吉村順三が1954年にMoMA（ニューヨーク近代美術館）の中庭に完成させた住宅「松風荘」の当時の様子を捉えた、MoMAが制作したドキュメンタリー動画がyoutubeで公開されています。約18分の動画です。当時のMoMAは近代住宅を紹介する為に美術館中庭に著名建築家を招聘し、2年ごとに住宅を展示するという「House in the Garden」というシリーズを行っていたのだそう。この住宅に関するより詳しい情報はこちらに。MoMAのアーカイブでは、現場で撮影された若き日の吉村順三の写真も公開されています。

以下は、MoMAによる解説テキスト。

A Japanese House is a film MoMA produced in 1955 to document the installation of an actual, full-scale 17th-century Japanese house, designed by Junzō Yoshimura and named Shofuso (or “Pine Breeze Villa”), in our Sculpture Garden. The third house that MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design constructed in the garden, Shofuso was chosen for its unique, traditional Japanese design characteristics, including post-and-lintel frame construction, flexible layout, purposeful relationships between indoor and outdoor spaces, and the decorative qualities of the structural system itself. With more than 1,000 visitors per day, the exhibition was so successful that the Museum extended its run multiple times.

The film is in many ways a traditional documentary, detailing a specific event at a certain moment, with explanatory narration. However, it is also a beautiful film, with many quiet, contemplative moments, careful camerawork, and artfully composed frames. Japanese in its execution, the film explores traditional elements of Zen and Shinto design, such as kukan/supesu (“space is not empty”). Long, lingering takes invite the viewer to ruminate on reflections in water or the shape of a doorframe, as if they were experiencing the house themselves. This film is the closest you can get to visiting Shofuso without actually being there. The house still exists, now reassembled in a park in Philadelphia.