Japans Kunst mit europäischen Augen gesehen

Zusatztext

Bruno Taut's second book, written in Japanese exile (1933-1936), is an account and analysis of the arts of Japan. While his first book, "Nippon Seen Through European Eyes", was devoted to architecture, the second book deals with the impact that the adoption of technical development and aesthetic values of the "West" had on the still living tradition of the arts of Japan. Taut succeeds in giving Japanese painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts their hitherto too little-recognized significance, using selected artists as examples, and at the same time demonstrating their future viability. He does not criticize the transformation of traditional Japan into a modernized technical civilization, but rather its uncritical adoption according to purely economic interests. Taut's vision of a reform and further development of Japanese culture with a return to its own tradition was realized in the period after the Second World War: Architects such as Kenzo Tange or Kunio Maekawa, designers such as Isamu Kenmochi or Sori Yanagi achieved worldwide recognition. They all read Taut's writings, which were widely published in Japan.

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