Imperial Villa Katsura. Katsura Imperial Villa Katsura Imperial Villa

(Katsura Imperial Villa)

The Imperial Villa Katsura (Katsura Rikyu), with an area of ​​about 6.6 hectares, is one of the most significant cultural treasures and the most striking masterpieces of Japanese landscape art.

The western district of Kyoto, where the Villa is located, is famous for its historical buildings, including those dating back to the Heian Dynasty (Heian, 794-1192). For example, here is the Villa of Fujiwara no Michinaga (Fujiwara no Michinaga, 966-1028) - a famous aristocrat and ruler of Japan.

The largest structure of the Katsura Villa, the Imperial Palace, originally belonged to the princes of the Hachijo-no-miya family, and today is managed by the Imperial Household Agency and accepts visitors by appointment. The current Prince Katsura does not live in the palace; like other members of the imperial family, he spends most of his time in Tokyo.

Prince Hachijo Toshihito (1579-1629), founder of Villa Katsura, was born on February 13, 1579. He was the sixth son of Prince Sanehito, and a descendant of the Japanese Emperor Ogimachi. In 1586, Toshihito was adopted by a major Japanese political figure, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but in 1589 they separated when Hideyoshi had his own son. As “compensation,” Hideyoshi gave Toshihito part of his land, which he profitably sold for 15,000 bushels of rice, and with the proceeds he built a new house in the imperial district of Kyoto, where other representatives of the Hachijo clan lived.

From an early age, Toshihito was interested in literature. One of his favorite works was The Tale of Genji, a novel one of the greatest works of Japanese classical literature written during the Heian era. He was well acquainted with the poetry of the past and present, and was interested in the works of the poet Po Chu-i. Toshihito loved literature so much that he copied passages from his favorite works and re-read them while relaxing. One of his favorite quotes was from The Tale of Genji: “Far away, in the edges of the village of Katsura, the reflection of the moon on the water is clear and calm.” Therefore, when Toshihito received land along the southern bank of the Katsura River, where The Tale of Genji took place, he set out to build a villa similar to the one described in the book. However, since Toshihito did not have much savings, the first villa he built was similar to a tea house.

After some time, Toshihito facilitated the acquaintance and marriage of the new imperial family, which made him a major figure in the social and political life of the country, a welcome guest in the imperial palace and a wealthy man. In 1624, he spent significant funds on expanding the villa; a pond was dug in the center of the garden, and artificial hills were formed along its banks. A priest who visited Villa Katsura in 1624 wrote that it had "the best view in Japan." In 1631, the main building of the villa was officially awarded the title of "palace".

Prince Toshihito died in 1629, when his son Toshitada was only ten years old. At a young age, Toshitada did not take care of the villa or garden. However, he shared the same interests as his father, and visited the villa in 1641. After marrying the daughter of the ruler of the Kaga domain, his income increased significantly, and he invested in the repair and reconstruction of the family estate. Toshitada rebuilt the house, as well as several tea houses. After these renovations, the fame of Villa Katsura increased significantly.

Prince Toshitada died in 1662, and his successor only a few years later. The fourth and fifth generation princes died in their teens, making maintenance of the villa impossible. Only the seventh generation prince, Yakahito, visited the Villa several times and made renovations here many times, in accordance with the layout of its original layout.

The villa combines architectural principles typical of early Shinto shrines and integrates them with the aesthetics and philosophy of Zen Buddhism. Many traditional Japanese techniques can be seen here, such as the use of raised floors with reed tatami covering them. Tatami mats are 90x180 cm in size and are used on all floors of the palace, including terraces and verandas, which offer beautiful views of the landscape. The floors of each building of the Villa are raised, which is typical of the designs of ancient Japanese granaries, as well as early imperial palaces. Thanks to this design, the floors in the houses always remain dry, but, in addition, a hierarchy of space is created. Other classic examples that can be seen at the Katsura Imperial Villa are decorated shoji and fusuma paper walls, decorative wall niches (tokonoma) and built-in tables (tsukeshoin).

The Villa's tea houses are a great example of how the philosophy of Zen Buddhism can influence architecture and landscape. The tea ceremonies that take place in these pavilions are an important part of the life of Japanese society and a certain spiritual ritual that symbolizes Perfection in the Zen tradition. Five different tea houses isolated from each other are surrounded by plant compositions and integrated into the landscape of the Villa. In order to harmoniously combine the buildings with the outside space, the wooden supports were covered with bark, and other man-made wooden elements were given irregular shapes close to natural ones.

In addition, tea houses are very interesting from the inside. The windows here are at eye level when seated, which creates additional harmony and brings visitors closer to nature, so that one can “admire cherry blossoms in spring and crimson foliage in autumn... while waiting for tea to be prepared or enjoying gourmet cuisine.”

The old living room (shoin), built by Prince Toshihito to accommodate large numbers of people and hold informal meetings, consists of rooms with nine, ten, and fifteen tatami mats, and has ceilings supported by wooden slats. On the south side there is a room with a veranda that shows elements of the sukiya style, suggesting that the veranda was designed in the style of a tea ceremony. A bamboo platform designed for relaxing under the moonlight extends beyond the veranda.

Compared to the Old Living Room, the Central Living Room is L-shaped, with a niche (tokonoma) on one wall and decorative shelves (chigaidana) arranged in a checkerboard pattern on the other. The walls are decorated with graphic images of landscapes, as well as seven sages in a bamboo grove.

The nearby living room is believed to have served as the prince's residence, as evidenced by the presence of a bathroom and toilet. The living room is surrounded on both sides by a veranda from where you can admire the garden.

The buildings, and to a lesser extent the gardens, of Villa Katsura became the subject of study by many modernist architects in the 20th century, who drew inspiration from the works of the famous German architect Bruno Taut. Le Corbusier, and later Walter Gropius, who visited the Villa in 1953, drew inspiration from its minimalist and orthogonal design. Villa Katsura also became well known thanks to Australian architects such as Philip Cox, Peter Muller and Neville Gruzman, who visited it in the late 1950s and 1960s.

The garden is famous for its natural, mythical landscapes, laid out around a large pond. The garden's design is a miniature version of Amanohashidate, one of Japan's three most famous natural beauties. Three islands in the lake resemble the mythical Islands of the Blessed - a sacred overseas country somewhere at the edge of the world.

Villa Katsura is located a 15-minute walk from Katsura Station, Hankyu Line, Kyoto. Free tours (Japanese only) are available on weekdays six times a day. Tours of Katsura Rikyu are not available on Sundays, public holidays and some Saturdays.

Photo: Olga Grozina,
Landscape center "Charm of Nature",

Unlike the shogun's military leaders, who, influenced by their aristocratic ambitions, created luxurious displays of power, the ancient aristocratic families, most of whom were removed from power, under the influence of the ideals of Zen Buddhism, turned to an aesthetics of introspection and deliberate simplicity. The most characteristic example of this new aesthetics from the point of view In the eyes of many modern architects is the pearl of Japanese architecture - the suburban imperial palace of Katsura. It was built by the nobleman Ishizonomiya Toshihito (1579-1629) and his son Toshitada (1619-1662). The project is based on the forms of a traditional tea house. In the 17th century Serving and drinking tea became an elaborate ritual with elaborate ceremonies demonstrating the quality of the tea and the methods of its preparation. At the same time, less attention was paid to tea drinking itself. In the second half of the 16th century. The patron of the Zen Buddhist monks at Ginkakuji, Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591), transformed this ceremony and made the whole character of the ritual simpler and stricter. This became an exercise in personal development called wabi-cha. His famous saying is “one moment, one meeting.” This ceremony was in contrast to the extravagance of the shoguns. With its help, they sought to free themselves from all thoughts about the past and future and achieve a state of detachment.

Rikyu created one of the first tea houses - a soan called Tayan. He was located in Yamazaki, south of Kyoto. A carefully laid winding path led to the house. The entire path, especially at its turns, offered views of the garden. The last section of the path ran at an angle to the house, from where a view of about three-quarters of the structure opened up. Carefully trimmed trees obscured part of the tea house and visually divided its view into two parts. This was supposed to help the participant clear their mind and focus on the present.

Inside the house there was a simple bench on which the visitor sat while waiting for the ceremony to be prepared. The entrance to the house was through a door so low (nijirituti or “climb-like door”) that a person had to bend over, adopting a pose of humility. In the main room (chashitsu) there were two tatami mats, another was used for making tea (katte), and the fourth mat covered the auxiliary room. The roof of the house is flat and low. Only above the main place it rises by a dozen cm. Inside, in the corner, there is a fireplace for boiling water. The entire structure is made of simple, unprocessed materials. The Katsura Imperial Country Palace, covering an area of ​​7 hectares, is located on the western bank of the Katsura River, which flows in the suburbs of Kyoto. The main building consists of three interconnected shoins (or parts), called Old, Middle and New shoin. It stands on the western shore of a curvilinear body of water with several islands. The old shoin, located to the north of the others, was built by Prince Toshihito, and the other two were built by his son, Prince Toshitada. The new shoin, along with the gate and driveway, was built on the occasion of Emperor G-Mizuno's visit to Katsura in 1663. Seven tea houses are located in the garden in the form of a semicircular arc and are connected to each other by a walking path. Therefore, Katsura is only a country residence of a noble nobleman with a walking garden. Katsura is remarkable for the layout of the structures, the use of materials and the route along which the walking path is laid. It, like the path to Rikyu's tea house, is laid out in such a way as to show off all the splendor of Katsura.

The entrance to the palace is through two gates. Ordinary people entered Katsura through a simple bamboo gate located at the far end of the austere but immaculately constructed bamboo fence. Nothing can be seen from the outside that was inside. Even upon entering the grounds, the view is skillfully hidden by a barrier. The front gate of Katsura was created for the emperor to visit this palace. This gate is quite modest. They open onto a straight gravel path lined with trees. The path leads to another gate located in the center of the picture. The entrance to the Katsura Palace is silent.

After the second gate the gravel path turns sharply to the right and goes straight for about 50m. This is the longest straight path in Katsura. The garden is located on the left and the villa is in front, but the view from this imperial path is carefully hidden by bushes and trees. Walking along the path reveals only small fragments of the garden, parts of the main tea house and the boat house. The bridge offers views of the water. The path then approaches the northern edge of the palace, where it makes a sharp turn to the left. Only at this point do we truly enter the palace.

A narrow cape, fenced with a hedge, juts into the reservoir. In the center of the cape grows a miniature Sumi-noe pine. The sight of a tree against the backdrop of a garden attracts special attention. The miniature tree makes the cape appear longer than it actually is. It shows how well thought out the symbolism is in the landscape. The garden of the Katsura Palace attracts not only with its picturesqueness, it is a ready-made set of scenery for filming in space and time.

To the right of Cape Suminoe, across a humpbacked wooden bridge, is the central gate where the visitor first encounters the architecture. A simple free-standing wall with a rectangular passage extends west from the ancillary building (where the public entrance is located). At the end of the gravel path at the threshold in this passage lies one large flat rough stone, and behind it are four smooth stone slabs laid in a square. Freely diverging paths made of loose stones intersect a straight path made of rectangular stone slabs. Thus, different types of path paving are used in Katsu-re. The thoughtful combination of different stone paths creates a strong visual and tactile impression.

From the central gate, a stone path leads to the entrance to the old shoin, called the imperial carriage station. Here, another separate wall with a passage extends north from the Old Shoin, from which another, neatly laid out path begins, leading east to Gep-paro - the tea pavilion closest to the Shoin. Stone paths, laid out from separately lying stones, look like someone's mysterious footprints. They always invite you to follow them.

On the final section of the path to the Old Shoin there is another rough stone. It is installed right next to the wooden staircase at the front door

Another characteristic feature of Katsura is the layout of the palace in the form of a simple hut, in complete harmony with the surrounding natural landscape (this is not much different from the palace architecture of that time). It's very similar to Rikyu's tea house. At each entrance to the villa there are large rough stones and each external support, at least on the garden side, is set on a stone that serves as its foundation. As in the Rikyu tea house, all the wooden posts and beams were left raw and unpainted, and you can even see the bark on some of them.

The geometry of the plan of the three shoin is based on the dimensions of the tatami and the sliding walls of the shoji, covered with transparent rice paper. The layout of the interior space consists of a series of walk-through rooms, with all the most important rooms located in the eastern part, facing the garden. Secondary rooms in the west have passages to non-residential premises. The Middle and New Shoins are connected by a special intermediate room called the Music Room. An outer veranda runs along the eastern border of the palace. It is bordered by sliding walls that can be opened and closed to adjust lighting and connect the outside and inside spaces.

The spatial and visual center of the Old Shoin is the transverse axis formed by the storeroom, the Spear room and the main room of the Shoin (Second Room) with an external bamboo platform called the moon viewing platform. (The Katsura River was known as a scenic spot for viewing the moon in August.) Both the frame view from the shoin and the open view from the platform are designed very carefully. A miniature stone pagoda in a clearing at the southern end of Immortality Island is the only distinct feature among the continuous forest landscape. The basis of the landscape is the still water of the pond, in which the rising moon is reflected in the east at night, and trees with their irregular outlines during the day. In autumn the trees are painted with bright colors, and in winter there is snow on them.

The main activity in Katsura is walking through the garden. The creation of the garden is traditionally attributed to the master of tea ceremonies and garden planner, Kobo-ri Aeneas (1579-1647), but there is no direct evidence for this. You can walk in the garden in different ways, but most often you started your walk from the north, walked around the pond clockwise from the Old Shoin, went down to the imperial path, walked around the northern garden with distant resting places, walked along the shore to the main tea pavilion (Shokintei), then We went to the large island with the Seiken and Oringo tea pavilions, and then through the riding area and moss garden - back to the Old Shoin.

It is important to note that these paths are not created as paths to any specific goal. Most of the paths are very carefully laid out from individual rough stones, which are one step apart from each other. Although each stone lies strictly horizontally and the distance between the stones is always equal to one step, the stones do not form a continuous path and can suddenly make unexpected turns, which force you not only to carefully watch where to step, but also to concentrate on the walking itself. The individual stones of the path allow for the tactile and meditative experience of measured walking, as required by the practice of Zen Buddhism.

The intersections of the paths are also done very skillfully. When the rectilinear paths surrounding the shoin and laid out from rectangular processed stones are intersected by paths laid out from individual stones, the latter seem to dance around the former with illicit disdain. But when they encounter a cascade of pebbles that represent the coastal "sand", they decisively walk through it, like a hurrying pedestrian. Sometimes it seems that they have their own tasks. A path of individual stones runs straight through the wet moss garden next to the Middle Shoin, while a straight path skirts the edge of the garden. In other cases, they are simply functional. Stone lanterns along the way mark the ends of paths and resting places. One of the most famous uses of a lantern can be seen on a sandbar jutting out into a pond. Here, at the end of the sandbar, a single lantern, called the Night Rain lantern, marks the end of the path, which may not be noticed.

The features of the synthesis of previous stages of development, which resulted in a product of rare harmony and measure combined with exquisite simplicity and naturalness, were most fully embodied in Katsura’s ensemble.

Although Katsura's gardens can be attributed to the final, final stage of development of the genre, this sophisticated work is devoid of the features of decline, loss of semantic significance, manifested in a passion for the purely formal side of creativity. On the contrary, the very principle of free and organic combination of features of different styles gave an interesting and fruitful artistic result. There are features here that come from the Heian architecture of Shinden-zukuri - a special “confrontation” between the building and the space of the garden, as well as the lyrical aspect of experiencing nature. The principle of constructing the interior of a house, as if opening to the outside, is characteristic of the shoin-zukuri style, which was formed during the Muromachi period. But an equally important place in Katsura’s concept is occupied by the qualities inherent in the architecture of tea pavilions (the so-called sukiya style) with its exquisite simplicity and deliberate attention to the natural beauty of the material - wood, bamboo, stone. Already the very first impressions of the ensemble are associated with admiring the golden-yellow, shiny surface of the bamboo fence posts, skillfully tied with straw strands. The veranda of the palace, made of smoothly polished unpainted boards, resembles the texture of a precious moiré, this is how the iridescence of the wood texture is selected and aesthetically interpreted. The ideals of the tea cult here seemed to spread to a more broadly understood architectural concept - not only the tea house and garden, but the entire complex of buildings and their natural environment.

Significant in size (its area is 66 thousand square meters), the Katsura ensemble has a complex, developed plan without any fixing vertical. Natural hills and depressions define the rise and fall, alternating between high points with distant views and lower, relatively closed ones. This is a single, horizontally unfolding space, the fluidity and dynamism of which is formed by the composition of the gardens, forming an integrity, but standing out in independently distinguishable links. The soft picturesqueness of Heian gardens organically merges with strong groups of stones filled with a sense of inner power, as if they came from Zen dry gardens. The countless shades of green of mosses, shrubs, and trees, conducive to contemplation, bring to mind gardens like Saihoji. But still, the most important thing remains the quality borrowed from tea gardens - the precise “guiding” of a person along a pre-thought-out, artistically verified route with a whole series of completely definite visual impressions. The paths of stones connecting the palace with the pavilions in the garden, leading to places of admiration of a waterfall or a particularly beautiful tree, give the impression of randomly curving, naturally winding among the depressions and uneven ground. The very first purpose of this path - not to get your feet wet in the damp grass - requires careful movement along it, constant attention to the unevenness of the surface of each stone, in other words, it forces a person to look down all the time. But the master who planned the path also considered peculiar respites in this careful, slow progress. He fixed them either with a larger and smoother stone or with a branching path. At these points of stopping movement, a person raised his head and saw a pre-thought-out composition, provided by the artist, that needed to be considered. The artist makes the path be a “guide”, not just lead, but show the garden, reveal its varied, changing beauty.

The first stage of construction dates back to 1620-1625 (under the leadership of Prince Toshihito). After a significant break, it resumed in 1642-1647 (this time for Prince Toshitada, son of Toshihito), and the last buildings were completed for the visit of Emperor Gomitsuno in 1659. In the second and third stages, the priest Ogawa Bojo was the consultant of Prince Toshitada, Tamabuchi was in charge of the arrangement of the gardens, and Kobori Seishun was in charge of the general management.

Although Katsura’s plan is such that the ensemble cannot be captured in its entirety, at the same time, it is entirely comprehended through the details, the whole is revealed through the part; The single synthetic space of the ensemble, which has no clear boundaries, continuously varies, is played out, experienced and, as a result, gives a lot of different emotions depending on the position of the observer - sitting motionless inside the room or slowly walking the way from the spacious open lawn in front of the palace to the pavilion on the island.

It is unlikely that there is an ensemble in world art that would provide such a complex range of emotions from experiencing nature and where every smallest detail would be played out so diversely and subtly. At the same time, the architectural form itself is almost secondary or, in any case, equivalent to natural forms - both natural and man-made.

The horizontal orientation of the palace, which not only does not rise above the natural surroundings, but even appears below the trees that create its background, completely removes the idea of ​​contrasting architecture and nature. The zigzag line of the façade smoothly matches it with the surrounding environment and makes it grow into it. The surface of the reservoir separates and at the same time unites all the buildings, and the relaxed line of the shore creates a smooth, natural rhythm of their alternation, something that could be observed in various gardens of the past. Here these qualities are emphasized and sharpened, but just enough so as not to be conspicuous and not to become self-sufficient.

The artist does not allow himself the slightest carelessness, not a single random detail, not a single inexpressive angle. A person looking from the interior of the palace into the garden sees a distant and majestic picture of mighty nature (a small pagoda on the shore of a reservoir creates scale and emphasizes the height of the trees). But if, sitting at the edge of the veranda, you lower your eyes, the main impression is the richness of textures: the soft golden bamboo of the terrace, the silky wood of the supports and railings, the silvery rough stones surrounded by emerald mosses. In both cases, the artist sought to achieve as complete an emotional experience as possible.

Those canons of beauty that were created over the centuries, complementing each other, merging and deepening, received real material embodiment here, achieving the high harmony of the classical model. The movement towards nature, the desire to comprehend it without violating its integrity, and to feel one’s place in it are expressed in Katsura as the embodiment of the ideal.

Everything here speaks of the slowness of the brilliant artist-philosopher, who constantly felt himself not outside the element, which he was given the opportunity to artistically comprehend, but inside it. And that’s why he was able to so vigilantly notice the beauty of a lacy fern leaf against the background of thick and soft green moss, shaded by the light stones of the path. He felt a gentle musicality in the alternation of large and small stones, caught and compared dozens of shades of green, forcing the viewer to experience the textures of objects again and again - in collision, contrast, harmony and consonance.

But most importantly, using natural objects as plastic ones, he creates an unprecedentedly diverse, meaningful space, sometimes static, chamber-like, closed at the entrance gate, sometimes moving and spacious, merging with distant wooded hills. It becomes the main and unforgettable “hero” of the ensemble.

It is difficult to even list all the non-repetitive methods of spatio-temporal organization of Katsura gardens. Here is an almost illusory distant landscape, calm and designed for long-term contemplation, and a sharply “braking” stone on the shore of a pond, and the closed world of the courtyard in front of the entrance, where the lantern-turret is perceived as a park sculpture, creating a long circular movement of space around itself.

The color scheme of the gardens was no less carefully developed, taking into account seasonal changes in greenery and the combinations that depend on this - with the wood of buildings, the white planes of sliding walls, etc.

But the most important result of the artist’s work is that the garden as a whole and all its details are permeated with a sense of spirituality, animation, and meaningfulness, revealed not only in symbols, but also in open emotionality.

The main quality of Katsura gardens is their special spatial and plastic connection with architecture. This applies not only to the gardens located near the tea pavilions, but also to the compositions directly adjacent to the palace. The poeticization of simplicity and poverty, based on the principle of wabi, was organically combined in the architecture of the palace with the aristocratic sophistication of the shoin style, and this indirect, but still traceable (albeit not as clearly as in chashitsu) connection with the democratic traditions of the rural house constitutes its main originality and quality , which subsequently influenced the formation of the type of residential building. The humanistic content of this architecture, manifested primarily in its proportionality to man, genetically also goes back to the people's home with its strict functionality, utilitarian justification of all details, which was aesthetically interpreted by tea masters in chashitsu architecture. Clear linearity, graphics, and emphasized orderliness of the architecture are compared and contrasted with the relaxed freedom and naturalness of the garden. But both of these components of the ensemble form integrity, the unity of the static and dynamic principles, the balance of rest and movement. The design features of the palace's architecture—sliding window walls, a lightweight frame, and the very naturalness of the materials (mainly wood)—make the house organically part of the garden. The outdoor space seems to flow into the interior, the garden “enters” the indoors, and for a person sitting on the floor mat or on the veranda, the garden is not separate or remote. It can be viewed, contemplated, like a picture, but you can also feel it around you. It was these features, brought to perfection and absolute clarity in the Katsura ensemble, that turned out to be the most important for the subsequent development of architecture and garden art.

The center of the ensemble is occupied by an artificial lake with a rather complex and differently designed shoreline, with islands of different sizes and shapes. The main building of the palace in the form of a long zigzag of buildings adjacent to each other at the corners opens into the garden and consists of three parts - Old Shoin, Middle Shoin and New Palace. At the main gate, opposite Old Shoin, is the Gepparo Pavilion, and between them is a garden in an expanded form - shin. This is the oldest part of the ensemble.

Tradition linked the authorship of the Katsura ensemble with the name Kobori Enshu, but modern Japanese scholars tend to abandon this point of view. The general plan, in all likelihood, belonged to Prince Toshihito himself, for whom the palace was built. The construction work was headed by Nakanuma Sakio, who, together with his subordinate artist and gardener Joshiro, was the author of the main landscape compositions.

From the veranda of Old Shoin there is a beautiful view of Gepparo and the garden in front of it. As you move inside the palace through the Middle Shoin and the New Palace, the view of the garden changes all the time and ends with a completely empty green lawn. Paths made of individual stones are laid along the building and through the garden. Walking along one of them to the lake, you find yourself in the Pine and Lute Pavilion - Shokintei, and then through the bridge - on the island where the Flower Admiring Pavilion - Shokatei - stands on the top. In addition to these main buildings, the ensemble also includes the Onrindo and Shokien pavilions.

On the paths of Katsura, a person seems to be invisibly present. The artist builds the entire ensemble - not only architectural structures, but also the environment - commensurate with man. If in the gardens of the 14th-15th centuries nature was only an object of contemplation and man only strived to merge with it, to dissolve in it, then here different scales and images create a slightly different type of connection between man and nature, which, in fact, can be noted as the main thing innovation of the Katsura ensemble.

Name:

Location: Kyoto (Japan)

Creation: Beginning of creation: 1615, palace - 1590

Customer / Founder: Princes Toshihito and Toshitada, Kobori Enshu

The Katsura palace ensemble was conceived as a place of solitude and hermitage for members of the imperial family. It is located near the Katsura River southwest of Kyoto, which was the capital of Japan for more than a thousand years.

The main palace pavilion was a simple wooden post-and-beam structure with rooms covered in straw tatami mats and a raised open veranda from which one could contemplate the beauty of the surrounding nature. The garden, trees and small pavilions located around the main building of the ensemble are connected by cleverly laid paths and are reminiscent of magical landscapes glorified in Japanese medieval poetry. The emphatically simple palace buildings are in harmony with the surrounding space and seem to blur the line between artificial and natural. Man-made hedges and paths made of stones fit more and more organically into the landscape over time, and lush vegetation looks especially decorative thanks to careful and regular care.

The palace buildings and gardens fell into disrepair during the Meiji period (1868-1912) and were neglected until the German modernist architect Bruno Taut opened the eyes of Europeans to Japanese vernacular architecture. Many famous architects visited the palace, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and. They were amazed by the Japanese’s ability to use natural materials and were amazed by the simplicity, flexibility and mobility of forms, which at that time were quite consistent with the tastes of Americans and Europeans.

Architecture of Katsura Palace

1. Vegetation. Only at close range can one see that the trees and shrubs, so natural in appearance, are neatly trimmed. The arrangement of plants surrounding the palace creates the impression of a harmonious balance between peace and movement, between strict form and the artist’s imagination.
2. « Sekintei" Sekintei, or Pine Lute Pavilion, is the most important among the tea pavilions. A stone bridge connects it with the path leading to the central pavilion - the sein. The Sekintei is covered with a simple thatched roof; inside there are partitions made of wood, paper and bamboo. The kitchen has everything you need for the tea ceremony, which is performed in the main room where guests sit directly on the tatami. The building, raised on pillars, is closely connected to the surrounding space, and its decoration is very simple. Some of the outer columns are deliberately unfinished - the tree bark covering them is left untouched. All beams, however, are carefully sanded - this technique emphasizes the natural beauty of the wood.
3. Overhanging roofs. Strongly protruding roof overhangs protect the interior from scorching heat and rain - water flows along them onto the strip of gravel that borders the house. The diffused light entering the room is reflected from the stone paths and softened by thin paper screens that are inserted into the sliding doors - shoji. Shoji replace windows in a Japanese house.
4. Craving for solitude. The craving for solitude and hermit life is reflected in the name of one of the tea pavilions - “Pavilion of Mocking Thoughts” (“Sei-ken”). The name is inspired by the works of the Chinese poet Li Bo, who became a hermit to laugh at the bustle of the world.
5. Sein. The main palace pavilion was built in the national architectural style of Senn-zukuri. The building was intended for solitary pursuits of ikebana, painting, reading and calligraphy.
6. Stones. Stones on a lawn overgrown with grass and moss mark picturesque winding paths leading to pavilions and islands on the lake. Smooth and rough boulders are carefully selected and placed deliberately unevenly to create a contrast with the straight paths that border the building.
7. Seasonal changes. The architecture of the building provides cross-ventilation, which is necessary in humid and hot seasons. However, the lack of insulation and thermal insulation makes the house vulnerable during winter dampness and cold. In this fragile, unprotected house, aesthetic experiences associated with the change of seasons - the anticipation of the spring cherry blossoms and the longing for fallen autumn leaves - take on a special poignancy.
8. Veranda. The veranda lined with bamboo is raised above the ground. From this place we contemplated the reflection of the moon on the surface of the lake. The meaning of the word katsura is associated with trees, the moon and the world of dreams.
9. Lake. A group of carelessly scattered stones leads to a small artificial lake. We took night boat trips along the lake, admiring the rising moon. The path running along the lake goes around areas of the garden, reproducing various landscapes in miniature.

Sources:

• Bogovaya I.O., Fursova L.M. "Landscape Art", Agropromizdat, 1988
• Ikonnikov A.V. The artistic language of architecture M.: Art, 1985, ill.

KATSURA COUNTRY PALACE IN KYOTO

Middle Shoin

The Japanese city of Kyoto is not just an amazing city with wonderful architectural monuments. For the one and a half million inhabitants of Kyoto today there are about 200 temples, hundreds of parks and dozens of palaces. The Japanese themselves call their city a national treasure, and indeed a fifth of all masterpieces of Japanese architecture are located in Kyoto.

But Kyoto is also a very special place, with an irresistible magic. The history of the city began on October 22, 794, when Emperor Kammu and the Crown Prince entered the new capital, called Heian, a city of peace and tranquility. Before this, the Japanese capital was located in the city of Nagaoka, but palace intrigues led to a political assassination, and then the imperial court decided to change its location, since the city was desecrated by shed blood.

The village of Uda in Kadono County was chosen to select the new capital. The emperor came here twice in 792 to inspect the place chosen by his entourage. The village was located in a picturesque valley among the mountains, and construction work here began already in 793. The Japanese imperial court then followed Chinese models in everything, and the new capital was built in the Chinese manner - with smooth streets intersecting at right angles.

For more than a thousand years, Kyoto was the capital of the Land of the Rising Sun, sometimes becoming a victim of fires and civil strife, sometimes experiencing times of prosperity. The waves of history have carried away many unique monuments and masterpieces of architecture, but what has been preserved amazes everyone who has visited the city with its severity and sparingness of lines, splendor and richness of colors.

Nowadays there are so many historical buildings and monuments, temples and shrines, palaces, fences and gardens in Kyoto that everywhere you can find some kind of attraction: the gently curved roof of a temple, a pagoda rising in the distance or a street onto which the facades of ancient houses overlook. The Katsura palace complex is rightfully considered to be a special pride of the Japanese, with its medieval simplicity and beauty of constantly changing park landscapes, harmoniously combined with elegant pavilions and gazebos.

Katsura Rikyu was built as a country imperial palace. It is known that since the 9th century, the land on which the palace complex is now located was owned by the aristocratic Fujiwara family, and at the beginning of the 17th century, it was acquired by Prince Toshihito, gifted with many talents. He knew classical Japanese and Chinese poetry, loved to draw and play the koto, was a master of flower arranging, and a great admirer of the tea ceremony.

In 1615, Prince Toshihito began the construction of a palace, the first buildings of which were distinguished by the simplicity that testified to the impeccable taste of its owner. In research circles, there is an assumption that Prince Toshihito used the advice of Kobori Enshu - a brilliant architect, poet, potter, master of the tea ceremony and a specialist in garden planning all rolled into one. True, historical records have been preserved that other masters were involved in the decorative arrangement of the garden, but K. Enshu’s style can be felt everywhere. However, the prince himself did not have time to enjoy the beauty of his country palace, and after his death, everything fell into disrepair.

The second stage in the construction of the palace is associated with the son of Toshihito Toshidada, who inherited his father’s talents, and the financial problem was solved by his marriage to the daughter of a wealthy feudal lord Maeda. The new buildings of Tosidad did not in any way violate the original plans of his father, but on the contrary, they organically fit into what had already been created, and thus, in terms of beauty and architectural design, a single palace complex was obtained.

The palace ensemble, built on the banks of the Katsura River, covers an area of ​​56,000 square meters. In the center there is a large pond of a very peculiar shape with five islands connected to each other by wooden or stone bridges.

The main part of the palace ensemble combines three buildings into a single whole - the old shoin, the middle shoin and the new palace. The buildings of the old and middle shoin are located in such a way as to avoid the sun's rays in the summer, but catch the soft rays of the sun in the winter, and provide the opportunity to admire the full moon in the fall. Their roofs, thanks to the different heights of the buildings, create a varied picturesque rhythm with their overhanging eaves.

The first floor of each building is surrounded by a veranda, which is separated from the external space by shoji - sliding walls. The veranda is raised above the ground on tall and thin wooden supports. The rooms, like the verandas, have sliding walls made of wooden frames with thick paper glued to them. Such walls can delimit interiors and separate them from the surrounding nature. Prince Toshihito loved to admire the moon and built a special platform for this in the old shoin.

The middle shoin contained Toshihito's living rooms. Their interior is very interesting, since the landscape on the walls and sliding walls is perceived as a natural landscape visible through the open doors. In this way, the boundary between internal and external space seems to be destroyed.

The middle shoin is connected to the new palace by a room for storing musical instruments, and it is framed by a wide veranda for playing music. The doors between the music room and the new palace are decorated in a very unique way. These are flowers characteristic of each season: in spring - sakura and wisteria, in summer - susuki and hibiscus, in autumn - chrysanthemums, in winter - plum, camellia and daffodils.

Natural building materials, which play a huge role in the artistic design of the buildings, also add exquisite simplicity to the Katsura Palace. Cryptomeria in natural color, wicker lattice fencing made of bamboo, white sliding walls, paths made of stone against a background of moss, gutters strewn with small pebbles - everything creates a feeling of noble simplicity.

An integral part of the Katsura palace complex are tea houses standing on the banks of a pond, without which it is impossible to imagine a traditional Japanese garden. The surface of the water itself seems to become the material for an endless alternation of landscapes designed for different seasons, days and different weather.

One part of the pond in Katsura is famous, for example, for the romantic reflection of the autumn moon, sung by many poets.

The most elegant of the tea pavilions is Shokintei, surpassing in its decorativeness all other tea houses of that era. Its eastern, western and northern sides face the pond; The low-hanging roof of Shokintei keeps you cool even on a hot day.

This pavilion contains several rooms. The first contains a tokonoma (a wall niche with a raised floor) and a stone hearth, which is used in winter. The paper in the niche has the shape of large squares - white and blue. This form is repeated in floor mats and sliding walls.

The last room of the Shokintei Pavilion opens onto the garden. This gradual transition of the interior into the space of the garden, which in turn turns into the natural landscape, is one of the characteristic features of Japanese architecture.

Even the sound of the wind and birdsong play a big role in creating an emotional mood. After all, Shokintei is a “pine and lute” pavilion, when the sound of the wind playing in the surrounding pines is perceived in the rooms as the sounds of a lute.

Another tea pavilion - Gepparo - is given its originality by the autumn season. Maple trees grow next to the pavilion, the leaves of which turn purple in the fall. From this pavilion you can admire the reflection of the moon in the pond, and from the veranda of the old shoin you can watch its sunrise.

On the territory of the palace complex there is also a Buddhist temple built in Chinese style. Prince Toshidada dedicated it to his father.

The suburban imperial palace of Katsura is famous not only for the architecture of its buildings. The palace garden combines the features of a wide variety of park ensembles, but its general character approaches the style of tea gardens, when the perception of the landscape occurs in the process of movement, the direction and rhythm of which are set by paths.

A visit to the Katsura Palace complex usually consists of a short walk along the intricately winding paths of the park. The park, in fact, was intended for walking and admiring the landscapes created by the most skillful gardeners. When you walk through the park, the landscape changes along with your movement: for example, a pond either completely disappears or appears completely unexpectedly in front of you. The constant movement of space is a feature of traditional Japanese architecture, because the Japanese are great masters of incorporating nature into a small space.

One of Katsura's famous visitors said that this palace complex was created to "think with your eyes." This statement becomes clear even after a short walk through the palace, when once a year its doors open to visitors.

Among the many attractions of the palace, they are shown the “Chamber of Peace and Coolness,” in which during ceremonies the emperor sat on a mat platform under expensive silk canopies. A staircase leads to this platform, on the sides of which there are two wooden lions protecting the emperor from evil forces. When a visitor stepped on one of the boards at the entrance to the “Chamber of Peace and Coolness,” an alarm was immediately raised using a special device and a formidable guard appeared.

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