Kominka: The Beauty and Wisdom of the Japanese Traditional House

For centuries, the traditional folk houses known as ＂ kominka＂ have provided shelter and embodied the values of the agrarian, merchant and samurai society of pre-modern Japan. Their huge sturdy posts and powerful beams have withstood earthquakes and other natural disasters, demonstrating the artistry of Japanese carpenters and the strength of traditional wood joinery. Preserved and reconstructed today, they offer silent testimony to the enduring beauty and resilience of traditional Japanese cultural values. Recently, not only many overseas travelers visit them, also some of foreigners have even acquire them to convert to their residences and business properties. With many images, this book present the diary of the reconstruction of kominka by author, Kazuo Hasegawa, which gives readers ample hints to learn Japanese traditional architectural ellements, and the guide to 101 most attractive kominka and its villages in Japan, which are now used as inns, restaurants, galleries and others, you are able to visit and stay in to enjoy the wisdom and artistry from Japan’s past.

Kazuo Hasegawa is Japan’s one of leading advocates for the preservation of historic kominka. He is a former publisher of the residential real estate magazine. Around the mid 1980’s attracted by a simple beauty of traditional houses and old town atmosphere, he walks around Japan to seek and take photographs of them. In 2010, his dream kominka is reconstructed and completed in Yamanashi after 30 years of his research and study.