The purpose of this article is to point out some similar processes of the transition of space treatment in Japanese and Western classic architecture, and to extract common formulae between their spatial developments. Japanese architecture in the seventh century, when it was influenced by Chinese and Korean architecture for the first time, possessed a sculpture-like character in its symmetrical planning and pyramidal arrangement. The character was the same in Greek architecture. Then, Japanese architecture became to possess a picture-like character. This transition was very similar to that from the Greek temple architecture to the Roman one. One of the noticeable features in the course of these transitions is the similarity in treatments of the rear walls. Every shinto shrine since the thirteenth century has the side-screens (waki-shoji), which have just the same character as the closing wall of the side-colonnades of some early Roman temples. Roman sanctuaries, on the other side, often had the cloisters as Japanese ancient Buddhist temples and palatial buildings, and we can find all of three main types of Japanese cloisters in Roman architecture. Japanese architecture, at the same time, gradually developed and articulated its interior space and became to reflect movements of men who acted in it. The development of the interior space and the emphasis of the entrance in Roman buildings coincide with this Japanese transition. Japanese and Western classic architecture, in short, both developed from the stage of sculpture-like character to that of picture-like one.
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