World Observation - (Culture Politics & the Built Environment) by Matthew Mullane (Hardcover)

About the Book

An Incisive Study of a Towering Figure in Modern Japanese Architecture

Book Synopsis

World Observation explores the archives and architecture of Itō Chūta (1867-1954), the eminent architectural thinker of the Japanese empire, who traveled across Asia, Europe, and North America to create the first world history of architecture in Japanese from a truly global set of encounters. In his mission to integrate Japan into existing world histories, legitimate Japanese colonial expansion, and train observers to see the world in the way that he did, Itō theorized new kinds of "observation" (kansatsu) in writing and drawing that strategically blended epistemological values from European science, philosophy, and anthropology with Japanese Buddhism, folklore, and naturalism. World Observation presents close readings of Itō's writings, sketches, and designs to cast new light on a key figure in the architectural history of Imperial Japan and situate his contributions within the sweep of global architectural history across the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Review Quotes

Matthew Mullane examines the work of Itō Chūta, a teacher, architect, architectural historian, and preservationist who played a pivotal role in the development of the architectural profession in Japan. This impressive study is theoretically sophisticated, is based on rigorous archival research, and tackles aspects of Itō's career that some postwar scholarship has shied away from, including his contributions to Japanese imperialism.--Jonathan Reynolds, Barnard College/Columbia University

Were World Observation solely a biography of the architect Itō Chūta, it would be a valuable and compelling study, given Itō's importance to the origins of the field of Japanese architecture. But Matthew Mullane's book is so much more. World Observation makes a strong case that the modern practice of observation and the history of architectural design in Japan are inseparable. In doing so, it connects design to drawing, travel, thinking, and writing in ways that are surprising and insightful, and dynamically entangles the emerging field of architecture in Japan to developments elsewhere in Asia and Europe. The result is a richly conceptualized vision of the multinodal origins of modern architecture that will be of interest to readers well beyond the field of architectural history.--Yukio Lippit, Harvard University

Thanks to this deeply researched study, readers can at last gain a full and nuanced picture of twentieth-century scholar, architect, and pan-Asianist ideologue Itō Chūta. As Mullane demonstrates, Itō's fascinating and eccentric body of work is equally important to our understanding of global architectural modernity as it is to the history of modern Japan.--Jordan Sand, Georgetown University

About the Author

Matthew Mullane is assistant professor of the history and theory of architecture at Radboud University in the Netherlands.