Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2022 - 24

Rendered views from Enscape and Oculus Quest 2 headset | Courtesy Naoko Skala.
others expressed concern lest the native
divinities be offended by the importation
of new gods " (93). The ultimate decision
of this first council was to approve
the worship of the Buddhist image as a
kind of temporary experiment, meaning
" that it took into account the native cult
and its provincial traditions, which had
little or nothing in common with the universality
of legitimate Buddhism " (93 and
98). Shintoism and Buddhism thus developed
together. The mainstream Japanese
religion was shaped as the merging of
two belief systems for worshipping their
ancestors.
Over time, Buddhism, Confucianism,
and Taoism influenced Shintoism, and
later became ideologized. After World
War II, religion was separated from the
state, and Shintoism became one of
many religions in Japan.
Studying Religion's Influence on
Architecture
The introduction of Buddhism also influenced
the development of traditional
architecture in the 6th century. In The
Genius of Japanese Carpentry, Azby
Brown notes that geographic isolation
from the Asian mainland caused a different
pace of technological development
from other countries because of a barrier
to migration and disseminating ideas.
However, during religious development,
technology was also developed evolutionally
(Brown 2014, 17). In the 7th century,
the two most important pieces of architecture
in history were built in Japan, Ise
Jingu and Horyu-Ji. Both of them influence
most of the Shinto shrines and
Buddhist temples.
Ise Jingu, a shrine dedicated to the
guarding deity of the Japanese imperial
family, unified Shinto's animism--the idea
that all-natural objects and phenomena
are considered to have deities. The spirit
of the ancestors of the imperial family
set the stage for an impressive building.
Jingu means shrine in Japanese, usually
referring to the Shinto gods' residence.
According to A Global History of
Architecture by Francis Ching, " Every 20
years for the last 1,500 years, the shrine
has been rebuilt, identical to the one before,
but with virgin old-growth timber.
The Ise Jingu that stands in Japan today
was built in 2013. In a sense, then, it is
practically new. Yet, at the same time,
it can be dated to the year 690 " (Ching
2017, 297).
Many Japanese royals preferred
Korean architecture before the 7th century.
However, after the mid 7th century,
they grew to prefer Chinese culture and
architecture rather than Korean. That
preference was reflected
in Horyu-Ji,
built at Nara in the late 7th century (301).
Ji means temple in Japanese, usually referring
to a Buddhist temple.
Ching describes how the Itsukushima
Jingu shows the merged ideas of
Shintoism and Buddhism as an architecture
style. " The original shrine dating
back to the 6th century, CE was rebuilt
on a grand scale in 1168. In the main
sanctuary, Taira no Kiyomori (a military
leader of the early 12th century in
Japan) presented 33 illustrated scrolls of
the Buddhist Lotus Sutra to the shrine,
making Itsukushima a seamless blend
of Shinto and Buddhist practices and
architecture " (423). Thus, even though
24 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | WINTER 2022
Buddhist ideas seemed to overpower
Japanese religions, Shintoism was not
weakened when Itsukushima Jingu was
rebuilt in the 12th century. Brown also
indicates that throughout the Buddhist
temple construction in the 6th century,
Japanese construction technology developed
tremendously because of the new
tools and techniques also introduced
at the time, and " this technology was
quickly canonized as emblematic of the
new political regime, which sponsored
its development and the education of new
generations of craftsmen " (23, 24). The
Hinoki tree, a type of cypress, is very valuable
today because " it is not only strong
and resistant to decay, but is easily workable,
and has a fine grain, delicate color,
and pleasant aroma " (25).
Because significant harvesting of
Hinoki forests occurred during the middle
of the 20th century, Japanese wooden
construction now uses different kinds
of trees for various purposes, including
Akamatsu (red pine), Sugi (cedar),
Tsuga (brown spruce), Kashi (Japanese
oak), Kuwa (mulberry), Komatsu (black
pine), and Asunaro (cypress). As a result,
modern temple carpenters use the wood
that looks good and matches the existing
wood used for these historic temples.
One such carpenter is Tsunekazu
Nishioka, who works repairing Horyu-Ji.
The construction traditions were passed
down orally because Nishioka's family
have been carpenters for Horyu-Ji and
temples for about six generations (Brown
2014, 31-32). Nishioka mentioned that
the original builders of Horyuj-Ji used
their Hinoki from the mountains in the
region surrounding Nara (Horyu-Ji's
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