This modern-Japanese-style building, built in 1921, originally was a villa of Yamamoto Shunkyo, a leading Japanese-style painter in the Kyoto art world before the Second World War. The garden of the villa directly faced Lake Biwa when it was built in that they could enjoy a boat ride on the lake from a small boat dock in the garden. Thereafter, however, the lakeshore was reclaimed to build a wide road, which consequently separated the villa from the lake. The specification of the villa is full of fanciful and playful ideas of the original owner. A round window in the first photo is decorated with a set of bamboo work in the center likened to withered plume grass. This idea may express wabi-sabi from Zen Buddhism. The second photo shows a tokonoma alcove with a square bamboo alcove post using very rare bamboo.
Such playful ideas can be found not only inside and outside of the building, but also throughout the garden. This kind of building style is called Sukiya-zukuri, and is often seen on teahouses and villas in Japan.
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