Japanese Shrines Architecture Uniqueness Essay

Buddhism entered Japan during the sixth century with more advanced sculptures and architectures that imposed a great effect on the shrine architecture. Buddhists used stylish technologies to produce their texts and architecture, and in return, more supporters were pleased and developed much interest. For instance, the 6^th century is the period when Japan experienced religious architecture of high quality. The famous monastery of Horyu came into being during this period (Young & Young, 2007). The layout of this religious building was very long-lasting, as it is the oldest wooden structure globally. Its high-quality structure made it become a world heritage structure. Buddhists came into Japan with many architects from Korea who were equipped with new techniques like that of Chinese styles of architecture.

Most of the architecture that was made during the Nara period was full of Tang style more stable in its structural form, and attractive ornamentation. Most people started showing more interest in china’s Buddhist architecture due to some improvements. For instance, Chinese architecture made people use sits while the architecture of Japan was used to, make them sit on the floor. In terms of lifestyle, Buddhists architecture challenged Japanese architecture during the sixth century.

However, apart from the lifestyle influence climate changes were also factors that Japanese thought of greatly (Hong, 2004). In Japan the common weather is long and hot summers, there was need for a house that would keep the air moving freely. Wood was then the best material to construct the houses as it reacts well to all sorts ‘of weather, as well as during earthquakes. Through the architecture, human beings are able to bring the heavenly themes into physical appearance. From a far distance, one may see the architecture of Japan and that of china being similar, but through a closer look would reveal differences in some unique qualities. On the compound layout and materials of the building mattered a lot to the Buddhists. They also concentrated much on the visual elegance and the actual balance of the building compared to the level of the environment. According to the beliefs of the Buddhists, a temple or any religious building was supposed to be on a complexity ground. Such complex features included, mountain peaks, curving of the hillsides, and near a source of water like a river. Placing a temple on top of a mountain did not only imply the unique physical feature, but also a secure place for worship.

The Buddhists came up with set standards of constructing a temple. There were strict guidelines that acted as the course of actions like symmetry and axis arrangements. Symmetry implied that the worship halls to visually balance with pagodas. The principle of axis implied a north – south axis of the temple entrance, the entering path, and the main hall of worship. Through these Chinese construction standards, the city was in rectangular blocks. The Buddhists architecture mainly preferred the use of both the woods and stones, unlike the Japanese shrine architecture that mostly made use of exclusive woods (Karl, 2004). According to the Japanese, the use of woods in architectural activities was a way of celebrating a new life, as the country was very blessed with forests and wood working experts. The use of stones was time consuming to prepare, and very expensive to transport to where they are needed.

The Japanese shrine architecture preferred constructing on high platforms to control the moisture from interfering with the building. The Japanese proved to be very old-fashioned as far as decorating the constructions was concerned. They practiced their cultural ways of decorating their finished buildings. When the Chinese Buddhists came, Japanese started practicing a more advanced decoration by use of eaves and columns done in dazzling colors. Japanese wanted to show natural simplicity in their constructions, and that is why they finished their work with bare wood. They used woods such as cypress, the wood that does not have negative effects on weather changes, and does not require any paintings. The construction of temple in Japan was influenced by the Buddhists style of architecture like use of sloping roof, use if tile patterns, and other building set ups.

Japanese architecture adopted much of the civilization of construction from the Buddhists like inclusion of base columns to make the building strong and stable. These support columns attached along the rectangular perimeter divided the main worship hall of the temple. Another feature tat was adopted is the use of sloping roof that maintained the arithmetical balance with the natural environment (Young & Young, 2007). The eaves were designed in a modern style displaying g the harmonious feeling of the temple. The rafters of the temple were interlacing to support the wide round roofs of the building. During the low-density earthquakes, the interlacing rafters would assist in neutralizing the strength of the ground trembles, and help in transforming the kinetic energy into heat energy. This conversion of energy became possible through the presence of friction between the wooden components.

The roofing tiles of the temples acted as a form of decoration but also helped to tap rainwater to prevent soil erosion. Temples that were built by use of smaller roofing coverage, overlapping tiles arranged in a wave- like design was the best. The constructions with larger roofing space made use of contoured wooden boards that showed overall smooth curved features. This wave like design showed a Chinese way of doing the architecture. To some extent, the Japanese treasured much their cultural way of doing their architectural activities, for instance they did not prefer much roof ornaments for instance they did not paint the roofs with brilliant colors like the Chinese used to. For a long period, the Japanese architecture borrowed many designs from the Buddhists and integrated them. Through these civilized ways of doing the architecture from the Buddhists, the Japanese architecture managed to construct rich temples of high quality between eighth and 16^th century (Berleant & Carlson, 2007). Throughout the 8^th century, the Japanese architecture used many designs of Buddhists that consisted Chinese buildings styles.

During the Nara period, the Japanese fully accepted the Buddhism religion and their cultural practices including their architectural practices. Through this acceptance, the Japanese made some efforts to import new art materials to make their constructions look as good as those of the Buddhists, there was also need for a change in bureaucratic architecture as well as adopting a new language. Great temples started appearing using Chinese models.

For example, through he use of new Buddhist architectural designs a big temple known as kondo of Toshodaiji was built in Japan. This was one of the largest wooden constructions as it consumed a big space of about two miles. Inside this building, several statues were under this one roof building. Among the statues housed in this building was the recognized largest bronze statue globally of a Buddha sitting with 53 feet in height. Several statues made of profound styles with features such as short necks, big curved faces, and heavy bodies were inside this construction. This temple was a good indication of Chinese fashionable designs in Japan.

Much of the influence that came with Buddhists was from both the Korea and Chinese architectural designs (Karl, 2004). The people, who were willing to praise and worship Buddha, were doing it in the temple, which was next to the houses for monks and nuns. Towards the end of the 8^th century, the holy grounds of worship had different types of buildings such as the pagoda, the major hall, and dining big room among others. It was also mandatory to build a wall around the holy worshipping ground including the gates for entrance. According to the Buddhists culture and beliefs, the lecture hall was the largest as most of the activities were taking place there especially the holy teachings.

The Buddhists architecture styles preferred two different tower styles in which one was used to store the canonical scriptures, and the other one to act as the place where the religious observance would be announced. Buddhists preferred pagodas to be somewhere at the center of the holy compound where sacred remainders were held as they were the main items of devotion (Young & Young, 2007). This was an improvement of the Japanese shrine architecture, which did not have a specific way of construction. The construction of the Japanese shrines depended on the environment of the area. They used to arrange some stones in a line from the gate to guide the worshipper to the shrine. In addition, they had main halls that housed their statues made of iron and a figure of a lion. The main hall was in two styles, a temporary hall for holding special occasions like the Sumiyoshi Shrine in Osaka, and another hall with very simple shape for instance the Ise shrine. The Japanese architectural style did not prefer construction of a permanent shrine due to the reconstruction that was necessary.

Traditionally, the Japanese were supposed to rebuild shrines regularly as a sign of doing purification and renovating the old materials in that building. This was also a way of eradicating other natural calamities. Through the influence of Buddhism, the Japanese was able to interact freely with the china and Korea and adopt their ways of architecture. There was some important culture in both Korea and china, which was of help to the way Japanese used to construct their buildings. During the seventh and the eighth century, the interaction of architectural activities of Japan and the Asian continent was because of Buddhism plans.

Most of the early Buddhists sculptures in Japan were from Korea. From the learnt designs from the Buddhism architecture, the Japanese architects decided to choose modern styles of constructions to solve various problems associated with their past architecture. Starting with the roofs, the Japanese architects improved their way of using ceramic tiles to using cypress- bark roofing (Berleant & Carlson, 2007). On finishing the floor, the architects of Japan thought of adopting wooden timbers instead of finishing it with earthen floors. In front of the main worship hall, the architects decided to build an additional worship area for the high priests.

Originally, the Buddhists were from India, when they came in Japan they transformed many of the Japan ways of life. Within one century they had transformed almost every region of Japan starting with the government whereby a strong government than before came into power. Buddhist in Japan introduced a new system of writing, new and improved methods of constructions, and molding of bronze, as well as better ways and materials for painting. Until the 9^th century, the Japanese architecture was solely on the religious constructions such as temples, Buddhists carvings, and painting of Buddhists deities. The use of modern and indigenous methods of architecture became of importance in Japan when it broke with china in the 9^th century. Both the religious and the secular architecture improved day by day until the 16^th century.

The modern ways became the most popular in constructing the religious buildings such as the shrines and temples. Japan learnt cultural practices from the Buddhists, as well as economical and political aspects because many artisans and scholars came into the country with the Buddhism (Young & Young, 2007). During the 8^th century and the 16^th century, Japanese shrines adopted a completely new and different style, with additional vertical features meant to show the authority of God and man over the nature, unlike in the past when they used to build their shrines with horizontal features inside other natural objects.

The shrines that existed between the eighth and the 16^th century in Japan were more attractive than in the past. The shrines were finished with more decorations of bright colors, the roofing arranged in piles of different heights, and now partitioned in various rooms depending on their uses. The shrines after the influence of the Buddhists, were more attractive to look at and much interesting. Although it is hard to trace traditional Japanese shrine of stones currently, they were there after the influence of the Buddhists, stone shrines and tomb were constructed through some complicated methods.

The early Japanese architects were not using the crosscut saws or planes when finishing the woodwork, but after the influence, the cypress tree that the Japanese architects preferred using when finishing their work was from smooth through the planes making the final work look more attractive. Towards the end of 16^th century, the Japanese shrines were made by use of post and beam construction to make them more stable. The woodwork in their constructions consisted of elaborate joinery that increased the strength of the shrine (Hong, 2004). Before the introduction of the Buddhists in Japan, their shrines were marked with a line of stones starting from the gate to the holy place of prayers. The traditional artisans used to shape these stones, but after the influence of the Buddhists, some machines provided to the Japanese architects to help in shaping those stones, making them look attractive and the place more holy. These stones are arranged technically such that even incase of an earthquake, there is a high probability of them remaining intact. The traditional artisans used hammers and chisels in the past, but Buddhism came up with more advanced tools to be used in construction.

The structure of Shinto shrine has great influence of Buddhists for instance the presence of verandas, complex gate construction, and the presence of stone lanterns from the gate to the shrine. Japanese architects applied some unique styles in their constructions as they learnt from the Buddhism architecture. For instance, it was possible to see some improvement from the primitive shrines that were present without the major center part.

Reference List

Berleant, A., & Carlson, A. 2007. The aesthetics of human environment. Tokyo: Broadview press.

Hong, Y. 2004. Introduction to Japanese architecture. London: Tuttle Publishing.

Karl, A. 2004. Studies in Japanese Buddhism. Kyoto: Kessinger Publishing.

Young, D., & Young, M. 2007. The art Japanese architecture. London: Tuttle publishing.