I'll admit, I'm not an architect and haven't been to architecture classes or anything like that, so take some of this with a grain of salt if you want. However, there's enough to understand for the lay-person that if they went to visit Japan or saw some great pictures, they might have a good idea when some places were built or designed and whatnot.

The historical periods of design and such (roughly the first 50 pages) gave some rather technical bits and a little knowledge of Japanese History would help...however, the book has chronological timelines, and LOTS of great illustrations throughout. I found myself enjoying the pictures, and as things went beyond the shrines and ruling families to building techniques and more simple architecture, it got more and more fascinating. I think the book's worth picking up just for the layout--simple to grasp in that you're not flipping pages back and forth all the time to find the corresponding illustration (that drives me nuts in most art or architecture books--it interrupts the flow of reading and comprehension).

If anybody's interested in architecture, Japanese culture, and history, then this book is worth picking up, especially if you want to make an architecture book of your own with illustrations--THIS is how you do it. I didn't get lost once, though because I don't have a basic foundation (no pun intended) in architectural studies, I didn't get as much out of it as some others would. But I still got a lot, so well worth a shot at reading.