The Katsura Village in the Modern Imagination

Part two of series on innovations in contemporary architecture featuring professor Jonathan Reynolds
The 17th Century imperial villa at Katsura has loomed large in the modern imagination. It has by turns been praised as a masterpiece of Japan’s rich artistic heritage and been embraced as a precocious expression of modernist aesthetics ideals. Photography has played an especially important role in making this at times remote architecture and garden complex accessible to a world audience. This talk will discuss some of the most influential photographic interpretations of Katsura, paying special attention to the two remarkable and distinctive portfolios produced by the Japanese photographer Ishimoto Yasuhiro.