Le Corbusier (autor), Kenzō Miyazaki (translator).

[ONE OF THE EARLIEST TRANSLATIONS OF LE CORBUSIER IN JAPAN AND ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WORKS FOR JAPANESE MODERNISM] Kenchiku geijutsu e – Vers une architecture [Toward an Architecture].

Tōkyō: Kōseisha Shobō, 1929. Octavo (23 × 16 cm). Original cloth binding in original decorative printed slipcase, 289 pp. with numerous reproductions of architectural photographs and architectural drafts. Slipcase restored, stained and fragile; the cloth binding somewhat discolored; else about very good. Item #55131

First Japanese edition of Le Corbusier's main work “Vers une Architecture”, whose original French edition was published by Crès in Paris in 1923 and which is now regarded as one of the most important manifestos of twentieth century architectural theory. The French Swiss-born architect was particularly important to Japan as an urban planner after Tokyo was devastated by a major earthquake in 1923. Le Corbusier's design for “A contemporary city for three million inhabitants” became a topic of discussion among Japanese architects thanks to lectures by the founder of the “International Architectural Society of Japan”, Seigo Motono. The first translations of his texts then appeared in a Japanese journal in 1928 and 1929. The editor Koseisha Shobo also published “L'art décoratif d'aujourd'hui” in 1931. Since then, Le Corbusier's work has been an important point of reference for architecture and design in Japan for decades. (Cf. >h ttps ://lecorbusier-worldheritage.or g/de/einfluss-des-werks/japan/<, 6th February 2025)

Contrary to what one might assume today, Le Corbusier did not achieve fame in Europe as an architect, but initially as an author. His breakthrough in France came in 1923 with “Vers une Architecture”. However, the success of “Vers une Architecture” was not so much due to the fact that Le Corbusier formulated groundbreaking new ideas in it. On the contrary, the German publisher Günther Wasmuth refused to translate it on the grounds that the ideas it contained had already been sufficiently well known for many years through the “Werkbund”. Nevertheless, Le Corbusier radicalized these ideas by demanding, for example, that architecture should be based on the works of engineers. Ocean liners, airplanes, machines, and automobiles were to serve as iconic models for architects. Typification was not only an imperative of effectiveness, but also of form. This was nothing new since Walter Gropius, but until the publication of “Vers une Architecture”, no architect had ever put forward this program with the rhetorical vehemence with which Le Corbusier proclaimed it. At the same time, however, he interpreted this movement not as a break with tradition, but as a re-form. For Le Corbusier, the Acropolis of Athens and the Parthenon are the measure by which architecture should be measured alongside modern machines. His juxtaposition of temple and automobile became famous. (Cf. Turit Fröbe, Die Inszenierung eines Mythos: Le Corbusier und die Akropolis, Berlin and Boston 2016, pp. 16-41.)

As of May 2025, OCLC lists five copies in North America.

Price: €2,000.00

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