• Journal of architectural history
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.35-44
• /
• 2012

This paper aimed at investigating into the origin and meaning of the Japanese architect Terunobu Fujimori's 'piercing column', and drew a conclusion as follows. First, the piercing column that made its first appearance in his architect debut work Jinchokan Moriya Historical Museum (1991) was conceived unexpectedly from pencil lines on a sketch that went through over the building's roof. And the tree-like natural treatment of the column's surface was influenced by Takamasa Yoshizaka's description of a Mongolian mud-house. Second, most of piercing columns in his later works have nothing to do with a structural role as in Jinchokan, but were designed for a visual effect and as a symbolic gesture. Again, they allude to a tree in nature through a roughly peeling treatment of the surface. Third, considering his ideas in History of Humankind and Architecture (2005), his column could be related to a universal origin of architecture and a symbol of the sun-god faith, and in particular to independent columns of Japanese Shito shrines, such as 'Onbashira' in Suwa and 'Iwanebashira' in Izumo. That is to say, the Fujimori column is a medium that implies the animistic nature-faith of Japan. Nevertheless, Fujimori's naturalism hints at a disquieting quality through an intentional artificiality and a provocative conflict between structure and finish of a building, which might be one aspect of the modern condition, 'uncanny'.