Troedsson Villa is a small wooden house situated on the grounds of a former temple within the UNESCO World Heritage site of Nikko, Japan, which is home to the famous Toshogu Shrine, Rinnoji Temple, Futarasan Shrine, Tayuin Temple, as well as numerous other sites of spiritual significance dating back to 700 AD.
The house, built in 1931, it is regarded as the first collaborative design by the Czech born Architect Antonin Raymond (b.1888 - d. 1976) and Japanese architect Junzo Yoshimura (b.1908 - d.1997).
Antonin Raymond arrived in Japan in 1919 to work with Frank Lloyd Wright on the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and, together with his wife, Noemi, who was a textile designer, lived in Japan for a total of 43 years. He ultimately established himself as a pioneer of modern architecture in Japan, and an instrumental figure in rebuilding the country after both the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and World War II (Oshima, Japan Architect, Spring 1999).
Troedsson Villa was the first house Junzo Yoshimura, then only 21, was to oversee under Raymond, who he had begun working for while still in school. He was credited by Raymond as contributing significantly to its design. Yoshimura went on to become one of the most influential modern architects in Japan and also designed several buildings in the U.S. such as the Japan Society Headquarters building in NYC, Shofuso in Philadelphia (originally built in the garden of the old Museum of Modern Art), and a Nelson Rockefeller residence in Pocantico Hills.