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Created page with "*''Born: 1867'' *''Died: 1954'' *''Japanese'': 伊東忠太 ''(Itou Chuuta)'' Itô Chûta was a prominent architect of the Meiji period and ear..."
*''Born: [[1867]]''
*''Died: 1954''
*''Japanese'': [[伊東]]忠太 ''(Itou Chuuta)''

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

Born in [[Yonezawa]], he studied architecture at the Imperial University<ref>The Imperial University was so called in [[1888]]-[[1897]], after which it became the Imperial University of Tokyo, and is today simply the [[University of Tokyo]].</ref> 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]."<ref name=wata241>Watanabe, 241.</ref> He later went on to write a doctoral thesis, completed in [[1898]]; this analysis of the ancient temple of [[Horyu-ji|Hôryû-ji]] is described by Watanabe as "the first scholarly work of modern art history in Japan."<ref name=wata241/>

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.

==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.
<references/>

[[Category:Meiji Period]]
[[Category:Artists and Artisans]]
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