architecture, including its surroundings and people. He is the author of numerous books, including "Japan's Wooden Heritage: A Journey Through a Thousand Years of Architecture" and "Japan's Residential Heritage" (Sekai Bunka Publishing). In 2018, he received the 2017 Mainichi Design Award Special Award for his many years of architectural photography.