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The paths of gods and architects: From Japan to the Acropolis—the landscapes of Dimitris Pikionis

Abstract This essay examines the circulation of Japanese culture through European intellectual networks since the opening of the archipelago to the Western world in 1853. We argue firstly that the archipelago’s self-imposed political distance from the Asian continent is one of the reasons for the crystallization of Japanese specificities and secondly that geographical distance enhances the impact of these specificities on the creativity of European architects. Twentieth-century Western interest focuses among other things on Shinto—the path of the gods—and naturality in the arts. We show how these specificities caught the attention of Dimitris Pikionis (1887–1968). We look at Pikionis’s use of wood in the layout of the church of St Demetrius Loumbardiaris and stone in the archaeological site around the Acropolis in Athens from 1954 to 1958 by comparing descriptions of Japanese garden pavilions and paths in documents that were at his disposal. Our findings are grounded on the analysis of Pikionis’s own books, magazines, notes and drawings related to Japan and on his collaboration with his daughter Agni Pikióni.