1999 Bachelor of Architecture
Zen Influence in China, Korea, and Japan

In an attempt to find the modes of thinking or logic that will generate architectural form, I return to the traditional culture of Asia. I realize that Zen philosophy stands out as the most striking influence of Japanese aesthetics.

Zen is the product of the Chinese philosophy that developed after its contact with India. Legend states that one day Buddha did not give his usual verbal sermon to his followers. Instead, he simply held a flower in his hand. One disciple understood this wordless message and Zen, an Indian word meaning “meditation," was born. A millennium later, the monk Bodhiharma went to Chin in the sixth century and Zen steadily developed throughout the ninth century. During this time, it also entered Korea. Zen entered Japan during the Kamakura period (1185–1333) and peaked during the end of the Momoyama period and early Edo period (1600), during which there existed a unique cultural expression and features.

Because of the lack of Zen expressions in other Asian countries, I traveled only the three countries: China, Korea, and Japan.

According to the historical development of the Zen state, I began the travel from China, Korea, and finished the trip in Japan. It is for the trace of Zen from its origins in pre-Buddhistic thought in India, through Chinese culture, into the Japanese worldview and the poetic expression of it. This travel is about combining Eastern and Western ideas and sensibilities for the creation of space that provokes universality.

I got interested in the idea of vacancy and the beauty of empty space (yohaku no bi), which are seen at gardens, temples, tea houses, and traditional housings in these countries. (China hutong courtyard house, Korea madang, Japan machiya.)

The layouts of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese gardens are based on the principal of asymmetry which was encouraged by Taoist and Zen. The Japanese ideal of beauty is most often expressed in asymmetry.

The Korean attitude toward nature which is characterized by harmonious adaptation to nature is well presented in the asymmetrical layout of Korean gardens. Symmetry, while observed in monumental and even domestic architecture, is completely disregarded in the layout of a Chinese garden.

In ink paintings, “blank areas that are most difficult to produce” are considered the most profound. In city planning—in contrast to the West, where the center of the city is held with institutions of power and culture—the center of Tokyo is metaphorically empty. In essence, the city's "empty" center is demonstrated with detoured traffic. Residences are hidden beneath the foliage, and the emperor's palace is inaccessible. Thus, the imagination is spread circularly.

Emptiness is fundamental to Zen, reaching back to the enlightenment of Buddha. The stories, tradition, customs, and accounts of exchanges with masters may be mysterious at times, but, like a handcrafted box, their usefulness is in their emptiness.

One of the sutras that points to this, the Heart Sutra, states: “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.”

Seeking evidence of oriental space pinpoints the rituals and thoughts of Zen. Its philosophy of emptiness is perhaps the most striking character in the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese idea of the ephemeral world. I look forward to seeing more works that acknowledge and renew this oriental spirit. The spatial configuration, the volume and the void, the employment of light and shadow, all encourage me to believe that poetically, “man dwells on this earth.”