Miegunyah Fellow 2024 - Yukio Lippit - The Ise Shrines and the Metabolism of Japanese Architecture

2024 Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellowship Lecture given by Professor Yukio Lippit (Harvard University). The Ise Shrines are among Japan’s most ancient and holiest sites of kami worship. The architecture of the shrines was admired by modernists for its geometry of form and simple, unadorned use of natural materials. The site is also famous for being continuously rebuilt every twenty years since the late seventh century; its 62nd rebuilding took place in October of 2013, and the 63rd renewal is scheduled for the fall of 2033. Ise’s renewals raises complex issues concerning the nature of architectural process and meaning, eco-architecture, sustainability, and the perpetuation of indigenous building practices into the present. This lecture examines the origins and design of Ise as a way of engaging these questions. Based upon the form of the Neolithic rice granary, Ise was formalized as a shrine complex in the seventh century amidst significant changes in the political environment of the Japanese archipelago and East Asian region. Most notably, its design was conceived amidst the adoption of more advanced timber-frame building styles being practiced in Korea and China, opening onto complex questions regarding the purpose and social and environmental significance of Ise’s renewal process. __ This lecture is supported by the Russell and Mab Grimwade Miegunyah Fund Committee and the Russell Grimwade Bequest as part of the Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellows Program and was hosted by ACAHUCH at the Melbourne School of Design.