Interrelation of nature and architecture in Japanese culture: philosophical aspects

In this article the author examines one of the main features of the Japanese national architecture, its close relation to natural environment. The author traces the sources of the formation of certain attitude to nature that is concerned with the traditional Japanese philosophical views: Shintoism and Buddhism. Also the aesthetic concepts are reviewed that formed under the influence of these philosophical ideas, their impact on national methods of erection of structures in Japan. The examples are given how fusion of nature is embodied in the architecture of residential buildings, the basic principles of interior and garden landscape that provide attaining harmony with nature. The attitude to nature in the European philosophy and architecture is briefly described; the attention is focused on difference of this attitude from that which exists in oriental culture.