Imperial Crown Style

Imperial Crown Style
Years active1919–1945
LocationAsia Pacific
InfluencesJaponesque, artistic eclecticism, neoclassical architecture
InfluencedEarly Modern Japanese architecture

The Imperial Crown Style (帝冠様式, teikan yōshiki) of Japanese architecture developed during the Japanese Empire in the early twentieth century. The style is identified by Japanese-style roofing on top of Neoclassical styled buildings;[1] and can have a centrally elevated structure with a pyramidal hip roof. Outside of the Japanese mainland, Imperial Crown Style architecture often included regional architectural elements. Before the end of World War II, the style was originally referred to as Emperor's Crown Amalgamate Style, and sometimes Emperor's Crown Style (帝冠式, Teikanshiki).[2][3][4]

Starting in Japan in the 1930s, this Western and Japanese eclectic architectural style was promoted by Itō Chūta,[5][3] Sano Toshikata,[3] and Takeda Goichi.[5] Itō, Sano, and Takeda had been appointed as judges for architectural design competitions, held a preferences for Japonesque aesthetics to be incorporated into the design guidelines, and chose designs where a Japanese styled roof was integrated into a Western style reinforced concrete building.[6][7]

The prototype for the style was developed by architect Shimoda Kikutaro for the Imperial Diet Building (present National Diet Building) in 1920, and reached its peak in the 1930s until the end of World War II.[1] The style ran contrary to modernism and placed an emphasis on including traditional Japanese architectural elements, in a distinct expression of Japanese Western Eclectic Architecture.

  1. ^ a b Francis Chia-Hui Lin (9 January 2015). Heteroglossic Asia: The Transformation of Urban Taiwan. Taylor & Francis. pp. 85–. ISBN 978-1-317-62637-4.
  2. ^ Yukiko Koga (28 November 2016). Inheritance of Loss: China, Japan, and the Political Economy of Redemption after Empire. University of Chicago Press. pp. 290–. ISBN 978-0-226-41227-6.
  3. ^ a b c Satō, Yoshiaki (2006). "Chapter 5 Appendix: 帝冠様式について" [About Imperial Crown Style]. 神奈川県庁本庁舎と大正昭和初期の神奈川県技術者に関する建築史的研究 [Architecture Historical Research of the Kanagawa Prefecture Main Office Building and the early Taishō Shōwa Kanagawa Prefecture Engineers] (in Japanese).
  4. ^ Morohashi, Kaz (Winter 2015). "Museums in Japan". e-magazine. Norwich,UK: Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Culture. Retrieved 2018-08-09.
  5. ^ a b Inoue, Shōichi (1995). 戦時下日本の建築家 [Architects of Wartime Japan] (in Japanese). Asahi Shinbunsha. ISBN 978-4022956309.
  6. ^ Kishi, Yu (2006). "建築における「日本的なもの」と「新興写真」" ["Japaneseness" in Modern Japanese Architecture and "New Photography"] (PDF). Icu比較文化 (in Japanese) (38): 61–88. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  7. ^ Watanabe, Hiroshi (2001). The architecture of Tôkyô : an architectural history in 571 individual presentations. Edition Axel Menges. ISBN 978-3-930698-93-6. Retrieved 2017-07-17.