This book presents a detailed history of Katsura, the 17th century Imperial Palace in Kyoto, Japan that is a pivotal work of Japanese Architecture, often described as the "quintessence of Japanese taste." First revealed to the modern architectural world by Bruno Taut, the great German architect, in the early 20th century, Katsura stunned and then excited the architectural community of the West. Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, pillars of the Modernist establishment, were fascinated by Katsura’s "modernity." They saw in its orthogonal and modular spaces, devoid of decoration, clear parallels to contemporary Modernism, going so far as to proclaim Katsura a "historical" example of Modernity. This book documents the palace in detail, combining newly commissioned photographs, detailed drawings, archival material and historical analysis.

Arata Isozaki, (1931- ), is a world-renowned architect based in Tokyo. Francesco Dal Co, (1945- ), is Professor Architectural History at the University Institute of Architecture in Venice. Walter Gropius, (1883-1969), a founder of the Bauhaus, was chairman of Harvard University's Graduate School of Design from 1937-52. Manfred Speidel is a professor at RWTH in Aachen, Germany Kenzo Tange, (1913- ), is one of Japan's foremost architects and was the winner of the 1987 Pritzker Architecture Prize. Bruno Taut, (1880-1938), a German-born architect and theorist, visited Katsura in the 1930s and was one of the first to champion the complex as a precursor of modern architecture.