An Anatomy of Influence contains a wealth of texts and images that together elucidate the theory and practice of twelve leading Japanese architects: Hiromi Fujii, Terunobu Fujimori, Hiroshi Hara, Itsuko Hasegawa, Osamu Ishiyama, Arata Isozaki, Toyo Ito, Kengo Kuma, Kazuyo Sejima, Kazuo Shinohara, Shin Takamatsu, and Kiyoshi Sey Takeyama. Rather than the usual array of exquisite yet autonomous buildings, the focus is on the hitherto unexplored lives of their architects, and the intellectual, social and political environment in which they worked. The accumulation of biographical detail shows how these architects have absorbed and responded to the work of their peers and predecessors. Cumulatively, the book is not only a perspective on modern Japanese architecture, but a recasting of our understanding of the modern Japanese architect.

Thomas Daniell is head of the Department of Architecture and Design at the University of St. Joseph in Macau, and a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo. He holds a BArch from Victoria University of Wellington, an MEng from Kyoto University, and a PhD from RMIT University, for which he received the Vice Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Thesis in a Higher Degree by Research. Widely published, he is author of FOBA: Buildings (2005), After the Crash: Architecture in Post-Bubble Japan (2008), Houses and Gardens of Kyoto (2010), and Kiyoshi Sey Takeyama + Amorphe (2011), as well as editor of Toyo Ito's Tarzans in the Media Forest (2011).