Leiden University Student Repository

Kraan, Killian van der (2022)

The Concept of Cultural Hybridity and its Application on Architect Kengo Kuma’s Personhood and Constructions

Master thesis | Asian Studies (60 EC) (MA)

As a dedication to the necessary move away from cultural essentialism, this research explores one of its prominent counter-concepts, cultural hybridity, by combining the following research questions; What is meant by the concept of cultural hybridity? How does this concept apply to Kengo Kuma's (隈研吾) (1954-) life and his architecture? Labeling Kuma’s architecture as a continuation of an essential Japanese timeline through claims about the embeddedness of a ‘Japaneseness’, despite the relatively recent invention hereof after the Meiji revolution, could be legitimizing stereotyping of the past, and is questionable. When applying the concept of cultural hybridity one can acknowledge that the formation of Kuma’s architecture is influenced by numerous intercultural flows. It has been informed by practices and philosophies from in- and outside the Japanese island region, and is underlied by an entanglement of sub- and trans-national—as well as personal—influences.

cultural hybridity

cultural identity

kengo kuma

globalization

essentialism

art

architecture

Author

Kraan, Killian van der

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

History, Arts and Culture

Supervisors

Doreen Müller

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en