The Designs of Frank Lloyd Wright Were Influenced by Japan

Many people consider Frank Lloyd Wright to be one of the most innovative American architects. His designs have compassion for the environment as their guiding principle. The Fallingwater was one of his creations that highlighted his concern for the environment. He created and constructed the floating home known as Fallingwater. Wright, however, had a second line of activity as a dealer and collector of Japanese block prints. Up until the time of his death in 1959, he kept up his trade in Japanese block prints. He made much more money during this time selling Japanese artwork than he did designing buildings. The concepts of exterior and interior spaces in Japan greatly influenced the design work of Wright. During the 20th century, the religious and domestic architecture was mainly in Japanese style. As a result, Wright employed the use of these styles in order to transform his building design to be very natural and act as a single building rather than different pieces (Olsberg 556). Nevertheless, he treated each building case independently by altering the Japanese style. Due to the fact that Wright did not have any background training in architecture, he was motivated by the design and art he found in Japan. The trajectory of his profession was greatly changed hence led to the development of the modern American architecture. Based on these perspectives, Japan had a great impact on the designs of Wright. This paper discusses the influence of Japan on Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs.

The Influence of Japan on Frank Lloyd Wright's designs

Space over substance

Personal connection played a major role in defining the professional career of Wright. For instance, in 1885, Wright was able to meet Silsbee where he was tasked to build a chapel for the uncle of Wright in Helena Valley. During the subsequent sprint, Wright got an opportunity to work in a company owned by Silsbee in Chicago. Ernest Fenollosa, Silsbee’s cousin, was considered as the best Western specialists globally on the Japanese art. Fenollosa had gone to Japan in 1878 to train the future leaders of Japan about Western concepts. During this period, he was thrilled by the traditional Japanese art and design. He came back to the U.S in 1890 where he worked as a guardian of the Japanese art at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (Carpenter and Julia 570).

During this period, the United States did not recognize Japanese art. Therefore, when Fenollosa returned to the U.S in 1890, he engaged in a serious campaign in order to try and persuade Americans about his skill to express formal concepts instead of representing various subjects in a realistic manner. According to Fenollosa, aesthetic quality was the main visual attraction of the Japanese art. He described Japanese art as an organic wholeness that was established by the various links of other contributing sections (Carpenter and Julia 570).

Wright was inspired by the Intoxicating Japanese Prints

It was not clear whether the young Wright actually met Fenollosa. However, it is in the public domain that he admired the views of Fenollosa and appeared to have gotten his initial Japanese woodblock prints from Fenollosa. Just like Fenollosa, Wright believed that the Japanese prints were organic things. Wright authored a book titled, “The Japanese Print: An Interpretation,” that was a research on aesthetics based mainly on the concepts of Fenollosa. Wright employed the concepts of one of his best Japanese print artists, Katsushika Hokusai in order to develop his organic architectural plans on the overlapping geometric modules. The concepts of Katsushika Hokusai that were used by Wright were mainly on the illustration of how the various details of the living creatures might be built from the simple mechanical shapes. Through some of the Japanese prints of Hokusai, he would permit objects in a plan to break into their surrounding frames. At the same time, Wright borrowed the same concept by permitting elements to violate the surrounding frames of the architectural drawings he was developing. He employed the same technique that he used to render the project of Huntington Hartford Play Resort (Olsberg 558).



Fig. 1: Wright’s Use of Foreground Vegetation

Attracted by the Japanese as well as a commission in order to design the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Wright decided to travel to Japan in 1913 for the second time. He also made numerous trips to Japan between 1916 and 1922. This occurred mainly during the period he was implementing the project on the Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel. Every time he searched and bought many Japanese printers together with the collectors who interacted with him. Wright gathered various essential private collections that included those of William and John Spaulding, Frederick W. Gookin, and Clarence Buckingham. As a result, all these collections were entered into the museum through the entire U.S. At the same time, the Japanese prints were sold directly to the museums in the U.S by Wright. There were other circumstances in which the design work that he had were taken to the museums after he died. Wright had numerous stonecutters for the incidental décor that was mainly designed and used in various restaurants in different countries such as China. There were instances in which Wright directed many workers to finish the design process of the restaurants. This was the first every completed electric hotel in Asia. It consisted of the first shopping center in Japan. It presented an extensive platform that led to the mutation of the different colors to ensure that the aesthetic level in the construction reached its optimum point (Olsberg 559)

The impacts of the Japanese prints on Frank Lloyd Wright’s were not restricted to the plans. Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858) is also one of the preferred woodblock print artists of Wright who used foreground vegetations in order to structure the various themes of his artistic works. Wright also employed the use of the foreground vegetation in the majority of the perspective renderings that he was carrying out in his buildings. In addition, Wright employed the use of foreground vegetation technique to frame the conceptually patterned windows that he was designing in several houses. Contrary to the common plain glass windows used in many buildings, patterned windows were used by Wright instead of the glass windows hence it reduced the distinction that existed between the surrounding frame and outside view through the patterned windows. The main aim of patterned windows was to distort the normal hard lines that existed between the exterior and interior spaces. This would help to illustrate the level of continuity between nature and the buildings (Friedman 162).

Fig. 2: Right to Left: abstract tree pattern; ‘distributed’ window frames; conventional window frame

In addition, according to Japanese’ associate curator at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) Mr. Janice Katz, Wright preferred Japanese prints by Utagawa Hiroshige. Utagawa Hiroshige was a Japanese artist who accentuated environment over the structures of human beings. For instance, in the Japanese prints such as the “Goyu: Women Stopping Travelers” illustrate buildings from different perspectives. The architectural designs in the studio of Wright were mainly impacted by the naturalistic detail and flattened spaces of the Japanese prints (Friedman 163).



Fig. 3: “Goyu: Women Stopping Travelers”

Shattering of the Mold

According to the various Japanese designs and art, it is evident that there is a close association between the well-known demolition of Wright’s conventional architectural box and the destruction of the conventional 2-dimensional picture-frames of the woodblock print artists from Japan. The main aim of Wright was mainly to illustrate the mutual reliant of the organisms of the architecture with the general environment. As a result, the Japanese prints offered him with effective techniques of accomplishing the prints in his own buildings. Wright did not hide about the architectural debt that he owed Japanese prints. According to him, he claimed that the Japanese prints were more autobiographical to him than the majority of individuals might have thought. He supported his argument by claiming that he did not know the direction his life could have taken in case the Japanese prints could be removed from his education. Nevertheless, without the insights of Fenollosa, Wright’s designs could not have been influenced greatly by the Japanese prints. In addition, the professional life of Wright could not have had any prints in case he did not get the chance to meet with the cousin of Fenollosa, Joseph Silsbee (Carpenter and Julia 570).

The concepts and buildings of Wright have affected the manner in which homes and offices are organized and designed in the modern world. The keenness of Wright to examine different cultural inspirations enabled him to invent new unique design styles. For instance, during the start of the 1900s, there were other Americans who were just duplicating the European design styles. According to Wright he actually believed that the creation of awareness and respectful about nature and their surrounding would result in the production of perfect designs. He designed various plans for museums, churches, public buildings, neighborhoods, houses, as well as office buildings. Wright was able to design approximately 800 buildings in which there were about 280 and 380 designs that were still standing and built respectively. The use of "Prairie style" in his architectural designs was also evident in various homes in the United States (Carpenter and Julia 570).

Wright’s Design Philosophy

Key to the design philosophy of Wright is the idea that he developed organic architecture. According to Wright, he made a proposal that the building designs would be based on the natural landscapes. This would involve the use of natural color, space, light as well as design elements. The belief of Wight that the building designs need to unify the various design aspects was linked to his design philosophy that he learned from the various Japanese prints. For instance, the various design elements included the decorations, furnishings, interior space, layout and form, and the building setting. These were meant to improve the comprehensive experience of individuals who used his buildings. The architecture of Wright has an excellent horizontal design in order to complement with the ground hence normally featuring the horizontal elements that included broad horizontal windows and flattened roofs. It was the case in the Prairie-style houses that were built by Wright (Carpenter and Julia 570).



Fig. 5: Robie House designed by Wright in 1909

Wright used his professional skills to design the exterior and interior of the Robie house so as to enhance the general movement of individuals around and through the house. Robie house was considered as a house that had an open-plan interior. Currently, modern homes and architecture have open-plan interior designs. Wright used various details to design his buildings by considering all the important components of the house such as dinner sets, vases, and carpets. The employed the use of built-in furnishings in the design of the houses such as benches, shelves, tables, closets, and cupboards in order to minimize the clutters in the building. This would assist in the control and creation of space in the house. Through the knowledge that he learned from Japanese prints, Wright demanded that the clients should put all the built-in furnishings in all the spaces that he denoted in the design. However, in case there were some rearrangements that were required then it would be vital to return them to the denoted places during the visit to the clients (Carpenter and Julia 570).



Fig. 6: Robie House’ Dining Table Interior Design

Affinity of Wright for Japanese Prints

The attraction of Wright for the Japanese prints was brought into the architectural practice that he was involved in. Whereas he emphasized that the Japanese aesthetics just authenticated the ideas that he had created himself, Wright specifically recognized the various qualities that existed in the ukiyo-e prints. As a result of the qualities in the ukiyo-e prints, he opted to imitate the features in his architectural designs. For instance, he brought about the use of simplified compositions in the Japanese prints. Wright was very happy with the ability of the Japanese artists to get rid of the irrelevant features on the design that would lead to some form of generalization. For instance, according to a famous historian Kevin Nute, his Japanese prints were described by Wright as organic due to the fact that they might be treasured based on the aesthetic level of the design. In addition, Wright employed the use of aesthetic level to perfectly design the integrations of the materials, purpose, and form (Waheed 397).

Similarly, Wright established that there was some sense of spirituality in the aesthetic level due to the fact that they were the design and art of common individuals. For instance, the majority of those Japanese prints constituted Katsushika Hokusai prints where he was celebrating the day to day lives of the employed individuals who were linked to land resources. In addition, Wright had the belief the Japanese prints were very democratic since they were popular and relatively cheap design in nature. In many cases, the designs would cost a lot of money to purchase, however with the various Japanese prints, it would not cost a lot of money. Wright was also attracted by the general reverential presentations of the artists involved in the design of Japanese prints. As a result, he employed the use of natural settings to integrate the various buildings in all the architectural designs (Waheed 397).

Just like in any other form of association, the engagement of Wright with the Japanese prints had various controversies that threatened to thwart the numerous gains that he had made in learning about the design and arts in Japan. Despite the fact that he found a lot of spirituality and purity in the Japanese prints during the development stage of his career, he also considered them as financial solutions during the numerous great recession periods. In case the architectural business was not very radical, he normally diverted to the Japanese prints to gain some additional benefits. Wright would normally activate his sales onto the many loyal collectors or provide the design prints as a form of exchange in order to clear the debts. There were many instances in which the sale of Japanese prints helped Wright to address the financial issues that he was facing (Waheed 398).

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is important to note that despite the fact that Japan played a major role to influence Wright’s designs, he also played a major role in the Japanese prints through the cultivation of American interests. For instance, Wright was able to demonstrate his Hiroshige prints at an Art Institute in 1906. In 1908, he was able to loan numerous pieces of prints to the Art Institute. These were considered as the largest exhibitions of the Japanese prints during this period in the United States. The installation such as special frames and the sleek furniture was designed by Wright for the 1908 exhibition. Nevertheless, it is very unfortunate that the present exhibition in the art institute does not demonstrate the distinctions between the real Wright buildings and the Japanese designs. It just got rid of the new light on the signature design works of Wright. As a matter of fact, Wright acted as a very important type of Japanese slanted mirror. This was attributed to the fact that the use of similar slanted mirror was to refine and inform the design work to meet the required standards. It was a great privilege to live in a house designed and built by Wright. It would be vital in case the love that Wright had for Japan was replicated to his love for the U.S since it would help in the advancement of architectural technologies in the country. Despite the fact that Wright argued in some instances that his design work was not influenced by other external influences, it was considered to actually not true since he borrowed numerous ideas in the design process of various buildings. The argument that his design work was original and he did not borrow any idea from external sources was not factual since in 1990, Wright wrote articles on the various Japanese prints while at the same time paid a visit to many Japanese clients in 1905. Later on, he designed and constructed a Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel. Therefore, regardless of the fact that Wright argued that his design work was completely original and did not borrow any idea from other parties, the impact of Japanese design and arts can actually be viewed in the use of heavy horizontal lines used in the design of the Wright’s houses. It can hence be concluded that Japanese arts played a major role to influence Wright’s designs.





























Work Cited

Carpenter, John T., and Julia Meech. “Frank Lloyd Wright and the Art of Japan: The Architects Other Passion.” Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 56, no. 4, 2001, p. 570., doi:10.2307/3096683.

Friedman, Alice T. “Girl Talk: Marion Mahony Griffin, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Oak Park Studio.” Places Journal, no. 2011, 2011, doi:10.22269/110616.

Olsberg, Nicholas. “Frank Lloyd Wright: The Vertical Dimension Frank Lloyd Wright.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 64, no. 4, 2005, pp. 556–559., doi:10.2307/25068206.

Waheed, Zehra. “Frank Lloyd Wright, Essential Texts20103Robert Twombly (Ed.). Frank Lloyd Wright, Essential Texts. W.W. Norton, 2009. 303 pp., ISBN: 978‐0‐393‐73261‐0 £15.99 (Softback).” Facilities, vol. 28, no. 7/8, 2010, pp. 397–398., doi:10.1108/02632771011042518.