Читать книгу 1000 Monuments of Genius - Christopher E.M. Pearson - Страница 9

Some of Japan’s oldest architectural monuments are its great Shinto shrines, notably those at Ise and Isumo. Chinese building practises, particularly the knowledge of timber construction, were carried with Buddhist missionaries to Korea and Japan in the 6th century. Many of the early temples at the capital city of Nara reflect such Chinese influence, and the complex at Horyu-ji is one of the oldest. The capital moved to Kyoto in 794, and the city is full of temples erected due to the patronage of the Emperor and his court. Among the other antiquities of Japan are the so-called ‘keyhole tombs,’ or tumuli (kofun), the most notable of which is that of the Emperor Nintoku (5th century). Located near Osaka, this monumental burial mound is 486 metres long and 35 metres high, consisting of a keyhole-shaped island in which one end is round and the other trapezoidal. Equally impressive is the later Japanese tradition of feudal castle construction, which was precipitated by the turbulent political situation of the 16th century: at Osaka, Himeji and other locations, tall multi-gabled towers set atop moated stone foundations dominate the landscape.