KOBORI ENSHU, KATSURA-no- RIKUYU (KATSURA IMPERIAL VILLA), KYOTO, ca1600
"This layout is called the flying-geese formation. The dynamism of the flying geese exists in the formation by which a group of buildings that could be rigidly aligned on the same central axis begins to dislocate away from the axis successively to the point of giving up symmetry and the centrality. This was the way by which Katsura’s extensive formation occurred. It is also the unique way that Japanese traditional architecture expressed depth – by means of layering planes – in sharp contrast to the way that Western perspective attained/contained the depth of eternal space by assuming the human gaze as axis." A. Isozaki, 2005
"The plan of main building, Old-Shoin, is conspicuous for having one section receding and expanding behind another in a step-wise fashion." S. Horiguchi, 1953
"In a lovely grove of pines down by the river, a very simple, unpretentious house presents all the charm of a mountain village." M. Shikibu, 1007 ca
"The traditional house is so strictly modern because it contains perfect solution, already century old, for problems which the contemporary Western architects is still wrestling with today: complete flexibility of movable exterior and interior walls, changeability and multi-use spaces, modular coordination of all the building parts, and prefabrication." W. Gropius, 1960
"The ground upon which the Middle Shoin and Miyuki-Goten stand is lower than other parts, necessitating a high floor in a style as takabuka-zukuri, which is something similar to the piloti favoured by Le Corbusier. This of course was caused partly to desire to have the floor of building on the same level as the other parts of the building, and also to provide for the possible over-flow af the Katsura River." S. Horiguchi, 1953
