Professor Bruno Taut, a famous German architect, came to Japan in 1933 and made his discovery of Japanese architecture. He admired it so much that he immediately set about making a thorough study of the subject from various points of view - cultural, economic, social, biological and historical.
The present volume is the fruit of his conscientious efforts extending over a period of three full years. It is characterized by solid scholarship combined with a singularly penetrating insight into Japanese culture. One of its chief merits consists in the fact that in it the author exercises to the full his unusually keen power of observation and brings to bear upon his work the intellectual curiosity of a cultured foreigner which enables him to detect and appreciate much that is apt to be overlooked by the Japanese themselves. In this book he gives an illuminating exposition, in a narrative style but with scientific precision, of the salient features of the Japanese house, elucidating them by reference to the various factors, human and material which go into the making of the home in this country. Thus the book is a study of architecture not merely in its narrow technical aspects, but pre eminently as an expression and age-long depository of Japanese cultural heritage.