Word: yoshimura
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...largely agricultural prefecture of Kagawa into an architectural showplace and art center, and he has become ,known far and wide as the "design chiji [governor]." For the Takamatsu library, he brought in Yoshinobu Ashihara, architect for Japan's pavilion at Expo 67. Professor Junzo Yoshimura, original architect of Emperor Hirohito's new palace in Tokyo, managed the restoration of the exquisite Moon-Scooping Pavilion, built by Matsudaira...
...shelter and, since 1961, a 15-room house in the palace compound. Five years ago it was decided that proper settings for the Emperor's ceremonial occasions could no longer be delayed. The architect picked for the honor of designing the Emperor's $25.5 million palace: Junzo Yoshimura, now 56, a professor in Tokyo's University of Fine Arts as well as the prestigious designer of a score of hotels, office buildings and private houses...
...Yoshimura set out with "passion, sincerity and artistic fervor" to achieve "the finest possible space effect through the simplest possible composition." While using modern materials like steel and concrete, he hoped to build "a new palace for Japan so elevated in grace and dignity that it will be worthy of being preserved for posterity." His design called for a quadrangle of ceremonial halls (the Emperor will "commute" from his nearby living quarters), each pavilion to be propped serenely on stilts like a Shinto shrine and set shimmering amid a beautiful pine grove. There would be escalators for elderly visitors...
Abruptly, midway through construction, came a threat that the whole project might well turn out like the Emperor's new clothes. In an unprecedented action, Architect Yoshimura resigned. "Palace authorities have persistently ignored my conscience as an artist," he charged. The crux of the matter, it developed, was the old bugaboo of public projects-cost. Yoshimura's idea of simplicity, claimed Ryoichi Takao, head of the Palace Construction Bureau, included too many costly details. Yoshimura, for instance, wanted the expansion joints connecting the buildings covered, and planned to use 45-ft.-long, exposed cypress beams for the ceiling...
...Yoshimura, details-from the bronze sheeting on the concrete columns to the pebbles in the garden-were everything. "With design alone," he said, "not even Picasso can do a painting. He has to affix color, and in the process of doing so he will revise the original design for the finest possible overall effect. It's exactly the same with me as an architect...