Katsura Imperial Villa

Katsura-rikyû 桂離宮

landscape garden/ Landschaftsgarten

Kyôto City

Katsura-rikyû is one of the finest examples of pure Japanese architecture and garden art. The villa and the garden were completed in 1645. German architect Bruno TAUT was impressed by the beauty of the Katsura Villa. His book “Nippon – Seen through European Eyes”, written at that time, was perceived as a sensation in Japan, as Taut pointed the beauty of old Japanese architecture, which had not been noticed in the Japan of modernisation until then. After the Second World War, renowned Western architects such as Walter GROPIUS and LE CORBUSIER travelled to Japan and saw themselves confirmed by the Japanese minimalist and rectangular style. The architect Ben VAN BERKEL told in an interview: “When I was 20, I went to Japan, saw the villa and knew: I’m going to be an architect.”