The study of architecture has been conducted since the Edo period as part of greater studies on the practices of ancient court and samurai families, but it was only in the Meiji period that architectural study emerged as an independent branch of learning (the term 'kenchiku' [建築], meaning 'architecture', was itself coined in the Meiji period).
江戸時代から建築に対する有職故実的な研究は行われていたが、学問として成立するのは明治時代以降である（建築という用語自体、明治時代に造られたもの）。