| Itō Chūta 伊東忠太 | |
| Birth Date: | 26 October 1867 |
| Birth Place: | Yonezawa, Yamagata |
| Death Date: | 7 April 1954 |
| Death Place: | Bunkyō, Tokyo |
| Alma Mater: | Imperial University |
| Practice: | Japan Art Academy (final) |
| Significant Buildings: | Tokyō University of Commerce Tsukiji Hongan-ji Kanematsu Auditorium at Hitobashi University |
| Awards: | Order of the Sacred Treasure Order of Culture |
was a Japanese architect, architectural historian, and critic. He is recognized as the leading architect and architectural theorist of early 20th-century Imperial Japan.[1]
Second son of a doctor in Yonezawa, present-day Yamagata Prefecture, Itō was educated in Tokyo.[2] From 1889 to 1892 he studied under Tatsuno Kingo in the Department of Architecture at the Imperial University.[1] Josiah Conder was still teaching in the department, while Ernest Fenollosa and Okakura Kakuzō were also influential in the formation of Itō's ideas.[1] [3] For graduation he designed a Gothic cathedral and wrote a dissertation on architectural theory.[1] His doctoral thesis was on the architecture of Hōryū-ji.[1] [4] He was professor of architecture at the Imperial University from 1905, then of Waseda University from 1928.[5]
Itō travelled widely, to the Forbidden City with photographer Ogawa Kazumasa in 1901 and subsequently, after fourteen months in China, to Burma, India, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Europe and the United States.[2] [5] [6] Later he was involved in the planning of Chōsen Jingū in Seoul and a survey of the monuments of Rehe in Manchukuo.[7] [8] He incorporated elements of the diverse architectural styles he encountered in his many writings and approximately one hundred design projects.[5] [9] He was also a leading proponent of the Imperial Crown style of architecture, which had been developed for the Japanese Empire by architect Shimoda Kikutaro.[10] [11]
Itō helped formulate the Ancient Temples and Shrines Preservation Law of 1897, an early measure to protect the Cultural Properties of Japan.[12] He is also credited with coining the Japanese term for architecture, namely (lit. 'erection of buildings') in place of the former (lit. 'study of making houses').[2] A member of the Japan Academy, in 1943 he was awarded the Order of Culture.[1] [5] Itō has more recently been criticised, with specific reference to his writings on Ise Grand Shrine, for having 'blurred a religio-political discourse with an architectural discourse'.[13]
| Project | Date | Location | Comments | Image | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heian Jingū[14] | 1895 | ||||
| [15] | 1909 | ||||
| [16] | 1910 | for Ōtani Kōzui, one of the pioneering explorers of Central Asia and the Silk Road; destroyed by arson on 18 October 1932; to the north of Konan University; photographic documentation exists | |||
| Asoka Shinryōjo[17] [18] | 1912 | 34.9914°N 135.754°W | |||
| , Tokyo Imperial University[19] [20] | 1912 | ||||
| 1920 | shrine to Emperor Meiji; destroyed in the Tokyo air raids of World War II; rebuilt in 1958 following the original design | ||||
| [21] | 1923 | rebuilding after a great fire in 1919 that destroyed over a thousand buildings; in the city of Itō's birth | |||
| , Zōjō-ji[22] | 1925 | an earlier hall was lost in a fire in 1873 and its replacement in a fire in 1909; Itō's hall was destroyed in 1945; the Great Hall was rebuilt in 1978 | |||
| 1927 | for Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe, founder of the Taisei Yokusankai movement | ||||
| [23] | 1927 | ||||
| [24] [25] [26] | 1927 | rebuilding after the Great Kantō earthquake; houses the Ōkura Museum of Art with a collection that includes three National Treasures; Registered Tangible Cultural Property | |||
| [27] | 1927 | Romanesque Revival style; part of Hitotsubashi University; Registered Tangible Cultural Property | |||
| [28] | 1929 | ||||
| [29] | 1930 | Dedicated to 58,000 victims of the Great Kantō earthquake of 1 September 1923 and 105,000 victims of the bombing of Tokyo on the night of 9/10 March 1945 | |||
| 1931 | houses exhibits relating to reconstruction after the Great Kantō earthquake; located in Yokoamichō Park near the Tokyo Memorial Hall | ||||
| 1931 | |||||
| 1931 | reinforced concrete structure to house temple treasures, including texts by Nichiren, founder of the Nichiren School (On Establishing the Correct teaching for the Peace of the Land and The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind) | ||||
| Sōji-ji Daisodo[30] | 1933 | Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama | Monks' training center | ||
| , Yasukuni Jinja[31] [32] | 1934 | ||||
| Tsukiji Hongan-ji[33] | 1934 | rebuilding after the Great Kantō earthquake; evokes chaitya no.9 at the Ajanta Caves; near the Tsukiji fish market; Registered Tangible Cultural Property | |||
| 1934 | rebuilding of the Confucian temple after the Great Kantō earthquake | ||||
| [34] | 1942 | ||||
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