Architects of Japan

Imported Modernism

In 1928, a 23-year-old graduate of Tokyo Imperial University boarded a ship for Marseille. His name was Kunio Maekawa.

For two years he worked in Le Corbusier's atelier on Rue de Sèvres. Two years later, Junzo Sakakura arrived in the same studio.

They returned to Japan with concrete, glass, and right angles. Modernism had crossed the Pacific — in Japanese hands.

Tange's Empire

In 1946, Maekawa hired a 33-year-old graduate named Kenzo Tange.

A decade later, Tange ran the architecture department at the University of Tokyo. His office became the seedbed for the next generation.

By 1970, four men had passed through it:

Three of them would later win the Pritzker Prize. All four would shape post-war Japan.

The Quiet
Counter-Revolution

While Tange's disciples built towers and stadiums, Kazuo Shinohara taught at Tokyo Institute of Technology — a quieter school across town.

His students designed houses, not monuments. Concrete became cloth. Form gave way to atmosphere.

Shinohara's most influential student was Toyo Ito. Ito's office, in turn, trained Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa — the duo that became SANAA.

In 2010, SANAA shared the Pritzker. The "quiet" lineage had taken the world.

Going Global

By the 2010s, the disciples had become the masters. And they were building everywhere.

Tadao Ando in Venice and Fort Worth. SANAA at the Louvre-Lens. Tsuyoshi Tane in Estonia. Shigeru Ban's cathedrals in New Zealand.

Eight Pritzker Prizes

Japan has produced more Pritzker laureates than any country except the United States.

The youngest received it at 44. The oldest at 88. A 44-year span between architects of the same nation, the same generation of training.