Japan has one of the world's most admired architectural traditions, one that has influenced Western artists and architects from the mid-19th century to the present. But at home Japanese architects have long found themselves faced with a dilemma: how to be modern and still remain Japanese. When the modern movement was brought back from Europe by early Japanese students of Germany's Bauhaus and France's Le Corbusier (see below), the results were often merely derivative cubist modern.
Ironically, what paved the way for Japan's present architectural rebirth was defeat in World War II. The B-29s...