In Praise of Shadows

What incredible pains the fancier of traditional architecture must take when he sets out to build a house in pure Japanese style, striving somehow to make electric wires, gas pipes and water lines harmonize with the austerity of Japanese rooms — even someone who has never built a house for himself must sense this when he visits a teahouse, a restaurant or an inn.

For the solitary eccentric it is another matter, he can ignore the blessings of scientific civilization and retreat to some forsaken comer of the countryside; but a man who has a family and lives in the city cannot turn his back on the necessities of modern life — heating, electric lights sanitary facilities — merely for the sake of doing things the Japanese way.