Author: Itagaki Takao & Horiguchi Sutemi [editors].
Title: [Kenchiku Yoshiki Ronso].
Description: Tokyo, Rokumonkan 1932 (Showa 7). 20x18cm publisher's cloth, printed card slipcase; 711pp, photo plates, illustrations plans and diagrams through the text. An excellent copy, ¶ First edition of this near massive collection of writings on style in architecture put together by the indefatigable champion of modernity, Itagaki, and pioneer of modern Japanese architecture, Horiguchi. The book might be titled 'style' but there's a lot of serious thought in here by the heavyweights of the new movement in Japanese architecture. Apart from Horiguchi, contributors include Ichiura Ken, Yamada Mamoru and Taniguchi Yoshiro. Kawakita Renshichiro, who placed pretty well in the 1930 international competition for the Ukraine state theatre, details the structure of the designs. Saito Torao contributes what appears to be a ferociously technical study of the airport in modern cities. Itagaki writes on the Roman dome and Horiguchi on the philosophy and composition of the tea room - in its way the apotheosis of modernism.

Keywords: architecture design theory modernism c20th Japan meiji