Peggy Landers Rao writes on Japanese design and architecture. She is the coauthor of Japanese Accents in Western Interiors . Len Brackett , who served a long apprenticeship in traditional architecture in Kyoto, has been building Japanese houses in the U.S. for 30 years. Aya Brackett , Len Brackett’s daughter, is a photographer and a photo editor at Dwell magazine .