Japanese Folkhouses

From timeless villages along the Inland Sea to primitive archetypes at Ise Shrine, from huge thatch-roofed farm houses near Kyoto to great manor houses in remote mountain towns, Japanese Folkhouses reveals an architecture of dramatic form, sophisticated space, and powerful structure. The 187 black & white and color photographs together with old drawings and succinct commentary document this ancient tradition's superb integration of architecture, culture, and nature - as well as its remarkable relevance to contemporary architecture. Now, despite a robust history more than two thousand years' old, this important folk tradition is rapidly vanishing before the onslaught of twentieth century technology and social change. Japanese Folkhouses, the eagerly awaited third book in the continuing series on vernacular architecture by Norman F. Carver, Jr., follows the widely acclaimed earlier volumes, Italian Hilltowns and Iberian Villages. His previous book on Japan, Form and Space of Japanese Architecture (1955), now out of print, is a classic in its field and introduced new directions for architectural photography in Japan.