American Commodore Matthew Perry led an sailing expedition to Japan, opening diplomatic and commercial relations between Japan and the Untied States in 1853. In less than fifty years, Japanese fashion and architectural design hit the west coast of America like a tsunami. The Arts & Craft period, and even more so, the Craftsman designs are all modeled after the traditional Japanese Buddhist pagoda temples.

The Japanese architectural influences came at a time when there was a beginning rejection of the many earlier Edwardian and Victorian details in paint colors and design. This Craftsman, with it’s many hefty outriggers, beams and rafter tails, are traditionally painted all the same color, with detail distinguished by it’s design lines, rather than by a contrasting colors, as was the Buddhist Temple.