Japan Foundation Los Angeles (JFLA) presents the fifth Japanese Architects Talk Series featuring Reijiro Izumi and Kunio Kirisako at the JFLA, 5700 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036, on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, from 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Admission is Free, Registration is Required.
Japanese Architects Talk Series
“5 Dimensions of Japanese Architecture”
5.「数寄」Suki: Microcosm of Tastes
Co-Organized by UCLA Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies
UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design, UCLA xLAB
To discuss Japanese architecture, this talk series is organized around five concepts unique to Japan: MA, KANE, HAI/KYO, IN/EI, and SUKI. Renowned Japanese architects and scholars will speak at each symposium about their ideas on architecture and the works they have produced.
This series offers a unique opportunity to deepen your understanding of Japanese architecture and its cultural concepts by featuring their insights, enriching your perspective on this distinctive architectural heritage through the lens of contemporary practice.
The fifth session will discuss the concept of「数寄」 (SUKI). SUKI originally signified a love for poetry in the Heian period, but evolved to primarily denote the refined aesthetic and cultural appreciation associated with the tea ceremony, reflecting a nuanced relationship between art, architecture, and the appreciation of beauty.
Reijiro Izumi, Lecturer
Born in 1989 in Kyoto, as the second son of Masakazu Soko Izumi, who was the second son of Genshitsu Sen, 15th Grand Master of the Urasenke Chado Tradition.
Graduated from Doshisha University, Kyoto, where he was enrolled in the Department of Commerce, Faculty of Commerce. In March, 2018, completed a postgraduate doctoral course at the Kyoto University of Art and Design, and earned a Ph.D. (doctoral thesis: “Research on Kyoto Kettles of the Early Modern Period: Focusing on Tsuji Yojiro”).
In 2015–16, he was a part-time curator for Sakai City Museum.
Kunio Kirisako, Lecturer
He was born in Wakayama Prefecture in 1960 and studied under Professor NAKAMURA Masao during his master’s program at the Kyoto Institute of Technology.
He holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Tokyo.
He currently serves as Vice Principal of the Kyoto Architectural College and lectures part-time at several universities. His areas of expertise include architectural history and design, tea ceremony culture, and the preservation and adaptive reuse of traditional architecture.
He was the first in the field of architecture to receive the Encouragement Award of the Tea Culture Academic Prize for his book Cha no Yu Kūkan no Kindai (The Modernity of the Tea Ceremony Space, Shibunkaku Publishing).
He is a licensed First-Class Architect and holds the tea ceremony name Sōhō.
Hitoshi Abe, Organizer/ Moderator
Hitoshi Abe, Professor and former Chair in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at the School of Arts and Architecture and Chair in the Study of Contemporary Japan and the Director of the UCLA Paul I. and Hisako Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies.
Since 1992, when Dr. Hitoshi Abe won first prize in the Miyagi Stadium Competition and established Atelier Hitoshi Abe, he has maintained an active international design practice based in Sendai, Japan, as well as a schedule of lecturing and publishing, which place him among the leaders in his field. https://aha.design
