During the 1920s, influenced by what was being built in Europe and America, architectural pioneers in Japan began experimenting with Modernist designs. Chochikukyo House, located in Oyamazaki-cho, Kyoto, was one of the first. At the time, architects such as the Czech-born Antonín Raymond, American Frank Lloyd Wright and Japanese natives Kameki Tsuchiura, Sutemi Horiguchi and Iwao Yamawaki translated Western Modernist principles – paradoxically often based on traditional Japanese architecture – into a unique vernacular style, where West meets East in highly innovative yet familiar domestic environments.
Only a few such groundbreaking houses survive today in their original form, Chochikukyo being one of them. Conceptualised by architect Koji Fujii in 1928, the design was based on his research into environmental engineering at Kyoto University. It was Fujii’s fifth family home, and its holistic architecture represented the ideal Japanese house that suited the climate of the country and the lifestyle of its people.
Fujii was born in Fukuyama City, Hiroshima, into a wealthy family in 1888. In 1913, he graduated from the departments of engineering and architecture at Tokyo University, and joined Takenaka Corporation, a traditional Japanese building and construction company founded in 1899 that has been behind many important architectural projects over the decades. While at the company, Fujii was responsible for administrative projects such as the seminal Asahi Newspaper Building in Osaka. In 1919, he left the office and decided to travel to Europe and the USA to observe international modern architecture.
After his return to Japan, Fujii was invited to teach at the department of architecture at Kyoto University, where he became interested in the influences of environment on architecture and human dwellings. In his book Japanese House, published in 1928, he drew on the nature and climate of his country to conceptualise an ideal – and perhaps idealist – Japanese modern house. ‘We must create a genuine Japanese cultural dwelling that is in harmony with our country’s unique environment and that is suitable for living here,’ Fujii wrote, decrying the fashion of architectural Westernisation that was popular at the time.
Chochikukyo was both his answer to this problem and his built manifesto: a responsive vernacular dwelling with many traditional features as well as innovative construction, spatial and design solutions. In 1929, Fujii published his practical research as Chochiku-i Design Collection, which consisted of drawings, photographs and writing. It was translated into English and published in 1930, becoming something of a worldwide architectural bible.
Fujii built approximately 50 houses before his death in 1938, but Chochikukyo remained his most accomplished achievement. It comprises three buildings: a main structure, a pavilion and a teahouse. They all occupy a plot at the top of a garden with views to the valley of Katsura and the Ui river below. From the outside, it looks like a traditional Japanese house, but a few features, such as strip windows, suggest the influence of Western Modernism. The hall, kitchen, study, guest room and bedrooms are located in the main building. Inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Josef Hoffmann and even De Stijl, Fujii enriched traditional Japanese interior elements such as shoji and tatami with European inflections, including a set of modern wooden chairs for the house and all manner of lighting fixtures integrated into its wooden architecture.
Chochikukyo was one of the first houses in Japan to take advantage of the advent of electricity, with Wooden and paper lamps were fully converted in the 1920s. Various integrated cabinets are reminiscent of the work of Charlotte Perriand, who was heavily influenced by traditional Japanese interiors. The pavilion – a single room with tatami on the floor and a corner sofa embedded into the wall – was used by Fujii when he wanted to be alone or, alternatively, when entertaining visiting friends. The traditional Japanese teahouse, built bellow the main house, features an open-plan interior with a tatami floor covering.
In 1999, Chochikukyo was selected as one of the 20 best Docomomo buildings representing Japanese Modernist architecture. Takenaka Corporation, Koji Fujii’s first employer, acquired Chochikukyo in 2016 from his family; in 2017, the house was designated a National Important Cultural Property and is now open to the public by reservation.
With thanks to Akira Matsukuma, author of ‘Chochikukyo: Cultural Property Representing Japanese Timber Country Modernism’
‘Living Modernity: Experiments in Housing 1920s–1970s’ will be held at the National Art Center, Tokyo, from March 2025 and at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, from September. The exhibition features 14 houses designed by architects from around the world, including Koji Fujii’s Chochikukyo House. For more information, visit www.nact.jp
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