The Japan Pavilion of the 1992 Exposición Universal de Sevilla, noted for its design by Andō Tadao, also featured a red-lacquer and gilded recreation of the top two stories of Oda Nobunaga’s destroyed castle keep (tenshu) of Azuchi-jō. It was chosen for display because it revealed the interactions between Europe and Japan during the so-called ‘Age of Discovery’ of the 16th century, the theme of the Seville Expo.
The partial replica of the Azuchi-jō tenshu at Seville was based on research conducted by Naitō Akira, then of Nagoya Institute of Technology, in the mid-1970s. This lecture examines the evidence upon which Naitō’s reconstruction was based, and places the architectural form and decoration of the tenshu in the broader context of Momoyama art and the longer traditions of architecture in Japan. It then positions this replica in the perspective of relations between Japan and Spain in the second half of the 16th century. The replica suggests that Oda Nobunaga, creator of Azuchi, and King Philip ll (Felipe ll), patron of San Lorenzo el Real del Escorial, were rulers with similar architectural ambitions. Azuchi and El Escorial had much in common in terms of what they meant for their respective patrons and the relations between Japan and Europe that they each fostered long before the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation of 1868.
Esta conferencia inaugura el XIII Congreso Nacional & IV Internacional de la Asociación de Estudios Japoneses en España
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