Japan’s most influential modernist architect, Kenzo Tange’s importance can be traced through both his own work and that of his many students and admirers. Tange was born in 1913 and found early inspiration in the publications of Le Corbusier, later working under Corbusier’s student Kunio Maekawa. Tange’s winning design for the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in 1949 brought him to international attention, and was followed by a series of public buildings including the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office (1957) and the Kagawa Prefectural Government Office (1958). Tange’s influence grew through the 1960s and his work, studied around the world, became increasingly expressive and technologically complex. The Yoyogi National Gymnasium (1964) and St Mary’s Cathedral (1964) typify this period. Tange taught and employed many of Japan’s post-war architectural trailblazers, including Arata Isozaki, Kisho Kurokawa, Fumihiko Maki, and Sachio Otani. The Metabolist movement of the 1960s first emerged from Tange’s office, and found expression in radical urban masterplans for Tokyo and Skopje, and in the much-published Yamanashi Press and Broadcaster Centre (1966). Tange’s masterplan for the 1970 World Expo in Osaka brought together many key figures of the period, creating a cross-section of contemporary Japanese architectural thinking. Tange continued to practice into the 2000s, and collected dozens of architectural honours, including the 1987 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Robin Boyd and Kenzo Tange corresponded intermittently throughout the 1960s, beginning in 1961 when Boyd was commissioned to write Kenzo Tange. Tange met Boyd on his visit to Japan and sent Boyd photos to include in the book. On this visit, Boyd visited a range of Tange buildings, including those in Hiroshima, Shizuoka and Kurashiki. Tange was gratified by Boyd’s appraisal of his work and Japanese architecture overall, and the two architects would stay in contact occasionally in the subsequent years. Tange and Boyd met again in 1965 on Boyd’s second trip to Japan, visiting Tange’s St Mary’s Cathedral together. Boyd would profile Tange again in 1967 for New Directions in Japanese Architecture, which also was well received. Paul Hopkins, a young Australian graduate who worked in Tange’s office at the time, assisted Boyd in collating material for New Directions. As the Exhibits Architect for the Australian Pavilion at Expo 70, Boyd would cross paths with Tange, whose firm was responsible for the Expo Masterplan and the space frame roof over the Festival Plaza.