Japan the Art of Living - Amy Sylvester Katoh

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use of antiques creates an atmosphere of calm and good taste.

      A handsome nineteenth-century kyokuroku (priest's chair), a scroll with tasseled weights, and a polychrome lmari platter set the mood at the entrance to the Knode house.

      Announcing the arrival of autumn, an arresting flower arrangement in the genkan brings nature inside the house. The charming asymmetry of a Bizen pot from the Momoyama period completes the tableau.

      High-tech magic. Hidden behind the warm, wooden craftsmanship of classical Japan is the high-tech craftsmanship of today. Utterly opposing media show the same high level of workmanship and an ingenious use of materials.

      GRACEFUL LIVING

      The built-in daybed is wrapped in windows. While reading a book or taking a nap you can enjoy the beautiful continuity of the trees outside and the art inside, the carved ranma (wooden transom) above and the painted fusuma to one side.

      Unfinished beams bound with rough rice straw hold the house together, while making a beautiful composition.

      INSIDE AND OUTSIDE

      Overleaf: The graceful harmony of beauty inside and outside creates an ambience of peace and visual richness. The magnificent daimyo hibachi (brazier made for a feudal lord) by the window is framed by two shokudai (candle-stands), creating a spot for conversing and enjoying the Knode garden through the elegant filter of tasseled bamboo sudare.

      BAMBOOZLED

      One never tires of looking at bamboo, its many forms, its many uses.

      Bamboo is silhouetted on the shOji behind a Bunraku (Japanese puppetry) lectern.

      A yukitsuri (skirt of straw rope and bamboo) protects trees from snow and wind.

      A bamboo ladle rests on a stone basin.

      Money is said to multiply when washed in the waters of the Zeni Arai Benten shrine in Kamakura.

      An old man of the Meiji era straightens bamboo joints by moistening them, then holding them over fire.

      A bamboo grove at dusk is an unforgettable memory.

      WINDOWS AND LIGHT

      In Patricia Salmon's elegant city flat, windows give onto the greenery of a temple next door, providing a natural spotlight for the dramatic sculpture by Masayuki Nagare and light for peaceful reading. Converted bronze shokudai from the Meiji era make stately lamps. A footed, lacquer tray holds magazines.

      The shape and placement of a window can determine the character of a room. This area was a dark space until the window was added, creating an interplay of light and shadow. Clean white walls and tatami floors contrast with the earthy textures of the beams and reeds on the ceiling.

      WINDOW ART

      The magic of shoji transforms the bamboo grove outside into alternating patterns of light and dark, nature and geometry.

      Kyoto carpenters used masterful techniques to design this bell-shaped, lacquered window. Adjacent is the family altar, originally built in Kyoto and moved to Tokyo some thirty years ago by the Mitsui family.

      The historic Sengakuji temple is the famous site of the mass suicide of forty-seven ronin (masterless samurai) in 1703. The marvelous architectural concept of shakkei (use of nearby scenery as a background) blends the temple and its flowering cherry tree with the state-of-the-art architecture of Edward Suzuki. Ascending the stairs of the house of Hilary and Carlo Colombo, one realizes the house was planned around this moment, when inside and outside combine in the meeting of the temple's cherry blossoms and the arrangement of blue and white lmari ware on a tansu (wooden chest).

      THE ART OF WINDOWS

      The concept of oku (distance) is central to Japanese architecture. It serves to lead the eye from the surface to beyond and within. This creates a feeling of space and dimension in a seemingly natural way, though it is, of course, entirely contrived.

      The ultimate art is nature, here filtered through reed sudare with classic hooks and tassels.

      Light creates a perfect space. Details like a copper basin, masterly woodwork, and light represent the thoughtful taste for beauty even in utilitarian places.

      Scores of torii (Shinto-shrine archways) dramatically compel the eye and spirit to travel through them to the deities of Zeni Arai Benten, the famed money-washing shrine in Kamakura.

      The interior serves as a frame for the beauty of nature outside.

      The carpenter shapes nature. He plans and designs shōji that highlight nature's beauty with dramatic, one-of-a-kind frames.

      Carpenter and gardener join to enhance nature by showing it through a window. By having the outdoors as one of its integral parts, the house itself becomes more beautiful.

      Soft light filtered through modern washi blinds by Hiroshi Morishima gives a shimmering loveliness to the living room of Stephen and Elizabeth Stonefield. The large ceramic rabbit on the coffee table started life as a nineteenth-century incense burner, used to repel insects when kimono were aired.

      LIGHT AND SHADOW

      In praise of shadows. Soft, diffused light creates shadows, warm and mysterious.

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