The Japanese Cityscape Under The Influence Of Culture And Art Thoughts In Modern Times

The early urban planning of Japan is characterized basically by copying theories and technologies of other countries and a profound western influence. However, since World War II, Japan's urban planning theory started to combine the basic characteristics of national conditions and social life in an attempt to blaze a trail that suits Japanese traditional culture. As Japan reclaimed the sovereignty of occupied territories early, so there didn't appear cities of semi-colony in Japan and the development of modern Japanese cities had been managed by Japanese residents. In fact, with respect to conservation of famous cities, industrial plan in metropolitan circle and transportation planning, etc., the Japanese designers develop landscape plans that both preserve the traditional culture and utilize new technology and means, thus transcending the simple copying of western models and developing a model of its own style.The development of Japanese landscape was greatly influenced by the traditional garden landscape; additionally, the residents of the island country have deep cognition of landscapes and are good at excavating the natural essence, so the typical artistic conception of dry landscape of Zen Buddhism is also often blended into the design means of cities'landscape. The Japanese landscapes lack in natural wildness because they are excessively exquisite, most of them are meticulous elaboration and refinement of natural beauty. Therefore, the display mode of modern Japanese landscape is described as modern display controlled by classical landscape, a development that is both traditional and modern and is unique in the global landscape industry. With the changes of development of cities, technological advancement and advent of information age, the Japanese urban landscape design shows a development process in which the tradition and the modernism are interweaved and adapted to each other against the background of mixed social thoughts and cultures. Viewing such a process as a whole can provide us with the breakthrough point for deliberation on the development of urban landscape in China and also provide us with its precious experience of development.