Katsura Imperial Villa

Prince Hachijo Toshihito (1579–1629) founded Katsura Imperial Villa, for a while he was the adopted son of Hideyoshi Toyotomi (see Garden Styles section). They parted ways when Toyotomi's wife gave him an heir but Toyotomi gave the Prince land and allowed him to establish his own household in the family line. Toshihito was very fond of a particular book called "The Tale of Genji" and his villa was based on passages from the book which happed to take place in Katsura. Toshihito's son Toshitada added on to the villa and improved the garden after his father's death and today's views are said to look much the same as they did in the middle 1600's. "The Katsura palace (Katsura Rikyū) is a pivotal work of Japanese Architecture, often described as the "quintessence of Japanese taste." First revealed to the world by Bruno Taut, the great German architect, in the early twentieth century, Katsura stunned the architectural community of the West. Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, pillars of the Modernist establishment, were fascinated by Katsura's "modernity." They saw in its orthogonal and modular spaces, devoid of decoration, clear parallels to contemporary Modernism, going so far as to laud Katsura as a "historical" example of Modernity,"--Asian Historical Architecture website.

"Katsura Villa is surrounded by a magnificent landscape garden, with lanterns and hand-washing basins in appropriate locations, with a pathways laid out in a circuit for strolling. The structures are build in the pure Japanese Sukiya architectural style,"--The Japanese Tea Ceremony website.