Ito Chuta

• Born: 1867
• Died: 1954
• Japanese: 伊東忠太 (Itou Chuuta)

Itô Chûta was a prominent architect of the Meiji period and early 20th century.

Born in Yonezawa, he studied architecture at the Imperial University from 1889 until 1892, under Tatsuno Kingo, receiving lectures as well from Josiah Conder. Historian Toshio Watanabe identifies Itô's graduation dissertation, entitled kenchiku tetsugaku ("Architectural Philosophy") as "the first fully argued modern theory of architecture produced by a Japanese [person]." He later went on to write a doctoral thesis, completed in 1898; this analysis of the ancient temple of Hôryû-ji is described by Watanabe as "the first scholarly work of modern art history in Japan."

Itô became a professor of architecture at the university in 1905.

In 1943, he became the first architect to be awarded the Order of Culture (bunka kunshô), a rather prestigious award.

Tsukiji Honganji, completed in 1934, and designed by Itô, drawing upon inspiration from the architecture of India, the birthplace of Buddhism

References

• Toshio Watanabe, "Japanese Imperial Architecture: From Thomas Roger Smith to Ito Chuta," in Ellen Conant (ed.), Challenging Past and Present: The Metamorphosis of Nineteenth-Century Japanese Art, University of Hawaii Press (2006), 239-253.