is an

architectural style An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture relate closely ...

that emerged from the Eclecticism in architecture movement of the late 19th and early 20th century, which intentionally incorporated Japanese architectural and Western architectural components into one building design. The style is both a precursor to and a style of . The style emerged in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

in the 1853–1867 Bakumatsu period, and spread throughout Japan after the 1868 Meiji Restoration, and then to Asian and Western countries during the expansion of the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

. This architectural style is characterised by both components of enlightenment Western-style architecture and components of historically emblematic traditional Japanese architecture. Buildings that are early exemplary representations of this style are: built by in 1872, the Kaichi School Museum building built in 1876, and built in 1881.

History

The earliest examples of Japanese-Western Eclectic Architecture were built by the French government as part of the

Japonism ''Japonisme'' is a French term that refers to the popularity and influence of Japanese art and design among a number of Western European artists in the nineteenth century following the forced reopening of foreign trade with Japan in 1858. Japon ...

artistic movement's influence on French architecture. The term Japanese-Western Eclectic Architecture had been used by

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

sociologist

Wajiro Kon was a Japanese architect, designer, and educator. He is renowned as the father of "modernology" (''kogengaku''), a branch of sociology which studied the changes in cityscape and people which emerged as a consequence of Tokyo becoming a modern me ...

, in his 1925 survey of housing recently built along the

Chūō Main Line The , commonly called the Chūō Line, is one of the major trunk railway lines in Japan. It connects Tokyo and Nagoya, although it is the slowest direct railway connection between the two cities; the coastal Tōkaidō Main Line is slightly faste ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. Wajiro reviewed 588 houses built in 1921 near

Asagaya Station is a railway station on the Chūō Main Line in Suginami, Tokyo, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Asagaya Station is served by Chūō-Sōbu Line local and Chūō Line (Rapid) The is the name given to rapid se ...

and categorised them as ''Japanese Style'', ''Culture Style'', and ''Japanese Western Style'' respectively. In Kon's original thesis, the single criterion that needed to be met for classifying a house as Japanese Western Eclectic Architecture was the inclusion of a Western style .

Examples of Japanese-Western Eclectic Architectural Styles

The Japanese-Western Eclectic Architecture emerged in the final years of the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

, and then spread to other parts of Japan. The development of the style started with early architectural examples from Yokohama.

Bakumatsu Period Yokohama

These examples were built within the jurisdiction, where the military Bakumatsu government had allowed concessions to foreign governments. File:France Naval Hospital.jpg, The French Naval Hospital built in 1865 is a distinct derivative of Japanese Western Architectural Style called

Giyōfū architecture was a style of Japanese architecture which outwardly resembled Western-style construction but relied on traditional Japanese techniques. It flourished during the early Meiji period, and disappeared as knowledge of Western techniques became more ...

. File:French Military Station.jpg, The French Military Station built in 1864. File:British Legality in Yokohama.jpg, The British Provisional Legation built in 1867

Post Meiji Restoration

File:Dai-ichi Kokuritsu Ginko.JPG, The First National Bank of Japan (1872) File:Former Kaichi School 2009.jpg, Former Kaichi School in the Kaichi School Museum Building in one of the Japanese-Western Eclectic Architectural styles called Giyōfu architecture File:富士屋ホテル - panoramio.jpg, Fujiya Hotel established in 1878, Hakone File:Fujiya hotel Hakone.jpg, Pavilion of the Fujiya Hotel, Hakone File:220430 Former Saiseikan Main Building Yamagata Yamagata pref Japan01s3.jpg, Former Saiseikan hospital built in 1878, Yamagata Prefecture File:131103 Seikatei Sapporo Hokkaido Japan01s3.jpg, Seika Restaurant (1881) File:ShayokanOverallView.JPG, ''Shayokan'' built in 1907, was the birthplace of author Dazai Osamu. File:Stairs 4 (斜陽館にて).jpg, Western style staircase of ''Shayokan'' File:Makiki Church - panoramio (3).jpg,

Makiki Christian Church Makiki Christian Church is a Christian church located in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was built in 1931, and is the only Christian church in the United States designed to look like a 16th-century Japanese castle. History In 1903, Takie Okumura, a pas ...

building, Hawaii, completed in 1934. File:Hyokeikan - Tokyo National Museum.jpg, The Hyokeikan wing of the

Tokyo National Museum The or TNM is an art museum in Ueno Park in the Taitō ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the four museums operated by the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage ( :ja:国立文化財機構), is considered the oldest national museum in Japan, ...

, first opened in 1909.

References

{{Reflist Japanese architectural styles Architectural styles Eclectic architecture