ARCHIST Il Flashcards
What characterizes Japanese architecture?
A synthesis of seminal ideas from China and native conditions producing a distinctive style characterized by lightness, delicacy, and refinement.
What is the Nara period?
A period in Japanese history from 710-794 AD, characterized by the adoption of Chinese culture and form of government; named after the first permanent capital and chief Buddhist center in ancient Japan.
What is the Heian period?
A period in Japan from 785-1185 AD, characterized by the modification and naturalization of ideas and institutions introduced from China, with indigenous feudalism superseding Chinese-based social order.
What does ‘Xanadu’ refer to?
A place of idyllic beauty and contentment; Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s modification of Shangdu, the site of Kublai Khan’s summer residence in southeastern Mongolia.
What is Zen?
A Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism that emphasizes experiential wisdom, meditation, and intuition in the attainment of enlightenment.
What is ‘ma’ in Japanese culture?
A term translated as a gap, interval, or pause in time and space, reflecting an aesthetic principle of Zen Buddhism where emptiness interacts with and shapes substance.
What are kami in Shintoism?
The sacred spirits that can take the form of things and concepts important to life, such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers, and fertility.
