JAPANESE MINKA LX - INTERIORS 1: IRORI 1

After the two previous series of posts on minka structure (kо̄zо̄ 構造), in which we examined how minka are put together, and minka layouts (madori 間取り), in which we looked at how minka are partitioned into functionally differentiated rooms or spaces, we will now begin a new series, on minka interiors (naibu 内部). This series will be more concerned with the particulars of how people lived in and interacted with the minka and its appurtenances, and so will be less technical and more anthropological or ethnographical in content than the previous two. Like those series, however, this will be a loose translation of Internal Layouts, Structure, and Interiors (Madori・Kо̄zо̄・Naibu 間取り・構造・内部), the second volume of Kawashima Chūji’s (川島宙次) three-volume work on minka titled Disappearing Minka (Horobiyuku Minka (滅びゆく民家); with the completion of this series, we will have basically covered all of Volume Two of that work. The first and third volumes, incidentally, are Roofs and Exteriors (Yane・Gaikan 屋根・外観) and Sites/Auxiliary Structures and Typologies (Yashiki-mawari・Keishiki 屋敷まわり・形式) respectively; these volumes may also get their own series here eventually.

Kawashima’s work on minka interiors covers such elements as firepits (irori いろり) and the various devices and seating conventions associated with them; stoves (kamado かまど); facilities and customs relating to the use of water (mizu 水); sleeping places (nedoko 寝所); ‘living rooms’ (hiroma 広間) and ‘guest rooms’ (dei 出居); ‘formal rooms’ (zashiki 座敷) and their decorative alcoves (toko-no-ma 床の間); perimeter spaces (engawa 縁側); bathing rooms (yoku-shitsu 浴室) and bathing facilities; toilets (benjo 便所); formal entries (genkan 玄関); and stairs (kaidan 階段).

Let’s begin then, with an examination of the irori (いろり or 囲炉裏 or simply 炉): the hearth or ‘firepit’ of the traditional Japanese home.

The irori is the primary and cardinal element of the minka interior, at the centre of the core activities of the dwelling and also at its symbolic heart. In Japan’s earliest residential structures, the prehistoric pit dwellings (tate-ana jūkyo 竪穴住居) and ‘on ground’ or ‘on grade’ dwellings (hirachi jūkyo 平地住居) of the Jо̄mon period, fires were contained in jiro (地炉, lit. ‘earth furnace’), basically an indoor campfire dug into the earthen floor and given a border of large rounded river stones (tama-ishi 玉石), or, in later examples, shaped or dressed stone. Jiro persisted into the 20th century in the earth-floored utility areas (the doma or niwa) of minka, and in the living areas of ‘earth-sitting’ (doza 土座) dwellings, i.e. dwellings without a raised-floor area.

An Ainu irori, called the apeoi (アぺオイ).

A large jiro (地炉) installed in the floor of the niwa of the Nara family (Nara-ke 奈良家) residence in Akita Prefecture (Akita-ken 秋田県), an important cultural property. Inhabitants and visitors sit on the thick cushion-like woven mats (nekoda ねこだ) laid around it, in a scene reminiscent of the age of ‘earth sitting dwellings’ (doza-sumai 土座住まい).

A more modern photograph of the jiro dug into the floor of the doma of the now-former Nara family residence, Akita Prefecture. Another irori is just visible in the background, in the raised-floor part of the interior. The house dates to the mid-18th century.

An irori in the floor of the ‘kitchen’ (daidoko だいどこ) of an ‘earth-sitting dwelling’ (doza sumai 土座住まい), with a surround (robuchi 炉縁) of large rounded river stones (tama-ishi 玉石). The former residence of the Nokubi family (Nokubi-ke 野首家), Gifu Prefecture, now relocated to the Hida Folk Village (Hida Minzoku-mura 飛騨民俗村) in Takayama City, also in Gifu Prefecture.

In the earliest raised-floor dwellings (taka-yuka jūkyo 高床住居), whose mode of living eventually came to predominate in the country’s southern regions, constructing a fireproof enclosure or ‘container’ (irori can be written with the single character 炉, lit. ‘furnace’ or ‘kiln’) for the fire was considered difficult, or at least not worth the effort, since in these warmer climates, where an indoor heat source was not necessary or even desirable, the fire could be exterior to the dwelling. This explains why irori are still most densely distributed in the colder Tо̄hoku and Hokuriku regions of eastern Japan. In later periods, once methods for installing them into raised timber floors were developed, irori were also widely adopted in the minka of the mountainous areas of western Japan, such that today we can no longer draw a hard distinction between regions that use irori and those that use only stoves (kamado かまど or 釜土).

Today irori built into a raised timber floor, such as the example shown here, are far more common and familiar than the in-ground jiro.

Irori are typically square in shape, and range in size from half a tatami mat to a full tatami mat in area (from around 91cm x 91cm to around 130cm x 130cm). There are various methods of construction, but the typical example consists of a concave base of stones or rubble built up below the floor to the level of the floor bearers; this base is lined with clay, on which is laid down a layer of sand, then ash. There are regions in which the perimeter part of the irori is finished with fine white plaster (shikkui 漆喰) or cement, with the central part left unplastered.

Edge section of a typical irori construction (though by no means the only method). Labelled are the stone base (ishi-gumi 石組), clay (nendo 粘土) and ash (hai 灰) layers, bearer (oobiki 大引) and joist (neda 根太), floorboards (yuka-ita 床板), and the irori’s perimeter frame (robuchi 炉縁).

The perimeter timber frame, typically called the ro-buchi (炉縁, lit. ‘furnace edge’), is either flush with or somewhat higher than the finished floor level. It and the ‘walls’ of the irori usually surround the pit on all four sides, to fully contain the fire and ash, though there are regions in which one side of the irori abuts and is open to the doma, allowing direct access to the fire from that side; this type of irori has the advantage of allowing transfer of food, pots, and fuel from the doma to the irori without having to remove one's shoes and step up into the room, and also makes the removal of ash easier.

Example of an irori whose doma-side is partly open to the doma, with the lower seat (shimo-za 下座) omitted; one can ‘step into’ the irori from the doma without taking one’s shoes off. In this district, the entire room seen in the picture beyond the irori is referred to metonymically as the yoko-za (横座). The Iwakami family (Iwakami-ke 岩上家) residence, Tochigi Prefecture (Tochigi-ken 栃木県).

In this irori, the doma side is fully open to the doma. There is a gapped-board clad (sunoko-bari 簀の子貼り) ‘fire-side platform’ (hijiri-dai 火尻台) at the open ‘fire side’ (hijiri-gawa 火尻側) of the irori.

Many minka contain two or more irori. In this example, the one in the foreground is in the ‘living room’ (dei でい), the one in the background is in the ‘kitchen’ (daidoko だいどこ).

JAPANESE MINKA LIX - PLANNING 37: NOTATION SYSTEMS

We have finally reached the end of this long series on minka layouts, which began with single-space minka and progressed through one-room, two-room, three-room, four-room, and multi-room layouts, with many digressions, tangents and reiterations along the way.

Here is a good time to remind the reader that this series, like the one before it on minka structure, is a loose translation of Internal Layouts, Structure, and Interiors (Madori・Kо̄zо̄・Naibu 間取り・構造・内部), the second volume of Kawashima Chūji’s (川島宙次) three-volume work on minka titled Horobiyuku Minka (滅びゆく民家, lit. ‘Disappearing Minka’). The first and third volumes are Roofs and Exteriors (Yane・Gaikan 屋根・外観) and Sites/Auxiliary Structures and Typologies (Yashiki-mawari・Keishiki 屋敷まわり・形式) respectively.

So by way of conclusion, and for the last post of the year, this one is strictly for the nerds: an explanation of the various symbolic notation systems, including Kawashima’s own, developed to represent minka layouts non-pictorially.

Kawashima points out that such a system had already been pioneered by Ishihara Kenji (石原憲治) before World War II.  Ishihara’s work in organising, classifying, and statistically analysing a great number of minka layouts has been extremely useful to later researchers, and in Kawashima’s view he deserves great respect for bringing the study of layouts into focus earlier than would otherwise have been the case. 

Ishihara’s notation system, expressed with numerical and arithmetical symbols, is able to capture the basic gist of minka layouts, but it is highly reductive and has two major shortcomings: first, though it is possible to visualise the number and general arrangement of rooms from the notation, the names or uses of the rooms are not indicated: the system does not convey whether a particular room is allocated for use as, for instance, a formal zashiki or as a bedroom (nando), so it is impossible to know the mode of habitation of the rooms, or of the dwelling as a whole. 

The second drawback of Ishihara’s system is that it is not even always possible to determine the layout type from the notation.  For example, a front-zashiki type three-room layout (mae-zashiki-gata san-madori  前座敷型三間取り) and a parallel lineup three-room layout (jūretsu-gata san-madori 縦列型三間取り), two very different layouts, are both simply represented as ‘3’. 

This latter deficiency can be addressed by adopting a symbolic system that indicates not only the number of rooms but also the layout type or style.  For this purpose, Kawashima offers the following symbols and definitions:

• H Hiroma-type (Hiroma-gata 広間型) layout

• S Regular (Seikei 整形) layout

• K Staggered (Kui-chigai 食違い) layout

• Y Perpendicular lineup type (heiretsu-gata 併列型) layout. Since ‘H’ is already taken, ‘Y’ is used for the equivalent term Yoko-narabi (横ならび, lit. ‘horizontal lineup’). The lineup of rooms runs perpendicular to the room-doma boundary.

• T Parallel lineup type (jūretsu-gata 縦列型) layout. Since ‘j’ is already taken, ‘T’ is used for the equivalent term Tate-narabi (縦ならび, lit. ‘vertical lineup’). The lineup of rooms runs parallel to the room-doma boundary.

Throughout this series on layouts, we have used the ‘X-type N-room’ (or alternatively ‘N-room X-type’) format, as in ‘regular four-room layout’ (seikei yon-madori 整形四間取り) or ‘three-room layout hiroma-type’ ( 三間取り広間型).  To convert a minka layout written in this way into Kawashima’s ‘layout type + number of rooms’ format, we simply take the letter that represents the layout type, and follow it with the number that represents the number of rooms, with the two separated by a dash.  So the ‘regular four-room layout’ (seikei yon-madori) is written ‘S - 4’ and the ‘three-room layout hiroma-type’ (san-madori hiroma-gata) is written ‘H - 3’.  For a staggered four-room layout (kui-chigai yon-madori 食違い四間取り), we write ‘K - 3’.

Kawashima’s system also remedies the first shortcoming of Ishihara’s system, by using alphabetical characters to represent room names (and thus uses), a method which he notes is adopted as-is from that used by Nishiyama Uzо̄ (西山夘三) in the farmhouse volume (Nо̄ka-hen 農家編) of his work Japanese Dwellings (Nihon no Sumai 日本の住まい).  Use of an upper-case letter indicates that the room runs the full width (harima 梁間) of the dwelling; lower-case letters stand for the names of rooms that are not full width, i.e. are divided from other rooms by partitions perpendicular to the room-doma boundary. 

The room symbols and definitions employed by Kawashima are as follows:

• n  Sleeping space (shinshitsu kūkan 寝室空間).  Common names: nema, heya, nando

• z  Reception space (sekkyaku kūkan 接客空間).  Common names: zashiki, genkan

• d  Dining/ ‘housework’ space (shokuji・kaji kūkan 食事・家事空間).  Common names: daidoko, katte

• j  Family ‘public’ space (kazoku no kо̄kūkan 公空間).  Common names: jо̄i, chanoma, iroma, nakanoma

• o  Public space admitting guests/visitors (kyaku o fukumeta kūkan 客をふくめた空間).  Common names: omote, dei

• W  Interior (generally earth-floored and full-width, thus capitalised) work/utility space (yanai sagyо̄ kūkan 屋内作業空間).  Common names: niwa, daidokoro, doji

• m  Livestock space (kachiku no kūkan 家畜の空間).  Common names: maya, daya, umaya

• s Storage (shūnо̄ 収納) space such as a closet (oshi-ire 押入, mono-iri 物入), cupboard (todana 戸棚); or a decorative alcove (toko 床, toko-no-ma 床の間), Buddhist alcove (butsuma 仏間), or the like.

• e Liminal or ‘edge’ (en 縁) space such as a ‘verandah’ (engawa 縁側) or entry vestibule (genkan 玄関). 

As an example, using this ‘room name + spatial arrangement’ system to describe regular four-room layout, consisting of a nando, zashiki, daidoko, omote, and niwa, gives us:

n d

—— W

z o

If we render each of the major layout types and styles into the four descriptive formats (the conventional word-based format and the three symbolic notation systems) discussed above, we obtain the following table of 18 plan diagrams, where each plan is accompanied by its description in each of the four formats, usually to the right of the plan.  

Plan diagrams of the various minka layout types.  To the right of each plan diagram is a ‘quadrant’ of four ways of describing the layout, in either words or symbolically.  The quadrant contains the following: top left, the layout description in words; bottom left, a symbolic representation consisting of the layout type followed by the number of rooms, and that followed optionally by the stagger type, e.g. ‘K - 4T’; top right, a symbolic representation of the function and position of each room in the layout, with the arrangement of letters conveying the location of each room and spatial relationships between them; bottom right, in parentheses, Ishihara Kenji’s system of notation, using numbers, the arithmetical symbols ‘+’ and ‘x’, and occasionally a character suffix such as ‘併’ (hei) to indicate what I call the ‘perpendicular’ lineup’ layout, or ‘全’ (zen) to indicate that a room is ‘full (width)’. 

By way of example, the first and simplest layout is shown below.

Plan diagram of a one-room layout (ichi-madori １間取り) and its various descriptions.

At the top left is the layout description in words: ‘prototype one-room layout’ (genkei hito-madori or genkei ichi-madori 原型１間取り). 

Below that, at bottom left, is the reduction of this description into its alphanumeric layout symbol or ‘code’: in this case, simply ‘1’.  There is no letter here to indicate a layout type, because in a one-room layout there is no possible variation in this regard.

At top right is the symbolic spatial description of the room layout, which adds room and spatial information to the alphanumeric code: here, ‘J W’, meaning an earth-floored utility space (W) and an adjacent family ‘public’ room (J), both capitalised since both run the full width of the dwelling.

The number is parentheses, here (1), is the layout expressed in Ishihara Kenji’s notation system.

Now let’s take a more complex example, shown below: a perpendicular stagger four-room layout.

Plan diagram of a a perpendicular stagger four-room layout (tate kui-chigai yon-madori 縦食違い４間取り) and its various descriptions.

Its description in words is tate kui-chigai yon-madori (縦職違い４間取り).

Expressed alphanumerically, this becomes ‘K - 4T’.  The ‘T’ here comes after the number, so indicates that the stagger of the four-room layout is of the perpendicular type (tate kui-chigai 縦食違い), and is not to be confused with a ‘T’ before the dash, which indicates a parallel lineup type (jūretsu-gata 縦列型) layout.  Likewise, a ‘Y’ after the number would indicate that the stagger of the layout is of the parallel type (yoko kui-chigai 横食違い), whereas a ‘Y’ before the dash indicates a perpendicular lineup type (heiretsu-gata 併列型) layout.

The spatial description of the room layout is:

n d

/ \/  W

z o

The horizontal three-bar zigzag indicates the perpendicular stagger; further, the fact that the peak of the zigzag is on the left and the valley on the right indicates that the partition between the nando and the zashiki is rearward of the partition between the daidoko and the omote.

Finally, Ishihara’s notation for this layout, shown in parentheses, is ‘2+2’.  The plus sign indicates this as a staggered four-room layout, distinguishing it from a regular four-room layout, which is written ‘2x2’.

If we want to be able to reconstruct plan diagrams from our symbolic notation systems with more detail and greater accuracy, we can introduce the elements of floor area and linear dimensions.  For example, to the letter indicating the ‘layout type’, we can add numerals that indicate the overall building dimensions (length x width) in ken (間, 1 ken = 1.818m).  For example, a hiroma-type layout minka that is 12 ken long and 5 ken wide would be written as:

H 12 x 5   

Note that in adding the dimensions to this ‘layout type + number of rooms’ notation system we have lost the ‘number of rooms’, so for this ‘layout type + building dimensions’ notation to be of any use, it must be complimented by the ‘room name + spatial arrangement’ notation system; or, to put it another way, when accompanied by the ‘room name + spatial arrangement’ notation system, the numeral indicating the number of rooms is redundant.  Combining both the ‘number of rooms’ and the ‘building dimensions’ in the ‘layout type’ notation would probably require putting parentheses around the ‘building dimensions’ to avoid the formula becoming messy and ambiguous.  If the above ‘H 12 x 5’ minka were a four-room layout (‘H - 4’), for example, we could write the whole as:

H - 4 (12 x 5)

We can add the element of area to the ‘room name + spatial arrangement’ notation system too, by affixing numerals indicating the area of each room, measured in tatami mats, to the letters representing the room names.  A tatami mat is one ken in length and half a ken wide, i.e. 1.818m x 0.919m, so the area of a single mat is around 1.67m2.  The counter suffix for tatami is jо̄ (帖); an eight-mat zashiki, expressed symbolically here as ‘z8’, would be read as hachi-jо̄ no zashiki (８帖の座敷).  To obtain the area of a room in tatami mats or jо̄, simply multiply the length of the room by the width, both measured in ken, and then multiply the result by two.  So a room measuring 3 ken long by 2 ken wide has an area of 2 (3 x 2) = 12 jо̄.

Let’s now apply all this to a real-world example: the former residence of the Sakuta/Sakuda/Tsukuda (作田) family, originally of Sanbu County (Sanbu-gun 山武郡), Chiba Prefecture, but now relocated to the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum (Nihon Minka-en 日本民家園) in Kanagawa Prefecture, and designated an important cultural property. 

The plan of the house is fairly complex: a six-room wrapped-hiroma type (tori-maki hiroma-gata 取巻き広間型) layout, with the added complication of being a ‘separate ridge style’ (buntо̄-shiki 分棟式) construction, meaning that the dwelling is comprised of two buildings that are structurally independent and have separate roofs, but (in this example at least) are internally continuous.

Plan of the former Sakuta/Sakuda/Tsukuda (作田) family house, a wrapped-hiroma type (tori-maki hiroma-gata 取巻き広間型)  ‘separate ridge style’ (buntо̄-shiki 分棟式) minka.  Labelled are the earth-floored utility area (doma どま), which occupies its own separate building; the large, board (ita 板)-floored hiroma or omote (here the kami かみ) with firepit (irori, marked ro 炉), Buddhist alcove (butsuma, marked manji 卍) and shallow decorative alcove (oshi-ita 押板); the ‘dining room’ (daidoko, here cha-no-ma ちゃのま) with firepit; the bedroom (nando なんど); the rear formal room (zashiki, here oku おく) with decorative alcove (toko とこ); the ‘middle room’, also formal (naka-no-ma なかのま); and the formal entry ‘anteroom’ or ‘vestibule’, the liminal (en 縁) genkan げんかん).  Part of the doma is taken up with the stalls of a stable (maya まや, unlabelled).

Expressing the layout in both the ‘layout type + building dimensions’ and ‘room names + room areas + spatial arrangement’ notation systems gives us the following:

Two complementary symbolic descriptions of the Sakuta house.  On the left, the ‘layout type + building dimensions’ description.  On the right, the ‘room names + room areas + spatial arrangement’ description.

On the left we have the ‘layout type + building dimensions’ description.  ‘TH’ stands for for ‘wrapped-hiroma type (torimaki hiromagata 取巻き広間型), and this is followed by the total dimensions of the main building: 8 ken long by 5.5 ken wide, or around 14.5m x 10m. ‘W’ indicates the earth-floored work or utility area (the doma 土間 or niwa にわ); the ‘+’ separating the ‘TH’ and the ‘W’ indicates that these are two separate buildings; in other words, the minka is a buntо̄ (分棟 ‘separate ridge’) construction.  The ‘doma building’ is 3 ken long and 6 ken wide, or around 5.5m x 11m.

Using only the ‘layout type + building dimensions’ formula of ‘TH 8 x 5.5 + W 3 x 6’, it is possible obtain a preliminary outline plan like that shown below. The dashed lines representing room divisions are ‘anticipatory’ and cannot be derived from the ‘layout type + building dimensions’ formula alone.

A preliminary reconstruction of the external walls and overall length (maguchi 間口) and width (okuyuki 奥行) dimensions (measured in ken 間) of the two buildings of the Sakuta house, obtained from the description ‘TH 8 × 5.5 = W 3 × 6’.  Note that the half-ken difference in depth between the doma building and the main building’ is resolved here by showing the doma building extending out at the rear, with the two buildings drawn flush on the facade side, but this is an assumption that cannot be derived from the symbolic description alone.  Likewise, without knowing the customary style of minka in the area, one cannot know from the symbolic description alone that the two buildings are internally continuous and not fully separate.

The intimidating-looking formula on the right is the ‘room name + spatial arrangement’ description, with the addition of numerals that the floor area of each room.  

For the sake of convenience, let us assume that the building is oriented so that the facade (the hiroma or omote side) faces south, though this information is not carried in the symbolic descriptions, as not relevant.

Starting on the left, we have first a capital ‘E’, for an engawa running the full width of the building; the width of this space is not described. 

From the next part of the formula we can determine that there are six rooms: a rear zashiki with associated storage or alcoves, another zashiki, a facade-side engawa or other liminal space, a bedroom (nando), a dining-kitchen (daidoko), and the main room (omote). 

Next, the ‘W’ before the plus sign indicates that there is a full-width earth-floored utility area (doma or niwa) at the opposite end of the main building to the full-width engawa (‘E’).

The two horizontal lines represent partition lines: the top line terminates at the ‘W’ and the bottom line terminates at the ‘O’ (which should be lower case); from the positions of the room symbols relative to these lines we can determine that there is a ‘column’ of three rooms non-adjacent to the niwa (the rear zashiki with rear storage/alcove, the ‘middle’ zashiki, and front en space), that the omote runs from this column to the niwa, that the combined length of nando and daidoko is equal to that of the omote, and that the daidoko is adjacent to the niwa but the nando is not, being between the daidoko and the rear zashiki.

The floor area of each room, measured in tatami mats, is indicated by the number suffixed to it.  So the rear zashiki ‘z’ is ten tatami mats in area (jū-jо̄ １０帖), and so on.

Now for the difficult part: reconstructing the dimensions (length and width) of each room from the given floor areas.  Let’s start from the column of three rooms on the left, the combined width of which must equal the width of the building, 5.5 ken.

We know that each zashiki is 10 tatami mats (10 jо̄) in floor area, and that the en space is 5 jо̄ in area.  Keep in mind that a tatami mat is 1 ken (1.818m) long and 0.5 ken (0.909m) wide.  We know that the rear zashiki has a storage closet (oshi-ire 押入), decorative alcove (toko 床), or the like at its rear, as indicated by the small ‘s’ above the ‘z10’.  The depth (the width or transverse dimension) of this ‘s’ space is not given, but let’s assume that it is the standard 0.5 ken (0.909m).  This leaves us with 5 ken of building width (oku-yuki 奥行, lit. ‘rear going’) to distribute across the two zashiki and the en space.  Assuming that the layout is regular (seikei 整形) and therefore the transverse (vertical) partitions of these three rooms are aligned, it makes sense to also assume that each room is 2.5 ken (2.5 tatami lengths or 5 tatami widths) long; by dividing this length into the area of each room and then dividing the result by 2, we can obtain the widths of the rooms with reasonable confidence that they are correct.  For each zashiki:

(10 jо̄ / 2.5 ken) / 2 = 2 ken

For the en space:

(5 jо̄ / 2.5 ken) / 2 = 1 ken

So the dimensions of the two 10-mat zashiki are 5 tatami widths by 2 tatami lengths, i.e. 2.5 x 2 ken, and the en space is 5 tatami widths by 1 tatami length, i.e. 2.5 x 1 ken.

Next, we know that the bedroom (nando) and kitchen (daidoko) are both 10 tatami mats in area, but again, assuming the layout is regular (seikei) and therefore that the longitudinal (horizontal) partition boundary between the nando/daidokoro and the omote is aligned with that between the two zashiki, the width of these rooms must be the same as that of the rear zashiki (2 ken) and its ‘storage’ space (0.5 ken) combined, i.e. 2.5 ken.  Knowing the width (2.5 ken) and the areas (10 tatami mats or 10 jо̄ each) of the nando and daidoko, we can calculate their length by dividing the area (10 jо̄) by the width (2.5 ken, i.e. 5 tatami widths), which gives us 2 ken, or two tatami lengths.  Therefore the nando and daidoko are both 2 ken long by 2.5 ken wide. 

We know that the omote is 24 jо̄ in area.  Its length must equal that of the combined length of the nando and daidoko, i.e. 2 + 2 = 4 ken, and its width must equal that of the combined zashiki and engawa space, i.e. 2 + 1 = 3 ken.  Doing the area calculation

2(4 ken x 3 ken) = 24 jо̄

confirms that that these dimensions are correct.

As mentioned, there is a full-width engawa (‘E’) at one end of the main building, and an earth-floored utility area (niwa, ‘W’) at the other end. We know that, as the overall width of the building is 5.5 ken, these spaces must also be 5.5 ken in width, but their length is not given. We do know, however, the overall length of the main building (8 ken), and from our calculations of the room dimensions and orientations we also know that the total length of the rear zashiki, nando, and daidoko, and the total length of the front zashiki/en and omote: both sum to 6.5 ken. By subtracting this length from the overall length of the main building, we obtain a leftover length of 8 ken - 6.5 ken = 1.5 ken. It is impossible to know what share of this 1.5 ken is apportioned to the engawa and what to the niwa, but it is reasonable to assume a standard 0.5 ken for the engawa, leaving 1 ken for the niwa.

Next is the separate niwa building, the ‘W’ in ‘TH 8 x 5.5 + W 3 x 6’.  We know from the ‘3 x 6’ that this building is 3 ken long and 6 ken wide, for a total area of 2(3 x 6) = 36 jо̄ (or equivalent, since this area is earth-floored so the tatami figure here is ‘virtual’).  Comparing the width of the niwa building with that of the main building, we see that the former is 0.5 ken wider than the latter; whether because the distance between the external structural wall/posts lines themselves are more widely spaced, or because a 0.5 ken under-eave space to either the front or rear of the niwa is enclosed, we cannot tell. 

Finally the, ‘m8’ after the ‘W’ indicates that within the niwa building there is a stable (maya) or similar (‘m’) and that it is 8 jо̄ in area, though its exact position within the niwa is not captured by the symbolic description.

The layout of the Sakuta house, as reconstructed from the formulas given.

In general, though it is possible with effort and practice to arrive at the correct reconstruction using only the formulas given, there remain ambiguity and the possibility of error in translating them into the correct length and width dimensions of the various rooms, the correct room orientations, and the correct partition locations.

In terms of legibility and detail, Kawashima’s system is a significant improvement on Ishihara’s, though by Kawashima’s own admission it still isn’t perfectly comprehensive or able to capture every particularity of minka layouts in all their messy variety.  Because only the area of the rooms is given, not their length and width, the interpreter is left to puzzle out the ‘aspect ratio’ and orientation of each room: an 18 jо̄ space, for example, might be 1 ken by 9 ken, or 2 x 4.5, or 2.25 x 4, or 3 x 3, or 4 x 2.25, or 4.5 x 2, or 9 x 1.  Though the correct arrangement can usually be arrived at with common sense and some thought, this effort could be eliminated by including the length and width dimensions for each room, just as they are given for the structure as a whole. 

In the end, a notation system capable of capturing the full range of layout types and all nuances of their sub-variations to a degree of detail that guaranteed accurate reconstruction of every possible minka plan would probably be so complicated and unwieldy that one might as well use plan diagrams, which at least have the advantages of being comprehensible at a glance and of instantly conveying the ‘feel’ of the minka interior in a way that symbolic notation cannot. 

But, as Kawashima points out, there are benefits to using these symbol systems as a kind of shorthand in certain situations, such as when surveying multiple minka of a particular style in a particular region: one can undertake a detailed plan-drawing of a single representative example, and for all the others record only symbolic data, which can interpreted and reconstructed at leisure ‘back in the office’ by reference to the plan, thereby greatly reducing the labour and time (money) required for fieldwork.  Kawashima also suggests the possibility of using computers to digitise and automate the process of reconstructing and generating plan diagrams from symbolic inputs. 

This may seem quaint to us, but it is a reminder, and important to recognise, that Kawashima, Ishihara and others were surveying minka at a time either entirely before computers, or in the era of punch-cards and room-sized machines, when digital memory was scarce and expensive (Disappearing Minka was first published in 1973), to say nothing of digital cameras and all the other conveniences of our own time, including modern roads and transportation networks; in pre-war and immediate post-war Japan, just reaching some of the remoter mountain villages and islands would have been a challenge in itself.

JAPANESE MINKA LVIII - PLANNING 36: HIROMA TYPE LAYOUTS 10

The final building to be featured in this series on minka layouts is the residence of the Sakurai family (Sakurai-ke 桜井家), a large kaisendoiya (回船問屋), the combined house and business premises of a ship cargo wholesaler or shipping agent, on the Noto Peninsula (Noto Hantо̄ 能登半島), Ishikawa Prefecture. Fittingly, this grand minka is the largest we have looked at so far, at least by room count, and probably also by floor area.

The plan can be interpreted as a ‘wrapped hiroma type’ (tori-maki hiroma-gata 取巻き広間型) core, to which rooms have been added in two directions: the kyaku-ma (きゃくま) and tsugi-no-ma (つぎのま) to the facade or front side (the bottom of the plan below), and a column of five rooms, from the kami-zashiki (かみざしき) to the shufū-shitsu (主婦室), to the upper (kami-te 上み手) side (the right side of the plan). As befitting a ‘modern’ Meiji era (1868-1912) minka, the layout is a well-developed regular multi-room layout (seikei ta-madori 整形多間取り).

Plan of the residence of the Sakurai family (Sakurai-ke 桜井家), Ishikawa Prefecture.  The many rooms are arranged in a regular (seikei 整形) layout, but as with the hon-mune zukuri minka discussed in last week’s post, the layout can be seen as a wrapped-hiroma type core with the daidoko as its nucleus, to which a row/column of rooms have been added to each of the ‘upper’ and facade sides of this core.  Labelled are the passage (doma どま) with ‘big door’ (о̄do 大戸) and step platform (shikidai 式台); the niwa (にわ); the partly board (ita 板) floored kitchen (naka-shimoto なかしもと) with stove, sink, and well; another board-floored room (unlabelled) off the kitchen that is likely a pantry; the expansive (22.5 tatami mats) main living area (daidoko だいどこ) with two firepits (irori, marked ro 炉); the ‘shikidai room’ (shikidai-no-ma しきだいのま) with firepit; the ‘guest room’ (kyaku-no-ma きゃくのま) with its own shikidai; the ‘second room’ (tsugi-no-ma つぎのま) and ‘upper zashiki’ (kami-zashiki かみざしき) with shelves (tana たな), both served by a semi-internal ‘verandah’ (en えん) that leads to the bath (yoku 浴) and ‘upper toilet (kami-benjo 上便所); the Buddhist room (butsuma ぶつま) with Buddhist alcove (marked 卍); the ‘lower zashiki’ (shimo-zashiki しもざしき); the ‘anteroom’ (hikae-no-ma ひかえのま); the bedroom (nando なんど); the ‘small room’ (ko-beya こべや), likely also a bedroom, the wife’s room (shufū-shitsu 主婦室); and the husband’s room (shujin-shitsu 主人室).  To the rear of the building is a separate storehouse (kura くら).  A long wraparound verandah (mawari-en 回り縁) runs from the shimo-zashiki to the daidoko.  The interior floor area, including the doma and niwa, is roughly 270 square metres.

An unusual feature of the plan are the partitioned areas, two ken long and half a ken wide (approx. 3.64m x 0.91m), above and below the bedroom (nando なんど); presumably these function as double-fronted closets, accessible from both the nando and from the rooms on either side of it. The area above the nando could have also been used as an internal corridor to allow the husband and wife to access their respective rooms from the everyday living area (daidoko だいどこ) without disturbing anyone in the nando, but it is more likely that the ‘wraparound verandah’ (mawari-en) was used to access these rooms; with the exception of the nando and the hikae-no-ma (ひかえのま), every room in the building is accessible via either the mawari-en, the other en (えん), or the doma/niwa. The strip between the ‘small room’ (kobeya こべや) and the wife’s room (shufū-shitsu 主婦室) appears to be a stair, with storage below.

The passage-like doma (どま), corresponding to the tо̄ri-niwa (通り庭) of the traditional townhouse (machiya 町家), opens out into the large niwa (にわ) and beyond it to the part earth-floored, part board-floored kitchen (nakashimoto なかしもと).

Interior view of the Sakurai house, looking across the daidoko into the shikidai-no-ma, with part of the niwa visible on the right.  The fine finish on the timber elements, white-plastered infill panels, delicate latticework on the sliding partitions (tategu), expansive use of tatami (both with and without fabric edging heri 縁) and the presence of glass all make it evident that this is a later-period minka of an affluent family. 

JAPANESE MINKA LVII - PLANNING 35: HIROMA TYPE LAYOUTS 9

From the Matsumoto plain (Matsumoto-daira 松本平) in central Shinshū (信州), current day Nagano Prefecture, to the Iga Valley (Iga-tani 伊賀谷) and Kiso Valley (Kiso-tani 木曽谷) in south-west Nagano, there is distributed a very distinctive style of minka with shallow-pitched gable roofs (kiri-zuma 切妻), gable-end entries (tsuma-iri 妻入り), and large ridge and gable ornaments. This style is called hon-mune zukuri (本棟造り, lit. ‘true ridge construction’).

Exterior view of the Baba family residence (Baba-ke juutaku (馬場家住宅), a hon-mune zukuri (本棟造り) minka in Matsumoto City (Matsumoto-shi 松本市), Nagano Prefecture.

The plan of the Yamashita family (Yamashita-ke 山下家) residence, shown below, is an example of the kind of layout found in hon-mune zukuri minka. At base, it is a regular (seikei 整形) nine-room layout (kyū-madori or ku-madori 九間取り), close to what is called i-ji gata (囲字型), so named for its resemblance in plan to the character i 囲, ‘enclosure’. It is thought to have developed from a ‘wrapped-hiroma type’ (tori-maki hiroma-gata 取巻き広間型) layout, with an extremely large hiroma, called the oe (おえ), to which a formal zashiki has been added.

The Yamashita family (Yamashita-ke 山下家) residence, Nagano Prefecture.  There is a long, passage-like, front-to-back earth-floored utility area (doma どま) reminiscent of the tо̄ri-niwa (通り庭) of Japanese townhouses (machiya 町家).  The front section is the entry, the middle section contains the stove, and at the rear is a ‘picklery’ (tsukemono-beya つけものべや) and sink (nagashi ナガシ).  The rooms named are the formal entry (genkan げんかん), the large, partly board-floored living room (oe おえ) with firepit (irori, marked ro 炉) and cupboard (todana 戸棚), the naka-shimoto (なかしもと), likely a kitchen-dining room; the ‘flour room’ (kona-beya 粉へや); the bedroom (nema ねま); the ‘Buddha room’ (butsu-ma ぶつま) with Buddhist alcove (卍); the ‘middle room’ (naka-no-ma なかのま); the ‘inner room’ (oku-no-ma おくのま); the ‘lower zashiki’ (shimo-zashiki しもざしき); and the ‘upper zashiki’ kami-zashiki (かみざしき) with shelves (tana タナ) and decorative alcove (toko とこ).

Interior view of the Yamashita house.  Looking from the oe (おえ), the nucleus of the hon-mune zukuri layout, across the firepit (irori) towards the doma (どま).

In prefectures such as Niigata and Toyama on the Sea of Japan side of the Honshū (本州), the country’s main island, there can also be found machiya (町家) townhouses that resemble hon-mune zukuri construction in their external appearance and layout.

JAPANESE MINKA LVI - PLANNING 34: HIROMA TYPE LAYOUTS 8

In the final stretch of this long series on minka layouts, we enter the realm of minka with ‘multi-room’ (which I would loosely define as more than six rooms) layouts. Such minka are of course generally larger and more complex than the one- to six-room layouts we have covered up to this point, and, representing as they do the final stages of minka development, usually date to the later years of the Edo period (1603 - 1868) or the Meiji period (1869 - 1912). Unsurprisingly, given that they were typically occupied by farmers or merchants of higher socio-economic status, these dwellings also tend to be better-appointed than smaller minka. This positive correlation between the scale of a building and its level of quality or detail used to be universal, almost a kind of natural law, but it does not hold today, when very large houses are often built to the same low standard as more regular-sized dwellings.

These complex, sprawling multi-room minka layouts can be difficult to categorise, but usually a simpler layout, conforming to one of the simpler ‘base’ layout types discussed previously in this series, can be identified at the core of the dwelling, with the other, perimeter rooms interpretable as additions over time.

In the Hokuriku region (Hokuriku chihо̄ 北陸地方) prefectures of Ishiyama and Toyama, there is a ‘wrapped-hiroma’ type (tori-maki hiroma-gata 取巻き広間型) layout where the central room, around which the rest of the dwelling is wrapped, is called the cha-no-ma (ちゃのま, lit. ‘tea room’).  Despite the ‘hiroma-type’ designation, in these dwellings this room is actually a formal zashiki rather than the everyday living room usually implied by the name hiroma.  Minka on the Noto Peninsula (Noto Hantо̄ 能登半島) of Ishiyama Prefecture, represented here by the Herimushiro family (Herimushiro-ke 縁莚家) house shown below, very unambiguously belong to this layout type: the cha-no-ma dominates, and the other rooms are clearly subordinate. 

Plan of the the Herimushiro family  (Herimushiro-ke 縁莚家) house, from the Noto region (Noto chihо̄ 能登地方) of Ishikawa Prefecture, a wrapped-hiroma type (取巻き広間型) layout minka with an о̄ma-zukuri (大間造り) structure, though rather than six stout posts around the cha-no-ma there are ten posts of more regular size.  Labelled are the earth-floored utility area (niwa にわ), kitchen (naka-shimoto なかしもと), living-dining room (daidoko だいどこ) with firepit (ro ろ), step platform (inba いんば), main formal room (cha-no-ma ちゃのま) with firepit, servery (ryо̄-no-ma りょうのま), ‘lower room’ (shimo-no-ma しものま), ‘middle room’ (naka-no-ma なかのま), formal room (zashikiざしき) with decorative alcove (toko とこ), Buddhist room and alcove (both butsuma ぶつま, alcove marked 卍), ‘small zashiki’ (ko-zashiki こざしき), and bedroom (nando なんど).

Interior view of the cha-no-ma of the Herimushiro house.  There is no ceiling, making visible the beam assembly of the о̄ma-zukuri (大間造り) structural system.  A large hi-dana (火棚, lit. ‘fire shelf’), suspended by ropes from the roof beams, hangs over the central firepit (irori 囲炉裏) cut into the board floor.

This minka, like the Herimushiro house, is from the Noto region (能登地方), and is also a wrapped-hiroma type (取巻き広間型) layout, but with its single ken (1.81m) width ryо̄ri-no-ma (りょうりのま) and dei (でい) rooms, its layout is closer than the Herimushiro house to a middle-zashiki type (naka-zashiki-gata 中座敷型) layout.  The house is centred on and dominated by the formal cha-no-ma (ちゃのま), with the other rooms arranged such that they wrap around it.  The six stout posts around the perimeter of the cha-no-ma, together with the unseen beam assembly they support, indicate that this minka is built in the structural style known in the Hokuriku region (Hokurikuchihо̄ 北陸) as О̄ma-zukuri (大間造り).  Labelled are the earth-floored utility area consisting of the niwa (にわ) with storage (shūnо̄ 収納) closet, bath (nyūyoku 入浴), and urinal (shо̄ben 小便), for agricultural work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業) and food preparation (shokuryо̄ chо̄sei 食糧調整); and the kitchen (nagashimoto ながしもと) with stoves, sink, and water (mizu 水), for cooking (chо̄ri 調理); the living-dining room (daidoko だいどこ), with firepit (irori, marked ro 炉), for dining (shokuji 食事), family time (danran 団らん), and handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事); a kind of ‘servery’ (ryо̄ri-no-ma りょうりのま) for tableware storage (shokki no kakunou 食器の格納), and food service (haizen 配膳) and preparation (junbi 準備) activities accompanying ceremonies (gyо̄ji ni tomonau 行事に伴う); the cha-no-ma (ちゃのま) for ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事) and receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客); the front dei (でい) for handwork and entertaining (о̄tai 応対); the zashiki (ざしき) with decorative alcove (toko とこ) and Buddhist alcove (butsuma, marked manji 卍), for sleeping (shūshin 就寝), receiving guests, and religious activities (shinkо̄ 信仰); the bedroom (nando なんど) for sleeping and storage of family possessions (kazaishūnо̄ 家財収納); and the rear bedroom (oku-no-ma おくのま), the sleeping place of the husband and wife (fūfushūshin夫婦就寝).  The ‘verandah’ (engawa) has light-admitting (saikо̄ 採光) rain shutters (amado 雨戸).

In contrast, in the minka of the Tonami (砺波) region of western Toyama Prefecture, the rooms surrounding the hiroma are large, not much different to the hiroma in size, and the dwellings do not have strong hiroma-type characteristics; the Kawabe family (Kawabe-ke 川辺家) residence in Toyama Prefecture, whose plan is shown below, is representative. 

Regardless of these differences, both minka types go by the name о̄ma-zukuri (大間造り, lit. ‘big room construction’) in these areas, a name derived rather from their shared structural system, the principal element of which consists of six stout inner posts (jо̄ya-bashira 上屋柱) erected around the perimeter of the hiroma, and on these a beam assembly that is in either a cruciform (jūji-gata 十字形) or a double-layer (ni-jū 二重) ‘well beam’ (i-geta 井桁, four beams arranged in the shape of the character i 井, ‘well’) configuration; this method of construction is called waku-no-uchi zukuri (枠の内造り), lit. ‘frame inner construction’) and was covered in a post in our previous series on minka structure.

Additionally, a sumptuary law in effect in the Tonami region under the hansei (藩政) system of administration in the Edo-period, when Japan was organised into domains (藩 han), restricted the maximum transverse beam span (harima 梁間, effectively the width of the building) to ni-ken-manaka (二間まなか, lit. ‘two and a half ken’, around five metres).  As a result, many minka in this area have a characteristic roof form where the thatched ‘main house’ (hon-ya 本屋) roof ends at the rear boundary of the hiroma, and rearward of this line is a tiled or board-clad lean-to or awning roof (fuki-kudashi 葺き下し).  This type is variously called kake-oroshi (掛け下し, lit. ‘hang down’) for its form, or fuki-kawaze (葺き交ぜ, lit. ‘cladding change’) for its mixing of roof cladding materials.  The layout, structural system, and roof form all combine to give these minka a strong regional character.

Plan of the Kawabe house in Toyama Prefecture.  Labelled are the formal entry (genkan げんかん and niwa にわ) leading to a ‘hall’ (hashi はし); an earth-floored storage area (mono-oki ものおき), the ‘lower cha-no-ma’ (しもちゃのま), likely the everyday living-dining room, with firepit (ro 炉) and storage for (fire)wood (ki木); the kitchen-dining room (daidoko だいどこ); the ‘upper cha-no-ma’ (kami-chanoma かみちゃのま); the ‘middle room’ (naka-no-ma なかのま), perhaps a bedroom; a bedroom (heya へや) with decorative alcove (toko とこ); an ‘anteroom’ (hikae-no-ma ひかえのま) with toko; the ‘upper zashiki’ (kami-zashiki かみざしき) with toko and Buddhist alcove (卍); the ‘mouth zashiki’ (kuchi-zashiki くちざしき); the saya-no-ma (さやのま, perhaps lit. ‘scabbard room’); and the central hiroma (ひろま).  

Exterior facade view of the Kawabe house in Toyama Prefecture.  The white-plastered corner walls are the external walls of the urinal and toilet, seen in the bottom right of the plan above; the dark area to the left of this is the exterior genkan, the formal entry to the dwelling.  The steeply pitched, thatched roof covers only the hiroma (ひろま), the hashi (はし), the niwa (にわ) and mono-oki (ものおき), the front corner of the shimo-chanoma (しもちゃのま), the rear half of the kuchi-zashiki (くちざしき), and the front half of the kami-zashiki (かみざしき); all the other parts of the interior are covered by shallower, tiled awning/lean-to roofs coming off the main roof.  This style is unique to the region and is called fuki-kawaze (葺き交ぜ, lit. ‘cladding exchange’).

JAPANESE MINKA LV - PLANNING 33: HIROMA TYPE LAYOUTS 7

Last week’s post focused on the evolution of the Shiina house (1674) in Ibaraki Prefecture, regarded as the oldest extant minka in eastern Japan (Kantо̄ 関東). The Kitamura house, presented in a previous post on hiroma-type three-room layouts (hiroma-gata san-madori 広間型三間取り) and shown again here below, is regarded as the second-oldest, with the year 1687 inscribed on its structure.

The Kitamura house is a typical example of the hiroma-type three-room layouts representative of the Musashi (武蔵) and Sagami (相模) districts of eastern Japan. In clear contrast to these minka, however, are the middle-zashiki hiroma-type (naka-zashiki hiroma-gata 中座敷広間型) layouts of the south-eastern part of Kantо̄. Further, the posts of these houses are set directly on post stones (a method called ishiba-tate 石場建て) without an intermediate ground sill (dodai 土台); the finish on the timbers indicates the use of a maruba (丸刃) adze (chouna 手斧); and the mechanisms used to latch doors are antiquated.

The Kitamura house, originally Kanagawa Prefecture, a hiroma-type three-room layout (hiroma-gata san-madori 広間型三間取り) and considered to be the second-oldest surviving minka in eastern Japan (1687). 

If we consider the middle-zashiki hiroma-type layout as one in which the under-eave spaces (hisashi 庇) to the front and rear of the main ‘middle’ rooms (the rooms under the main body of the roof, the jо̄ya 上屋) are extended and developed into enclosed geya (下屋) spaces that contain rooms of their own, then the perpendicular lineup (heiretsu-gata 併列型) layout, in which a single ‘row’ of rooms is arrayed along the axis perpendicular to the room-doma boundary, ought to be the prototype or precursor form of the middle-zashiki type.

An example of a perpendicular lineup (heiretsu-gata 併列型) layout.

In the Totsukawa 十津川 district in the mountains of the Kiwa (紀和) region (current-day Wakayama and Mie Prefectures) in western Japan (Kansai 関西)  where the perpendicular lineup layout is common, there is an example of such a development path: the Nakatani family (Nakatani-ke 中谷家) residence.  Though this layout, in which the various rooms are seemingly placed so as to wrap around the firepit (irori)-equipped central room (here the omote-zashiki おもてざしき), closely resembles the wrapped-hiroma type (tori-maki hiroma-gata 取巻き広間型) layout, in its particular characteristics it is arguably more strongly reminiscent of a regular layout (seikei madori 整形間取り) than it is of the wrapped-hiroma type.

The Nakatani house, an example of a layout in which the front and rear under-eave spaces of a parallel line-up (heiretsu-gata 併列型) three room layout (san-madori ３間取り) have been extended and developed into rooms, transforming it into a layout that has characteristics of both the middle-zashiki type (naka-zashiki-gata 中座敷型) and the wrapped-hiroma type (tori-maki hiroma-gata 取巻き広間型) layouts.  Labelled are the kitchen-dining-family room (daidoko だいどこ) with firepit (irori, marked ro 炉), cupboard (todana 戸棚), and separate room with stove for cooking (chо̄ri 調理), for dining (shokuji 食事), family time (danran 団らん), courting (kousai 交際), and handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事); small earth-floored entrance areas; the usuya (うすや) for food preparation (shokuryо̄ chо̄sei 食糧調整); the bedroom (nema ねま) for sleeping (shūshin 就寝) and storage (shūnо̄ 収納); the ‘front zashiki’ (omote-zashiki おもてざしき), with firepit, for ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事) and receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客); the enclosed verandah/formal entry en-no (えんの) for entertaining (о̄tai 応対) and handwork; the ‘inner zashiki’ (oku-zashiki おくざしき), with low heated table (kotatsu コタツ) and decorative alcove (toko とこ), for ceremonies, receiving guests, and sleeping; the ‘small zashiki’ (ko-zashiki こざしき), with Buddhist alcove (butsuma, marked manji 卍) and Shintо̄ alcove (marked torii ⛩), for storage, sleeping, and religious activities (shinkо̄ 信仰); and a ‘study/bedroom’ (en-no-kami えんのかみ, lit. ‘verandah’s upper’), for sleeping and study (benkyо̄ 勉強).

JAPANESE MINKA LIV - PLANNING 32: HIROMA TYPE LAYOUTS 6

Last week’s post introduced the ‘middle-zashiki lineage’ hiroma-type layout (naka-zashiki-kei hiroma-gata 中座敷系広間型), and mentioned that it is considered to be one of the precursors of the wrapped-hiroma type (tori-maki hiroma-gata 取巻き広間型) layout.  The Shiina family (Shina-ke 椎名家) house in Ibaraki Prefecture, designated an important cultural property, is a surviving example of this transformation. When the house was dismantled for repair, an ink inscription reading 「延宝二年十二月三日」 (Enpou ni-nen juu-ni-gatsu mikka, the third day of the twelfth month of the second year of Enpou era, i.e. 1674) was discovered on the tenon of one of its lintel beams (sashi-gamoi 差鴨居), making it the oldest extant minka in eastern Japan of all those whose date of construction is inscribed somewhere on the building.

Its current layout is a wrapped hiroma type, as shown in the plan below, but a reconstructed layout, based on historical documents and on a survey of the traces left on its timber joints (shiguchi 仕口) undertaken at the time of the house’s repair, revealed that it was once a middle-zashiki lineage hiroma-type layout. This reconstructed plan is also shown below.

The Shiina house in its present state as a wrapped-hiroma layout.  Labelled are the earth-floored utility area (daidoko だいどこ), with ‘big door’ (о̄do 大戸) and stoves, for cooking (chо̄ri 調理), food preparation (shokuryо̄ chо̄sei 食糧調整), farm work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業), and storage (shūnо̄ 収納), processing (shori 処理), and drying (kansо̄ 乾燥) of tobacco leaves (tabako-ha 煙草葉); the ‘dining room’ (katte かって), with cupboard (todana 戸棚), for dining (shokuji 食事); the walk-in storage (shūnо̄ 収納) closet (mae-no-heya まえのへや); the hiroma, here cha-no-ma (ちゃのま), with Buddhist alcove (butsuma 仏間, marked 卍), shelves (tana たな), and firepit (the crossed square), for family time (danran 団らん), courting (kо̄sai 交際), handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事) and religious activities (shinkо̄ 信仰); the koma (こま, lit. ‘small room’) for entertaining (о̄tai 応対) and weaving on a loom (shokki or oriki 機織); the formal vestibule or ante-room (typically genkan 玄関, here genka げんか) with a broad, formal ‘step platform’ (shikidai 式台), for receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客), entertaining, and entry of important guests (shо̄kyaku 正客); the zashiki (ざしき), for ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事), receiving guests, and sleeping (shūshin 就寝); and the bedroom (heya へや), for sleeping and storage. 

A reconstruced plan of the Shiina house in its earlier state as a ‘middle-zashiki lineage’ hiroma-type layout.  Labelled are: the earth-floored utility area (daidoko だいどこ) with ‘big door’ (о̄do 大戸) and stove, the board-floored (ita-yuka 板床) hiroma (ひろま) or chanoma (ちゃのま), with Buddhist alcove (butsuma 仏間, marked 卍); the yogoza (よござ), presumably the ‘dining-kitchen area’, with firepit, jutting out into the daidokoro; the large bedroom (nema ねま); the zashiki (ざしき) with decorative alcove (toko とこ), and the vestibule (genkan げんかん) or ‘small room’ (koma こま). 

By comparing the present layout with the earlier, we can see that the daidoko (だいどこ) has been expanded by half a ken (0.91m) to the left, the nema (ねま) has been partitioned into the heya (へや) and the mae-no-heya (まえのへや), the yogoza (よござ) has been partitioned off from the hiroma (ひろま) to become the katte (かって), the hiroma has been divided into the cha-no-ma (ちゃのま) and the koma (こま), the zashiki (ざしき) has remained largely unchanged, and the genkan (げんかん) has been extended forward with the addition of a tiled ‘lean-to’ roof and formal shikidai (式台) step platform. While the present structure is not significantly larger than the earlier, taken together the changes suggest an increase in the status and affluence of the family over time, perhaps due to tobacco farming.

Exterior view of the Shiina house.  The four papered lattice panels (shо̄ji 障子) visible in the middle and middle-right of the facade, in front of the narrow ‘verandah’ (engawa 縁側) to the koma (こま), have replaced what were once papered lattice windows in a solid wall; the large shо̄ji, running the full length of the koma, allow the use of the engawa as an extension of the interior space in fine weather, and greatly increase natural light to the koma, necessary for the weaving for which this room is used.  To the right of the shо̄ji can be seen the tiled roof over the formal entrance to the genka with its broad step platform (shikidai 式台), obscured by trees.

JAPANESE MINKA LIII - PLANNING 31: HIROMA TYPE LAYOUTS 5

One of the prototypical forms of the ‘wrapped-hiroma’ type (tori-maki hiroma-gata 取巻き広間型) layouts discussed in recent posts is thought to be what is known as the ‘inner-zashiki’ or ‘middle-zashiki’ lineage of hiroma-type layouts (naka-zashiki-kei hiroma-gata 中座敷系広間型).  As the name suggests, in this type the main zashiki sits along the central ridge line, and to its front and rear are rooms that lie entirely within the one ken (1.818m) width of the geya (下屋, lit. ‘lower roof’) spaces: the perimeter spaces between the inner posts (上屋柱 jо̄ya-bashira) and outer posts (下屋柱 geya-bashira). These spaces developed by enclosing the ‘awning’ roofs that extend down from either side (front and back) of the ‘core’ containing the zashiki. This arrangement closely resembles that of the moya (身舎, lit. ‘body house’) and hisashi (庇, lit. ‘eave’) spaces of shinden-zukuri (寝殿造り) dwellings, the villas of the nobility from the Heian period (Heian jidai 平安時代, 8th to 12th century) into the middle ages (chuusei 中世). 

Diagrammatic section and plan of a shinden-zukuri (寝殿造り) dwelling, showing the core moya (身舎) and perimeter hisashi 庇) spaces.

The middle-zashiki layout is mainly found from the mountainous areas of Chūbu (Chūbu sanchi 中部山地) to the Tо̄hoku region (Tо̄hoku chihо̄ 東北地方). Below are three examples of the type.

The Takei family (Takei-ke 武井家) residence, Nagano Prefecture.  Labelled are: the earth-floored utility area (tо̄ri とおり) with stable (maya まや), the earth-sitting (doza 土座) hiroma, here daidoko (だいどこ), the rear one ken wide bedroom (heya へや), the middle zashiki (ざしき) with decorative alcove (toko とこ).  The front one ken wide room is unlabelled, but the fact that it contains an entry suggests that it may at least partly serve as a formal vestibule (genkan 玄関) of some kind.

The former Hirose family (Hirose-ke 広瀬家) residence, originally Yamanashi Prefecture.  Labelled are: the earth-floored utility area (doji どじ) with stable (uchi-maya うちまや), the hiroma, here idoko (いどこ) with two firepits (irori, marked ro ろ), the board (ita 板) floored bedrooms (nando なんど and nema ねま), and the zashiki (ざしき).

The Gotо̄ family (Gotо̄-ke 後藤家) residence, Iwate Prefecture.  Labelled are: the earth-floored utility area (doma どま), the rear living room or hiroma (here okami おかみ, lit. ‘honorable upper’) with firepit (irori, marked ro 炉), the front room (nakama なかま, lit. ‘middle room’), the bedroom (nando なんど), the middle zashiki (о̄dei おおでい, lit. ‘big dei’) and a front zashiki (kodei こでい, lit. ‘small dei).  All rooms are indicated as board (ita 板) floored except the о̄dei, which, given its formal status, may be tatami-floored.

The former Hirose family (Hirose-ke 広瀬家) residence, the second of the above plans, originally stood in Yamanashi Prefecture but has been relocated to the Kawasaki City Minka museum (Kawasaki-chi Minka-en 川崎市民家園) in Kanagawa Prefecture.  The room in front of the bedroom (nema ねま) has been reconstructed as a zashiki (ざしき), but the position of the partition is unnatural; rather it should be as it is in the Takei family (Takei-ke 武井家) house, the first plan above: the zashiki placed centrally, with a one ken wide room on the facade/entry side.  A survey was undertaken of this house when it stood at its original location.  The two freestanding posts in the doma, and the posts on the boundary between the idoko (いどこ) and the other rooms, together make up the main body of the structure; this four-post (excluding the central ridge-supporting udatsu-bashira うだつ柱) arrangement is known locally as ‘yotsu-tate’ (四つ建て, lit. ‘four standing’).  Other than the openings on the facade/entry side, there are only small shitaji-mado (下地窓), windows.  The shitaji (下地, lit. ‘under ground’) is the ‘subwall’ component of the wall, i.e. the base of lath or ‘wattle’ and rough earth and straw ‘daub’ infill between the structural members, to which the finish layers of plaster, if any, are applied.  Shitaji-mado (lit. ‘subwall window’) are formed by simply leaving a section of lath undaubed, and optionally papering the interior side. 

Exterior view of the Hirose house.  

Interior view of the hiroma-type layout of the Hirose house, looking from the doji (どじ) towards the mat-spread, earth-living (doza-sumai 土座住まい) main habitable room (hiroma, here idoko (いどこ) with its two firepits (irori いろり).  , The open zashiki (ざしき) can be seen on the left beyond the idoko.

Exterior view of the half-timbered gable wall of the Hirose house, with three small shitaji-mado (下地窓) windows in the lath-and-plaster (or ‘wattle-and-daub’) infill panels between the timber structural members; these windows are created by simply leaving sections of the lath lattice unplastered.

The dark, low interior of the Hirose house is an indication of the great age of the dwelling.  In both the Takei house and the Hirose house, the hiroma spaces (daidoko だいどこ and idoko いどこ) are earth-floored (doza-sumai 土座住まい, lit. ‘earth sit dwelling’); in the Gotо̄ house the hiroma space is board-floored (ita-yuka 板床) and divided into two rooms, the okami (おかみ) and the nakama (なかま).

JAPANESE MINKA LII - PLANNING 30: HIROMA TYPE LAYOUTS 4

The former residence of the Nokubi family (Nokubi-ke 野首家), relocated from the Katano district (Katano-chо̄ 片野町) of Takayama (高山), Gifu Prefecture, to the Hida Folk Village (Hida Minzoku Mura 飛騨民俗村), also in Takayama, is a wrapped-hiroma type (tori-maki hiroma-gata 取巻き広間型) layout minka thought to date from the early Edo Period (Edo jidai 江戸時代, 1603 - 1868), and a Prefecturally and Municipally designated cultural property.

The zashiki (here the dei でい) and bedrooms (oku おく) are board-floored (ita-yuka 板床) and mat-spread (mushiro-shiki 莚敷), but the hiroma (here the oei おえい) is earth-living (doza-sumai 土座住まい), though it was apparently once floored with an ‘underlay’ of compacted rice husks (momi-gara 籾殻) up to the level of the sill (shikii 敷居) at the front of the oei (around 30cm above the earth floor) and spread with bulrush (gama 蒲, Typha latifolia) mats (mushiro 莚).

The battens of the sub-roof are irregular, split members, tied to the rafters with nothing more than wisteria vines (fuji-zuru 藤蔓); the partitions above uchi-nori (内法) height (lintel height) consist of chiwa-mushiro (茅莚), kunai grass (chiwa or chigaya 茅, Imperata cylindrica) mats (mushiro 莚) tied to the horizontal penetrating ties (yoko-nuki 横貫); the windows in the rear wall are all ‘cutout’ windows (kiri-mado 切窓), i.e. windows formed by simply cutting out vertical strips from the wall boards to form dinner tray-shaped (tanzara-gata 短皿型) openings. All of these elements bestow on this minka an atmosphere of great age, and give us a glimpse into the lives lived by provincial farmers in the early modern period.

Floor plan of the former Nokubi residence, Gifu Prefecture.  A wrapped-hiroma type layout (tori-maki hiroma gata 取巻き広間型) similar to the Noguchi house (Noguchi-ke 野口家) presented last week, but this ita-ya (板屋, lit. ‘board (clad) house’) is somewhat larger, and the greater portion of the interior is doza-sumai (土座住まい).  The earth-floored utility area consists of: the niwa (にわ) with firepit (irori, marked ro 炉), lever thresher (kara-usu からうす) and storage area for unhulled rice (momi-iri 籾入), for food storage (shokuryо̄ chozо̄ 食糧貯蔵), food preparation (shokuryо̄ chо̄sei 食糧調整), farm work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業), and handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事); the stable (maya まや) for raising livestock (kachiku shi-iku 家畜飼育) and composting (taihizо̄sei 堆肥造成); the komabeya (こまべや, possibly lit. ‘foal room’), for animal birth/husbandry (chikusan 畜産); the mayadoshi (まやどし) with hanging mats (tsuri-mushiro 吊り莚) and a , for feed preparation (shiryо̄ chо̄sei 飼料調整) and storage of farm tools (nо̄gu okiba 農具置場).  The habitable part of the dwelling consists of: the earth-sitting (doza 土座) hiroma-equivalent oei (おえい) with Shintо̄ shrine (marked torii ⛩) for religious activities (shinkо̄ 信仰), ‘cupboard’ (todana とだな), partitions (majikiri 間仕切り) whose upper part (jо̄bu 上部) is of woven reed (ami-komo or henko 編菰), and separate utility area for ‘straw work’ (wara-shigoto 藁仕事, presumably making straw ropes, sandals, coats and the like), for family time (danran 団らん), courting (kо̄sai 交際), and handwork (teshigoto 手仕事); the board-floored, (ita-yuka 板床) bulrush-mat (gama-mushiro 蒲莚) spread, formal dei (でい) with Buddhist alcove (butsuma ぶつま) and Buddhist altar (butsudan 仏壇, marked 卍), for religious activities and ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事) and receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客); the rear bedrooms (oku おく) with ‘cutout windows’ (kiri-mado 切窓), for sleeping (shūshin 就寝) and storage (shūnо̄ 収納); and the tatami (たたみ) floored ‘dining room’ (daidoko だいどこ) for dining (shokuji 食事).  Also labelled are the interior/exterior urinal (shouben-jou 小便場)and ‘water house’ (mizu-ya みずや), with pipe-fed sink, for cooking (suiji 炊事).

Exterior view of the Nokubi house, with storm shutters closed.

View of the Nokubi house from the rear, showing shallow-pitched, bark-thatched or shingled roofs, secured against strong winds by ‘overbattens’ and large stones.

View of the rear of the Nokubi house, showing the cut-out windows.

Interior view of the Nokubi house looking from the ‘living room (oei) towards the ‘cupboard’ (todana) and the bedrooms (oku) beyond.  The entrance to the formal room (dei) and its Buddhist alcove (butsuma) are visible to the far right.  The oei is seen here with an earth floor, but apparently once had a compacted-straw and mat floor that brought the floor level up to the level of the sill at the front of the oei (‘behind’ the camera in this image).

JAPANESE MINKA LI - PLANNING 29: HIROMA TYPE LAYOUTS 3

The plan below, of the Kurishita family (Kurishita-ke 栗下家) house in the Chūbu Sangaku Southern Alps (中部山岳南アルプス (Chūbu Sangaku Minami-Arupusu) region, Shizuoka Prefecture (静岡県 Shizuoka-ken), is a prototypical example of the ‘wrapped-hiroma type’ (tori-maki hiroma-gata 取巻き広間型) layout discussed in the last two posts. As a mountain village minka, it has a small earth-floored utility area (doma どま), probably because of constraints on the amount of land available, both to build on and to farm (the size of the doma being commensurate with the amount of land under cultivation).

Plan of the Kurishita house in Shizuoka Prefecture.  An example of a wrapped-hiroma type (tori-maki hiroma gata 取巻き広間型) layout, where a formal kagi-zashiki (here kami-zashiki かみざしき, lit ‘upper zashiki’) and zashiki (ざしき) have been added to the front-zashiki type (mae-zashiki kata 前座敷型) three-room layout (san-madori 三間取り) core, consisting of the main habitable room (the ima いま), bedroom (nando なんど), and storeroom (kura くら).  Notable is the unusual ‘wraparound’ or ‘returning’ earth-floored utility area (doma) with storage room (miso みそ).  The doma contains the bath (nyūyoku 入浴) and is for cooking (suiji 炊事) and farm work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業); the ima contains a cupboard (todana 戸棚) and a firepit (irori, marked ro 炉), and is for dining (shokuji 食事), family time (danran 団らん), cooking (chо̄ri 調理), entertaining (о̄tai 応対), and handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事); the zashiki also contains a firepit and is for (religious) ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事), receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客), and sleeping (shūshin 就寝); the kami-zashiki is for religious activities (shinkо̄ 信仰), ceremonies, receiving guests, and sleeping; the nando is for sleeping and storage (shūnо̄ 収納); the kura is for grain storage (kokurui 穀類); and the miso is for food storage (shokuryо̄ chozо̄ 食糧貯蔵).

Exterior (rear) view of the Kurishita house in Shizuoka Prefecture, in the mountains of the Southern Alps (Minami Arupusu 南アルプス).  The kitchen/bath lean-to is on the right, against the gable wall.  The low, shallow-pitched and seemingly bark-thatched roof gives the dwelling an ancient appearance.

The next plan, the Noguchi family (Noguchi-ke 野口家) residence in the Shо̄kawa (荘川) region of Gifu Prefecture (岐阜県 Gifu-ken), is another basic example of a complete wrapped-hiroma layout. The central hiroma, here called the orima (おりま), is itself centred around the firepit (irori); to the rear of the hiroma are two small bedrooms, called chо̄da (ちょうだ), and to its ‘upper’ (kami-te 上み手) side there is a kagi-zashiki (かぎざしき), called here the oku-no-de (おくので), for receiving guests. ‘Down’ (shimo-te 下も手) from the hiroma are arrayed the rear-located ‘dining-kitchen’ (daidoko だいどこ), stable (maya まや), ‘small stable’ (ko-maya こまや), and, in the perimeter geya (下屋) or ‘under eave’ space, the entry shita-en (したえん or 下縁), lit. ‘low en’). There are (or were) still a handful of earth-floor living (doza-sumai 土座住まい) thatch-roofed (kure-buki 榑葺き) board-walled dwellings (ita-ya 板屋) on the outskirts of Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, with similar layouts.

Plan of the Noguchi house in Gifu Prefecture.  A wrapped-hiroma type (tori-maki hiroma gata 取巻き広間型) layout, with a central gathering room (hiroma, here called orima おりま) around which each of the other rooms are wrapped.  The earth-floored utility area consists of the shita-en (したえん) with entry (iri-guchi 入口) and area for snow removal (yuki-harai 雪払い), the stable (maya まや) for raising livestock (kachiku shi-iku 家畜飼育) and composting (taihizо̄sei 堆肥造成), and the ‘small stable’ (ko-maya こまや) for feed preparation (shiryо̄ chо̄sei 飼料調整).  The rooms are the orima (おりま) with firepit (irori, marked ro 炉) and cupboard (todana とだな), for family time (danran 団らん), courting (kо̄sai 交際), ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事), and handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事); the kitchen-dining room (daidoko だいどこ) with firepit and cupboard (todana 戸棚), for dining (shokuji 食事), family time, and meal preparation (tabemono chо̄sei 食物調整); the bedrooms (chо̄da ちょうだ) for sleeping (shūshin 就寝) and storage (shūnо̄ 収納); the rear zashiki or formal room (okunode おくので) with very large Buddhist alcove (butsuma 仏間, marked manji 卍), for ceremonies and receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客); the front zashiki (de で) with low heated table (kotatsu コタツ), for ceremonies, receiving guests, and sleeping; and another bedroom (heya へや), seemingly a later addition.  There is also a board-floored lean-to area for cooking (suiji 炊事) with bath (nyūyoku 入浴), sink (nagashi ながし), and pantry for food storage (shokuryо̄ chozо̄ 食糧貯蔵).  The verandah (en 縁) is used to receive visitors.

Exterior view of the in Noguchi house in Gifu Prefecture. The ‘cookhouse’ and surrounds (suiji-ba mawari 炊事場回り) with its lean-to roof (sa-kake yane 差掛け屋根) is a later addition.

JAPANESE MINKA L - PLANNING 28: HIROMA TYPE LAYOUTS 2

In this post we continue with our examination of the evolution of wrapped-hiroma type (tori-maki hiroma-gata 取巻き広間型) layouts.

The plan below is an example of a two-room layout (ni-madori 二間取り) from a mountain village in Kishū (紀州), Wakayama Prefecture. There are no moveable partitions (tategu 建具) and other than the minimal exceptions of the board wall (ita-kabe 板壁) and built-in shelving (todana 戸棚) on the ‘living room’ (hiroma 広間) side of the bedroom (nema 寝間), the whole interior is left open. Interestingly, there are elements of the plan that bring to mind the layout and partitioning of the Izumo Grand Shrine (Izumo Taisha 出雲大社) in Shimane Prefecture.

The Kobayakawa family (Kobayakawa-ke 小早川家) house in Kishū (紀州), Wakayama Prefecture. 　A one-room dwelling (hito-ma sumai ひと間住まい) with a bedroom (nando なんど) eked out from one corner of the single room.  Labelled are the utility area (niwa にわ) for agricultural work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業) and cooking (tabemono chо̄ri 食物調理); the board-floored (ita-yuka 板床) omote (おもて), whose front section fulfills the formal functions of the zashiki, for ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事), receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客), sleeping (shūshin 就寝), and whose rear section corresponds to a daidoko or katte ‘dining room', for dining (shokuji 食事), with firepit (irori, here ro 炉) and low bench (dai 台); and the bedroom (nando なんど) for sleeping and storage (shūnо̄ 収納).  The ‘verandah' (en) is used for entertaining guests (о̄tai 応対) and handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事).

Plan diagram of Izumo Grand Shrine (出雲大社)

Interior view of the Kobayakawa house, looking from the omote towards the dining area with firepit (irori), and the storage area (shūnо̄) and bedroom (nando) beyond.  The only interior partition is the single board-clad (hame-ita 羽目板) partition between the omote and the nando, seen here on the left; to its left is the small closet/shelves alcove.

The next plan below, of the Okabe family (Okabe-ke 岡部家) house in the Okutama district (Okutama chihо̄ 奥多摩地方) of Tokyo Prefecture, is a layout often seen in the Kantо̄ region (broadly eastern Japan). If we imagine the plan without the zashiki extension (comprised of the oku おくand tobanoma とばのま), then only the husband and wife’s bedroom (the heya へや) is properly ‘walled off’. All the other room divisions are fitted with tategu, but they are normally left open; there is nothing at all in the way of fixed walls.

The Okabe house in Tokyo Prefecture.  Even in such a large dwelling, if the kagi-zashiki (here the oku おく) and tobanoma とばのま) part is regarded as a later addition and the layout is considered without them, a form corresponding to (1) in the plan diagrams below is revealed, with only the bedroom (heya へや) separated off from a multi-purpose room comprised of the uchiza (うちざ) and zashiki (ざしき).  Note also the massive central post.  The partitions dividing off the other rooms are of various types, and still not clearly established.  Labelled are: the earth-floored utility area (daidokoro だいどころ) with utility entrance (katte-guchi かって口), for farm work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業); the ito-hikiba (糸ひきば, lit. ‘thread pulling place') for secondary work (fukugyо̄ 副業), presumably including spinning; the board-floored kitchen area for cooking (suiji 炊事) with food storage (shokuryо̄ chozо̄ 食糧貯蔵), sink (nagashi ナガシ) and water (mizu 水); the dining-family room (katte かって) with fire pit (irori, marked ro 炉), for dining (shokuji 食事), family time (danran 団らん), entertaining guests (о̄tai 応対), and handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事); the zashiki (ざしき) for courting (kousai 交際)

Interior view of the О̄kubo family (О̄kubo-ke 大久保家) house in the Tama region (Tama chihо̄ 多摩地方) of Tokyo Prefecture.  In everyday life the partitions are not used, and all the boundaries between rooms are left open; only the bedroom is enclosed.  The layout of this house is very similar to that of the Okabe house, and the view here corresponds to that looking from the katte towards the zashiki in the Okabe house.  Note again the massive central post.

Both of the above layouts are at an intermediate stage of development, on the way to transitioning into the full wrapped-hiroma type layout. They correspond to plan (1) of the plan diagrams presented in last week’s post and included again below, where a corner of the hiroma has been separated off as a bedroom.

The two layouts shown above correspond to the plan diagram (1) here, a transitional stage on the path to developing into full wrapped-hiroma layouts.

JAPANESE MINKA XLIX - PLANNING 27: HIROMA TYPE LAYOUTS 1

Previous posts in this series on minka layouts have been organised into sub-sections based on the number of rooms in the dwelling, progressing from single-space and one-room minka to two-room, three-room and four-room layouts. In this final subsection of the series, the focus will not be on the number of rooms but on one particular arrangement of them: the hiroma-type (hiroma-gata 広間型) layout, which has made many appearances in previous posts, but here I would like to examine it in some of its more elaborated forms.

The most prototypical expression of the hiroma-type layout is probably its three-room (san-madori 三間取り) variant, in which the hiroma, broadly definable as the ‘general habitable room’ of the minka, runs the full width of the dwelling, and is in the ‘lower’ position, adjacent to and fully bounding the doma; the other two rooms are ‘up’ from the hiroma and separated by it from the doma.

A typical three-room hiroma-type layout, with full-width multi-purpose habitable room (hiroma ひろま) in the ‘lower' position, and fully bounding the earth-floored utility area (here daidokoro だいどころ), ‘upper' front formal room (here oku おく), and upper rear bedroom (heya へや).  The dot-dash line indicates the likely location of the partition line should the dwelling be converted into a four-room layout.

In all hiroma-gata layouts, the life of the dwelling is centred around the multi-purpose hiroma, whose main uses are generally dining and family gathering; the other rooms, be they the ‘formal room’ (zashiki 座敷), bedroom (nema 寝間), rooms for cooking (suiji 炊事) or work (sagyou 作業), all ‘serve’ the hiroma to some degree or other, but multi-room layouts where the rooms are arranged so that they ‘wrap around’ the greater part of the perimeter of the hiroma are known as tori-maki hiroma-gata (取り巻き広間型, lit. ‘wrapped hiroma type’ or ‘surrounded hiroma type’) layouts, to distinguish them from simpler three-room or four-room hiroma-type layouts. The wrapped hiroma type is common from the mountainous areas of the cold-climate Chūbu region (Chūbu chihо̄ 中部地方) to north-eastern Japan (Tо̄hoku Nihon 東北日本), probably because it has benefits for the purpose of warming the dwelling: heat from a large firepit (irori) in the central hiroma can radiate or convect more easily to the surrounding rooms.

The development path of the wrapped hiroma type can be seen in the plan diagrams below. First, in plan 1, a corner of the hiroma (ひろま) in a one-room dwelling is separated off as a bedroom (ne 寝). If the transverse partition (the partition parallel to the room-doma boundary) of this bedroom is then extended to the front wall of the dwelling, the result is a three-room hiroma-gata layout (2, lower plan); if the longitudinal partition (the partition perpendicular to the room-doma boundary) of the bedroom is extended to the edge of the doma, the result is a three-room front-zashiki (mae-zashiki 前座敷) layout (2, upper plan). Note that, interestingly, the ‘wrapped hiroma-type’ (plan 3) develops not from the three-room hiroma-type layout, but from the three-room front-zashiki layout. The use of zashiki (the ‘formal room’) in the name ‘front-zashiki’ can be somewhat deceptive, because in a three-room dwelling with this layout, the front room, regardless of name, functions primarily as the everyday ‘living room’ (hiroma); it can be commandeered as a space for receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客), but extending its functionally to include religious rituals (gishiki 儀式) and ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事) is impractical. To fulfil these roles, an extension containing dedicated zashiki is added ‘upwards’ (上手 kamite) of the hiroma, resulting in the prototypical form of the wrapped hiroma layout (plan 3), with five rooms.

Plan diagrams illustrating the development of the one-room layout (1) into either a three-room hiroma-type layout (2, lower plan) or a three-room front-zashiki type layout (2, upper plan), and from there into a four or five-room wrapped hiroma type layout (3).  Labelled are the earth-floored utility area (doma どま), the ‘living room' (hiroma ひろま), bedroom (nema, here ne 寝), formal room (zashiki, here za 座), and kagi-zashiki (鍵座敷).

Characteristic of the tori-maki hiroma-gata is that there are two or three small rooms to the rear of the hiroma, and that the zashiki upwards of the hiroma is a kagi-zashiki, meaning a zashiki occupying the upper rear quadrant of the habitable portion of the dwelling, making the layout ‘kagi-zashiki style’ (kagi-zashiki keishiki 鍵座敷形式). In the Tо̄hoku (東北) region, this style is the mother layout of the many chūmon zukuri (中門造り) and magari-ya (曲り屋) L-plan minka found in that area.

Real-world examples of the plan diagrams 1 and 2.  On the left (1), a reconstruction of the original plan of a very old minka in Sakata (阪田), Hyо̄go Prefecture (Hyо̄go-ken 兵庫県), showing earth-floored utility area (doma どま), board-floored (ita-yuka 板床) general habitable room (hiroma, here called hiroshiki ひろしき), and bedroom (nando なんど).  On the right (2), a farmhouse (nо̄ka 農家) in Arasawa village (Arasawa-mura 荒沢村), Iwate Prefecture (Iwate-ken 岩手県), showing earth-floored utility area (niwa にわ), large stable (maya まや), board-floored general habitable room (jо̄i じょうい) which also functions as the formal room (zashiki) and contains a firepit (hibito ひびと), Buddhist altar (butsudan, marked manji 卍) and shrine (kami-dana 神棚), walk-in closet (mono-oki ものおき), and bedroom (nebiya ねびや).

A real-world example of plan diagram 3, a wrapped hiroma L-plan (magari-ya 曲り屋) minka in Iwate Prefecture.  Labelled are the central hiroma, here called the chanoma (ちゃのま), the ‘lower zashiki' (shita-zashiki したざしき), the ‘upper zashiki' (kami-zashiki かみざしき) with decorative alcove (toko とこ), the bedrooms (nando なんど and heya へや), the utility area (niwa にわ), and the kitchen (daidoko だいどこ) with firepit.  The magari-ya (the front leg of the L) is partly omitted.

Interior view of the hiroma (here called the omē (おめえ) of a minka with a wrapped hiroma type layout in Yamagata Prefecture.  The hiroma has a central firepit (irori 囲炉裏) and is in turn the centre of the dwelling, with the zashiki and bedrooms wrapped around it.

JAPANESE MINKA XLVIII - PLANNING 26: FOUR-ROOM DWELLINGS 7

In a previous post in this series on four-room layout (yon-madori 四間取り) minka, we discussed the two types of staggered layout: the perpendicular stagger type (yoko-kui-chigai kata 横食違い型) and parallel stagger type (tate-kui-chigai kata 縦食違い型). Here we will wrap up this series on four-room minka by comparing two final examples, one of each type of staggered layout.

The mode of habitation differs between these different layouts. Certain layouts are generally more common in snow country and in mountain villages: kagi-zashiki (鍵座敷, lit. ‘key zashiki’, meaning a zashiki located at the upper rear corner of the dwelling) layouts; layouts where the ‘kitchen-dining room’, often called the katte (勝手), is large in comparison to the ‘living room’, often called the dei (でい); and layouts where the rear of the earth-floored utility area (doma 土間 or niwa にわ) is divided off, board-floored, and equipped with a firepit (irori 囲炉裏) to become a large katte.

The two plans shown below are both staggered four-room layouts. The first, the Komaki family (Komaki-ke 小牧家) residence in Ibo County (Ibo-gun 揖保郡), Hyо̄go Prefecture, is a yoko-kui-chigai (横食違い) or ‘perpendicular stagger type’; the other, the Kobayashi family (Kobayashi-ke 小林家) residence in Kita-kuwada County (Kita-kuwada-gun 北桑田郡), Kyо̄to Prefecture, is a tate-kui-chigai (竪食違い) or ‘parallel stagger type’.

Besides the mode of stagger, there are other points of difference: the Komaki house has a more ‘modern’ open bedroom (nando なんど), meaning that the nando partitions consist entirely of operable sliding fittings, so the room can be fully opened up to the rest of the interior and used for other purposes, which necessitates a closet (oshi-ire 押入) for hiding bedding and clothes away during the day. This style is common among lowland minka on the plains regions (heiya-bu 平野部) of Japan.

In contrast, the Kobayashi house has a closed nando, with fixed walls and only a single sliding entry door; this is more characteristic of older minka and minka in the mountainous areas (sankan-bu 山間部) of the country.

Recall that layouts in which the decorative alcove (tokonoma 床の間) is on the end wall, i.e. the ‘gable wall side’ (tsuma-gawa 妻側), are called tsuma-toko keishiki (妻床形式), and those where it is on the long wall side (hira-gawa 平側) are called hira-toko keishiki (平床形式), lit. ‘long alcove style’. Both the Komaki house and Kobayashi house are tsuma-toko layouts; in the Komaki house both gable-end walls are blind (without openings), which is characteristic of minka from this area, whereas the Kobayashi house has one blind gable-end wall, and the other end contains a utility entrance and a window.

In both houses, the daidoko (だいどこ), the everyday gathering place of the family, is the room that has gained area from the stagger to become the largest room, and so has direct access to all three other rooms. This is not always the case: there are also staggered layouts in which the daidoko loses area from the stagger to the ‘front room’ (omote-no-ma おもてのま), or even to the nando.

The Komaki house in Ibo County (Ibo-gun 揖保郡), Hyо̄go Prefecture.  A perpendicular stagger type (yoko-kui-chigai kata 横食違い型), facade zashiki type (omote-zashiki gata 表座敷型), ‘gable alcove style' (tsuma-toko keishiki 妻床形式) four-room layout, with an ‘open' bedroom (nando, here called oku おく).  The earth-floored utility area (niwa にわ) is highly developed, also displaying a four-part division: the niwa proper with entry area (iriguchi doma 入口土間) and long, deep ‘step' for greeting/receiving visitors (о̄tai 応対), for agricultural work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業); the stable (umaya うまや) for raising livestock (kachiku shi-iku 家畜飼育) and composting (taihizо̄sei 堆肥造成); the ‘inner niwa' (uchi-niwaうちにわ) with rear entrance, stove, sink (nagashi ナガシ) and water (mizu 水), for food preparation (tabemono chо̄sei 食物調整); and the ‘rear niwa' (oku-niwa おくにわ) for food storage (shokuryо̄ chozо̄ 食糧貯蔵) and food preparation.  The four rooms are the dining-family room (daidoko だいどこ), unpartitioned from the uchi-niwa, with ‘tea service' (mizuya ミズヤ), for dining (shokuji 食事), family time (danran 団らん), and handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事); the open bedroom (oku おく) for storage of family possessions (kazai shūnо̄ 家財格納), and husband and wife sleeping (fūfushūshin夫婦就寝), with closet (oshi-ire 押入); the formal zashiki (ざしき) for ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事) and receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客), with decorative alcove (toko とこ) and Buddhist alcove (butsuma 仏間, marked 卍); and the omote (おもて), somewhat between the daidoko and the zashiki in its level of formality, for receiving visitors (о̄tai 応対) both from the niwa and from the verandah (engawa).

The Kobayashi house in Kita-kuwada County (Kita-kuwada-gun 北桑田郡), Kyо̄to Prefecture.  A parallel stagger type (tate-kui-chigai kata (縦食違い型), front/facade zashiki type (omote-zashiki gata 表座敷型), ‘gable alcove style' (tsuma-toko keishiki 妻床形式) four-room layout.  The narrow niwa (にわ) has entry area (iriguchi doma 入口土間), mortar (kara-usu カラウス), stove (kudo くど), sink (hashiri ハシリ), and water (mizu 水), and is for storage (chozо̄ 貯蔵), food preparation (tabemono chо̄sei 食物調整), feed preparation (shiryо̄ chо̄sei 飼料調整), and agricultural work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業).  The four rooms are the dining-family room (daidoko だいどこ), unpartitioned from the niwa, with shelves (tana 棚) and firepit (irori, marked ro 炉), for dining (shokuji 食事), family time (danran 団らん), handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事), and entertaining guests (о̄tai 応対); the ‘lower room' (shimo-no-ma しものま) which is for receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客) and also functions as a ‘break-out room' for religious (shinkо̄ 信仰) ceremonies or other events (gyо̄ji 行事) held in the formal ‘upper room' (kami-no-ma かみのま); the kami-no-ma contains a decorative alcove (toko とこ) and Buddhist alcove (butsuma 仏間, marked 卍) in the gable wall and is also used for sleeping (shūshin就寝); and the closed bedroom (nando なんど) for storage of family possessions (kazai shūnо̄ 家財格納) and husband and wife sleeping (fūfushūshin夫婦就寝), without a closet (oshi-ire 押入).  The verandah (engawa) is for receiving visitors (о̄tai 応対) and handwork, and contains a storage closet.

Exterior view of an old thatched minka in a mountainous area of Tanba-guchi (丹波口), Kyо̄to Prefecture.  Like the Kobayashi house, it has a staggered four-room interior layout with a ‘quarantined' nando.

The contrast in ‘atmosphere’ between these two interior layouts, in particular that between the two styles of nando, seems to reflect the contrast between their respective environments: the close, dark mountain forest versus the open, airy plain.

JAPANESE MINKA XLVII - PLANNING 25: FOUR-ROOM DWELLINGS 6

Another four-room minka layout this week: the Ishibe family (Ishibe-ke 石部家) residence in Yamagata Prefecture. Of its four rooms, three are used as zashiki (ざしき); the idoko (いどこ), in contrast, is the multi-purpose room for family activities. The Ishibe house is a regular four-room layout (seikei yon-madori 整形四間取り), though the idoko and lower front zashiki together have significant use characteristics of a single hiroma, suggestive of a three-room hiroma-type (hiroma-gata 広間型) layout. Further, the layout is in kagi-zashiki style (kagi-zashiki keishiki 鍵座敷形式), with upper rear kagi-zashiki (鍵座敷, lit. ‘key zashiki’), here called the oku-zashiki (おくざしき, lit. ‘rear zashiki’). Kagi-zashiki in this type of L-plan are often seen in regular six-room (seikei roku-madori 整形六間取り) layouts.

This house is a han-nо̄ shо̄ka (半濃商家, lit. ‘half farming commerce house’, presumably meaning that it was the residence of part-time farmer who was also engaged in commerce) in the hot spring resort town of Shimobe (Shimobe Onsen下部温泉) in Yamagata Prefecture, but the layout seems to indicate that it also served as an inn for paying travellers when the need arose. The three zashiki are connected by a returning or wrap-around ‘verandah’ (mawari-en 回り縁), and there is a shoin (書院) in the oku-zashiki.

The shoin is one of the design elements of better-appointed zashiki. It flanks the decorative alcove (tokonoma 床の間 or toko とこ), and in its most typical form consists of a low ‘sill’ or bench (shoin kо̄-ita 書院甲板) below a lattice window (shoin koushi 書院格子) that functions to bring more natural light to the toko, which is often at the rear of the zashiki and so away from the main exterior opening and source of light. As the characters 書院 (lit. ‘book institution’) suggest, the shoin began as a kind of desk or ‘study’ in the classical and medieval villas of nobles and samurai; shoin were so closely associated with this ‘high’ style of residential architecture that the style itself came to be known as shoin-zukuri (書院造り, lit. ‘shoin construction’). As the Ishibe house shows, the shoin eventually ‘trickled down’ into the minka of relatively well-to-do Edo period farmers and merchants.

A shoin that projects out from the plane of its wall into the verandah (engawa 縁側) or corridor (rо̄ka 廊下) is known as a tsuke-shoin (付書院, lit. ‘attached shoin’), de-shoin (出書院, lit. ‘projecting shoin’), or akari-shoin (明かり書院, lit. ‘lantern shoin’); one that is in the same plane as its wall, and thus lacks a shoin kо̄-ita, is called a hira-shoin (平書院, lit. ‘flat shoin’). Typically, the former are found in more formal zashiki, and the latter in less formal zashiki. In this case, the shoin is of the projecting type, and is called akadoko (あかどこ), a dialectical variant of akari-doko (明り床), meaning the same as akari-shoin.

The Ishibe house, Yamagata Prefecture.  A regular four-room layout (seikei yon-madori 整形四間取り) L-plan dwelling.  The projecting kitchen (katte かって), though partly board (ita 板) floored , is considered an extension of the earth-floored utility area (here daidoko だいどこ), and so is not counted as a room.  It contains the stove, sink (nagashi ナガシ), and water (mizu 水), and is for meal preparation (tabemono chо̄sei 食物調整) and food storage (shokuryо̄ chozо̄ 食糧貯蔵).  The daidoko is for food preparation (shokuryо̄ chо̄sei 食糧調整), agricultural work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業), and preparation of feed (shiryо̄ chо̄sei 飼料調整), in this case mulberry leaves for sericulture (yо̄san 養蚕).  It contains the entry (iriguchi 入口) and stairs to the roof space (yane-ura 屋根裏), also used for sericulture.  The two front zashiki are collectively named mae-no-zashiki (まえのざしき).  The lower front zashiki is used as a living room (ima 居間) and for courting (kо̄sai 交際), and its verandah is used for entertaining (о̄tai 応対) and handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事).  The upper front zashiki and rear kagi-zashiki (here called the oku-zashiki おくざしき) are both used for ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事), receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客), and sleeping (shūshin 就寝).  The kagi-zashiki is well-appointed, with closet (oshi-ire 押入), decorative alcove (toko とこ), and flanking tsuke-shoin, here called aka-doko (アカドコ).  The idoko (いどこ), partly board-floored, is for dining (shokuji 食事), family time (danran 団らん), and handwork, and contains shelves (todana ト゚ダナ) and two firepits (irori), here called hijiro (ヒジロ).  There is also a walk-in closet for storage (shūnо̄ 収納) called the nando (なんど).

A tsuke-shoin flanking the tokonoma in a modern residence.  Here the nose of the kо̄-ita (甲板) is flush with the wall plane.

A deep tsuke-shoin that projects the full width of a tatami mat (around 91cm).  The sill (kо̄-ita 甲板) is set back around half this width from the plane of the wall, and, in a kind of recursive move, the shoin itself has been given a flanking window.

A projecting shoin (tsuke-shoin) seen from the corridor (rouka) side.

JAPANESE MINKA XLVI - PLANNING 24: FOUR-ROOM DWELLINGS 5

More four-room minka layouts…

The plan below, the Nakazuka family (Nakazuka-ke 中塚家) residence in Harukigawa-cho (春木川町), Izumi City (Izumi-shi 和泉市), О̄saka Prefecture, is a gable-entry type (tsuma-iri-kata 妻入り型) four-room layout (yon-madori 四間取り). Its interior is highly ‘open’ (meaning the partitioning consists almost entirely of sliding, openable panels rather than fixed panels or walls), but the windowless bedroom (heya へや) has opaque board doors (itado 板戸) so can be completely closed up. This minka type is found in the mountainous areas of the Sennan (泉南) region of О̄saka Prefecture.

The Nakazuka house.  A gable-entry (tsuma-iri 妻入り), gable-alcove (tsuma-doko 妻床), regular four-room layout (seikeiyon-madori 整形四間取り).  Labelled: the earth-floored utility area (niwa にわ) with entry doma (iriguchi doma 入口土間), stove, sink (nagashi ナガシ), and water (mizu 水), for meal preparation (tabemono chо̄sei 食物調整), agricultural work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業), food preparation (shokuryо̄ chо̄sei 食糧調整), food storage (shokuryо̄ chozо̄ 食糧貯蔵); the ‘dining-family room’ (hiroshiki ひろしき) with shelves (todana 戸棚), for dining (shokuji 食事), family time (danran 団らん), and handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事); the zashiki (ざしき), with gable-end decorative alcove (toko とこ) and Buddhist alcove (butsuma 仏間, marked manji 卍), for ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事), receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客), and sleeping (shūshin 就寝); the ‘second room’ (tsugi-no-ma 次の間), here called de (で), for ceremonies, receiving guests, entertaining (о̄tai 応対), and sleeping; and the bedroom (heya へや), for sleeping and storage of family possessions (kazai shūnо̄ 家財収納). Under the eaves there is an area for fuel (firewood) storage (nenryо̄ chо̄zо̄ 燃料貯蔵), a bath (furo ふろ); the ‘verandah’ (en 縁) is used for entertaining.

Next is the former Kiyomiya family (kyū Kiyomiya-ke 旧清宮家) residence, an old minka from the Tama hills (Tama-kyūryо̄ 多摩丘陵) region of Kanagawa Prefecture, relocated to the Japan Open Air Folk House Museum, also in Kanagawa. It is a regular four-room layout, thought to have developed from a two-room perpendicular lineup type (heiretsu-gata 併列型) layout, but with strong hiroma-type (hiroma-gata 広間型) layout characteristics. It is richly evocative of old eastern Japan (Azuma-no-Kuni 東国). The two rear rooms are completely ‘closed’; three posts stand on the boundary between the ‘living-dining-kitchen’ hiroma (ひろま) and the earth-floored utility area (dēdoko でえどこ) and these are infilled with fixed timber lattice (kо̄shi 格子) windows; there is no direct passage between the bedroom (ura-beya うらべや) to the rear of the hiroma and the dēdoko, or between the bedroom (heya へや) and the dē (でえ), and the heya is only accessible by passing through the urabeya; even the devices on the southern facade openings are old-fashioned. In the south wall of the hiroma there is a shallow decorative alcove called an oshi-ita (押板, lit. ‘push board’). Other than this, the interior is without joinery: there is no decorative alcove or Buddhist alcove in the formal dē, and no closets or even shelves anywhere in the dwelling. The heya, with a floor of lashed bamboo poles (takesu yuka 竹簀床) spread with thick mats (atsu-mushiro 厚莚), is used as the sleeping place for the husband and wife.

The Kiyomiya house.  Labelled: the earth-floored utility area (dēdoko でえどこ) with entry doma (iriguchi doma 入口土間) and stove (kamado カマド), for food storage (shokuryо̄ chozо̄ 食糧貯蔵), food preparation (shokuryо̄ chо̄sei 食糧調整), agricultural work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業), and handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事); timber lattice windows (kо̄shi mado 格子窓) between the dēdoko and hiroma; the living-dining-kitchen hiroma (ひろま) with threshold (agari-kamachi 上り框), shallow decorative alcove (oshi-ita 押板), firepit (irori, marked ro 炉), for spillover of ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事), dining (shokuji 食事), family time (danran 団らん), meal preparation (tabemono chо̄sei 食物調整), handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事), and weaving (hata-ori 機織); the formal but spartan dē (でえ) for ceremonies, sleeping (shūshin 就寝), and entertaining (о̄tai 応対) at its entrance; the ‘master bedroom' (heya へや) for storage of family possessions (kazai shūnо̄ 家財収納) and husband and wife sleeping (fūfu shūshin 夫婦就寝); and the second bedroom (urabeya うらべや), for storage of family possessions and sleeping.  The external opening to the hiroma is a ‘lion window' (shishi mado 獅子窓), with a sill at around waist height and a thick, fixed lattice.

Interior view of the Kiyomiya house showing the shallow decorative alcove (oshi-ita 押板) in the hiroma.

Exterior view of the southern facade of the Kiyomiya house.

Interior view of the dēdoko of the Kiyomiya house, looking north.  The lattice windows (kо̄shi mado) to the hiroma are partly visible on the left, and to the north of them is the fixed timber board wall dividing the dēdoko from the urabeya.

Interior view of the board-floored hiroma of the Kiyomiya house, looking east towards the dē.

View of the hiroma showing the roof structure above.

Interior view of the Kiyomiya house, taken from outside the looking north across the tatami-floored dē.  The heya is beyond the north wall.

JAPANESE MINKA XLV - PLANNING 23: FOUR-ROOM DWELLINGS 4

This week’s post, something of a ‘part two’ to last week’s, presents more examples of four-room minka layouts.

The plan below, of the Ogura house (Ogura-ke 小椋家) in Shiga Prefecture, is another four-room layout in tsuma-toko (妻床) or ‘gable-end alcove’ style; in terms of the degree of openness of its bedroom (here heya へや), it might be considered an intermediate form somewhere between the Yamamoto house and the Nakashima house, both examined last week.  The partitioning between the living-dining room (kamado かまど) and the heya is a motley collection, consisting of: a 1/2 ken (91cm) wide lath-and-plaster sode-kabe (袖壁, lit. ‘sleeve wall’) attached to and perpendicular to the exterior wall, and a three-track sill (shikii 敷居) and lintel (kamoi 鴨居) to receive two (fixed) itado and one sliding papered lattice panel (shouji 障子).  This seemingly hybrid, semi-open, semi-closed arrangement carries a faint reminder of the heya’s role as a storage room, and together with the shallowness of the tsuma-doko, and the low eave height, indicate that this is an old minka.  Part of the ‘cooking doma’ (suiji-doma 炊事土間), here called the uchi-niwa (うちにわ), is board-floored, which is customary of minka in mountain country.

The Ogura house.  Labelled are: the niwa (にわ) with bath (nyū-yoku 入浴), entry doma (iriguchi doma 入口土間), and ‘dog stop’ (inu-dome 犬止め, presumably waist-height partitions), for farm work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業); the inner niwa (uchi-niwa うちにわ), with stove, in-built closets for storage (chozо̄ 貯蔵) and fuel (nenryо̄ 燃料), and board-floored area with sink (nagashi ナガシ) and water (mizu 水), for food preparation (tabemono chо̄sei 食物調整); the dining-living room (kamado かまど) with firepit (irori, marked ro 炉) and shelves (todana 戸棚), for dining (shokuji 食事), family time (danran 団らん), and handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事); the bedroom (heya へや) for sleeping (shūshin 就寝) and storage of family possessions (kazai shūnо̄ 家財収納); the zashiki (here oku おく), with gable-end shelves (tana たな) and decorative alcove (toko とこ), for ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事), receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客), and sleeping (shūshin 就寝); and the ‘second room’, here dei (でい), used as a ‘spillover’ room for ceremonies, and for entertaining (о̄tai 応対) and courting (kо̄sai 交際).

The plan below, of the Morozumi house (Morozumi-ke 面角家) in Serigasawa (芹々沢), Nagano Prefecture, is a four-room layout in which the vestiges of the hiroma-gata (広間型) layout can still be seen to a degree.  The presence of a rear or ‘inner’ zashiki (iri-no-zashiki いりのざしき) in addition to the front or facade-side zashiki (mae-de-no-zashiki まえでのざしき) indicates this as a kagi-zashiki style (kagi-zashiki-gata 鍵座敷型) layout; it is in addition in the ‘gable-end alcove’ style (tsuma-doko keishiki 妻床形式), meaning that the decorative alcoves (toko とこ), storage (mono-ire or mono-iri 物入), and Buddhist alcove (butsuma 仏間, marked manji 卍) are located in the gable walls of the zashiki.  A ‘storeroom’ (nando), used as a bedroom and here called the ‘small zashiki’ (ko-zashiki こざしき), has been taken out of the rear of the multi-function hiroma, here called the ima (いま).  Likewise the stable (maya まや) is at the rear of the doma in what is known as oku-umaya keishiki (奥厩形式, lit. ‘rear stable type’).  There are many minka with this type of layout in the Shinshu (信州) region, and this four-room layout more generally is commonly seen in north-eastern Japan.

The Morozumi house in Serigasawa, Nagano Prefecture.  It is a four-room minka in the kagi-zashiki (鍵座敷, lit. ‘key zashiki’) style, with two ‘upper' (kami-te or uwami-te 上み手) zashiki running the full width of the gable-end wall, which is blind and completely taken up with joinery.  In this region the stable (maya まや) occupies the rear of the doma; it is seemingly prioritised over the bedroom (ko-zashiki こざしき), which loses area to it.  Labelled: the earth-floored utility area (usually doma or niwa but here called, somewhat unusually, the daidokoro だいどころ) with entry doma (iriguchi doma 入口土間), for agricultural work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業), farm implement storage (nо̄gu okiba 農具置場), food storage (shokuryо̄ chozо̄ 食糧貯蔵), and feed preparation (shiryо̄ chо̄sei 飼料調整) for silkworm breeding (kaiko-san 蚕産) and sericulture (yо̄san 養蚕); the rear stable (maya まや) for raising livestock (kachiku shi-iku 家畜飼育) and composting (taihi zо̄sei 堆肥造成); the bedroom (ko-zashiki こざしき) for sleeping (shūshin 就寝), sericultre, and storage of family possessions (kazai shūnо̄ 家財格納); the inner zashiki (iri-no-zashiki いりのざしき) with gable-end decorative alcove (toko とこ) and closet (mono-ire 物入), low heated table (kotatsu コタツ), and for ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事), receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客), sleeping, and sericulture; the front or facade-side zashiki (mae-de-no-zashiki まえでのざしき), with decorative alcove (toko とこ), shelves (tana たな), Buddhist alcove (butsuma, marked manji 卍), and kotatsu, for ceremonies, receiving guests, sleeping, and sericulture; and the general-purpose living room (ima いま), partly board (ita 板) floored and partly tatami (tatami タタミ) floored, with sitting sink (suwari-nagashi 坐りナガシ), firepit (irori, marked ro 炉) and kotatsu, for dining (shokuji 食事), family time (danran 団らん), meal preparation (tabemono chо̄sei 食物調整), handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事), sericultre, and night-time entertaining (yorunabe о̄tai 夜なべ応対). Externally, there is a place for agricultural storage (shūnо̄ 収農) at the entrance, and entertaining (о̄tai 応対) and sericulture take place on the ‘verandah’ (en 縁). As can be seen, every part of the dwelling is used for some aspect of silk production, indicating the economic importance that this activity once had in the region.

Exterior view of an old thatched-roof (kari-ya 茅屋) minka in Serigasawa, Nagano Prefecture, with a very similar interior layout to the Morozumi house.  The master of the house is just visible standing in the doorway, his head grazing the low eaves.

JAPANESE MINKA XLIV - PLANNING 22: FOUR-ROOM DWELLINGS 3

Continuing with our discussion of four-room minka layouts, in this post we will take a look at how four-room layouts evolved over time by comparing some older and newer examples.

The plan below, of the Yamamoto house (Yamamoto-ke 山本家) in Osaka Prefecture, is an example of an old-fashioned four-room layout, with a relatively ‘closed’ character. The bedroom (nando なんど) in particular is completely isolated from the rest of the interior, and there is a step-in type closet in the entry doma.  At the time of survey, there was a decorative alcove (tokonoma 床の間 or toko 床) in the gable wall of the zashiki, a style known as tsuma-doko (妻床, lit. ‘gable toko’), but originally the Buddhist alcove (butsuma 仏間) and the shelves (todana 戸棚) at the boundary with the nando would have been the only decorative elements of the zashiki, in the absence of a tokonoma; this style is called hira-toko (平床, lit. ‘flat toko’).

The Yamamoto house.  Labelled are: the earth-floored utility area, consisting of the niwa (にわ), with entry doma (iriguchi doma 入口土間) and menses (seiri 生理) closet, and for agricultural work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業) and feed preparation (shiryо̄ chо̄sei 飼料調整); the stable (umaya うまや) for raising livestock (kachiku shi-iku 家畜飼育) and composting (taihizо̄sei 堆肥造成); the ‘stove doma' (kamaya かまや), with stove (kudo くど), sink (hashiri はしり), ‘lever thresher' (kara-usu カラウス) and smoke bulkhead (kemuri-kaeshi 煙返し), for food storage (shokuryо̄ chozо̄ 食糧貯蔵), meal preparation (tabemono chо̄sei 食物調整), and food preparation (shokuryо̄ chо̄sei 食糧調整); a board ‘landing' (toko とこ) for lunch (chūshoku 昼食) and handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事); the kitchen-dining room (daidoko だいどこ) for dining (shokuji 食事), family time (danran 団らん), and evening or night work (yonabe-shigoto よなべ仕事) with shelves (todana 戸棚) and bedroom entry (nando-gamae なんど構え); the bedroom (nando なんど) for sleeping (shūshin 就寝) and storage of family possessions (kazai shūnо̄ 家財収納; the zashiki (ざしき), for ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事), receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客), and sleeping (shūshin 就寝), with Buddhist alcove (butsuma, marked manji 卍) and shelves; and the ‘second room' (tsugi-no-ma 次の間), here kuchi-no-ma (くちのま), for entertaining (о̄tai 応対), courting (kо̄sai 交際), and as a ‘breakout room' for the ceremonies of the oku-no-ma.  The ‘verandah' (en えん) is also used for handwork and entertaining.  There is an outside urinal (shо̄ben 小便, marked 小) next to the entrance.  The position of the current (genjо̄ 現状), non-original gable-wall decorative alcove (tsuma-toko 妻床) is indicated with dashed lines.

Interior view of the zashiki of the Yamanoto house, looking towards the Buddhist alcove (butsuma 仏間) on the right and shelves (todana 戸棚) on the left.  Leaning against the shelves is a low table known as a kotatsu, with an electric heating element visible on its underside.

A ‘lever thresher' (kara-usu 唐臼 or カラウス, lit. ‘Chinese mortar') for threshing grain.

The next plan, of the Nakashima house (Nakashima-ke 中島家) in the Iga district (Iga chihou 伊賀地方) of Mie Prefecture, is a representative example of what eventually became the most widely-distributed style of regular four-room layout.  This (comparatively) new type is characterised by an interior that is relatively open, meaning that the boundaries between all four rooms are fitted with sliding, unfixed partitions; if these partitions are removed, a single, continuous space is obtained.  This open character extends to the nando, which is no longer the dark ‘bedcloset’ of the Yamamoto house.  Its private nature has been reduced and it has taken on some of the functions of a living room, necessitating the addition of a closet to store (hide) bedding during the day.  The butsuma and storage are now out of the way in the gable wall, making this a true tsuma-doko layout.

Other than the blind gable wall to the nando and okunoma, the rooms are also very open to the outside, and the exterior walls of the dwelling are highly permeable: of the 43 total intra-post ‘bays’ (each around half a ken or 91cm wide) that make up the exterior walls, only 25 are solid wall; the other 18 are occupied either by sliding partitions or by windows of some description. Even the niwa has an entrance on all three of its sides.

At the border of the denoma (でのま) and the okunoma (おくのま) there are obito (帯戸), wooden panel sliding partitions (itado 板戸) with a mid-rail (obizan 帯桟), which give greater formality to the zashiki; in the feudal (hо̄ken 封建) period the obito signified that women, children, and people of low status were not to enter this room without good reason.

The Nakashima house.  Labelled are: the earth-floored utility area, consisting of the niwa (にわ), with entry doma (iriguchi doma 入口土間), and bath (furo ふろ), for agricultural work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業); the stable (maya まや) for raising livestock (kachiku shi-iku 家畜飼育) and composting (taihizо̄sei 堆肥造成); the ‘stove doma' (kamaya かまや), with stove (kudo くど), lever mortar (kara-usu カラウス) and smoke bulkhead (kemuri-kaeshi 煙返し), for food preparation (tabemono chо̄sei 食物調整), food storage (shokuryо̄ chozо̄ 食糧貯蔵), and feed preparation (shiryо̄ chо̄sei 飼料調整); and the ‘inner niwa' (uchi-niwa うちにわ), with sink (nagashi ナガシ) and board ‘landing' (ochima おちま), for meal preparation (tabemono chо̄sei 食物調整); the kitchen-dining room (daidoko だいどこ) for dining (shokuji 食事), family time (danran 団らん) and handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事), with shelves (todana 戸棚); the bedroom (nando なんど) for sleeping (shūshin 就寝) and storage of family possessions (kazai shūnо̄ 家財収納), with closet (oshi-ire 押入); the zashiki, here oku-no-ma (おくのま), for ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事), receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客), and sleeping (shūshin 就寝), with Buddhist alcove (butsuma, marked manji 卍) and storage; and the ‘second room' (tsugi-no-ma 次の間), here de-no-ma (でのま), for entertaining (о̄tai 応対), and as a ‘breakout room' for the ceremonies of the oku-no-ma.  The ‘verandah' (en えん) is also used for handwork and entertaining, and accessing the urinal (shо̄ben 小便, marked 小).  Partitions are marked ko (コ) for kо̄shi (lattice), sasara-do (ササラ戸, very fine, closely-spaced lattice), shi (シ) for shо̄ji (障子, lattice with thin transparent paper on one side), fu (フ) for fusuma (襖, lattice with thick opaque paper on both sides), and obito (オビト).

Four obito (帯戸)

JAPANESE MINKA XLIII - PLANNING 21: FOUR-ROOM DWELLINGS 2

As mentioned in last week’s post, four-room layout (yon-madori 四間取り) minka can be broadly subcategorised into regular (seikei 整形) and irregular or staggered (kui-chigai 食違い) layouts. Staggered four-room layouts are themselves subcategorised as either ‘parallel stagger’ (tate-kui-chigai kata 縦食違い型, lit. ‘vertical stagger type’), layouts, where the ‘stagger’ is in the partition line parallel to the room-doma axis, or ‘perpendicular stagger’ (yoko-kui-chigai kata 横食違い型, lit. ‘horizontal stagger type’) layouts, where the stagger is in the partition line perpendicular to the room-doma boundary.

Comparison of a ‘perpendicular stagger’ (yoko-kui-chigai kata 横食違い型) layout (top); and a ‘parallel stagger’ (tate-kui-chigai kata 縦食違い型), layout.  The doma (not pictured) are on the right of each plan.

One advantage of the staggered layout, whether parallel or perpendicular, is that it offers the convenience of being able to directly access both of the ‘upper’ (kamite 上み手) or ‘rear’ rooms (the rooms furthest from the doma) from the larger of the lower (shimote 下も手) or ‘front’ rooms (the rooms adjacent to the doma). Confusingly, the terms ‘upper’ (ue or kami, 上) and ‘lower’ (shita or shimo 下) are also sometimes used to indicate ‘front’, i.e. on the facade side of the building, and ‘rear’, i.e. to the rear side of the building, away from the facade.

A comparison of staggered (kui-chigai 食違い) and regular (seikei 整形) four-room (yon-madori 四間取り) ‘facade zashiki type' (omote-zashiki gata 表座敷型) layouts illustrates the convenience of the staggered layout (on the left). In it, both the zashiki (ざしき) and the bedroom (heya へや) can be accessed directly from the larger of the doma-adjacent rooms, here the hiroma (ひろま).  In the regular layout on the right, one must pass through either the zashiki or the ‘kitchen-dining room' (katte かって) to access the bedroom (heya へや) from the ‘living room' (dei でい).  The doma (not pictured) are on the right of each plan.

In any minka, the upper rear (kamite-oku 上み手奥) corner, the position furthest from both the doma and the facade, is the most private and ‘inner’ part of the dwelling. In most four-room layouts, as in the two plan diagrams below, this position is occupied by a bedroom (here heya へや), and in front of (to the facade side of) it is a zashiki. This layout is known as omote-zashiki gata (表座敷型, lit. ‘front zashiki type’ or ‘facade zashiki’ type), as distinct from the mae-zashiki gata (前座敷型) or ‘front zashiki type’ three-room layouts covered in previous posts on three-room minka. Both omote (表) and mae (前) can be translated as ‘front’.

In other four-room layouts, the upper rear position is occupied by another zashiki; the bedroom is to the rear of the hiroma and adjacent to the doma. These layouts are known as kagi-zashiki gata (鍵座敷型, lit. ‘key zashiki type’).

Comparison of the ‘rear zashiki type' (kagi-zashiki gata 鍵座敷型) layout, on the left, with the ‘front/facade zashiki type' layout, on the right. 

Labelled: the zashiki (座敷), ‘living room' (hiroma 広間 or okami おかみ), bedroom (nebeya 寝部屋), tsugi-no-ma (次の間, lit. ‘next room', defined as ‘a room adjoining a main room'), and doma (土間).

The left column of four plans shows the development path of a three-room hiroma-gata layout.  It begins (top left plan) with three rooms: the doma-adjacent hiroma, upper rear bedroom, and facade-side zashiki.  From there it can become either of two perpendicular-stagger four-room layouts: in the plan on the left, the rear doma-adjacent room (here labelled hiroma) gains area over the facade-side doma-adjacent room (unlabelled, but a tsugi-no-ma that either supplements the functions of the zashiki, variously called the dei, de-no-ma, etc., or some kind of living room).  In the plan on the right, the front doma-adjacent room (again a hiroma) gains area, and the smaller rear doma-adjacent room (unlabelled) is a kitchen-dining room (katte, dadoko, cha-no-ma, or the like).  These layouts re-converge in the bottom plan, a regular or ta-no-ji gata (田の字型, lit. ‘rice fields character type') four-room layout.

The right column of two plans illustrates the development of the kagi-zashiki layout from staggered (top plan) to regular (bottom plan), each with ‘upper' and ‘lower' zashiki, facade-side hiroma/tsugi-no-ma, and a doma-adjacent rear bedroom.

Labelled: the doma (土間), ‘upper' (ue 上) and ‘lower' (shita 下) zashiki (座敷 or 座), ‘living room' (hiroma 広間 or 広), dining room (cha-no-ma 茶の間), and bedroom (shinjo 寝所 or 寝).

Generally speaking, perpendicular stagger (yoko-kui-chigai) layouts tend to develop out of hiroma-type (hiroma-gata) three-room layouts, while parallel stagger (tate-kui-chigai) layouts tend to evolve from front-zashiki (mae-zashiki) three-room layouts.

Hiroma-type (hiroma-gata 広間型) three-room (san-madori ３間取り) layouts tend to evolve into perpendicular stagger (yoko-kui-chigai 横食違い) four-room layouts.  Labelled: the bedroom (heya へや), zashiki (ざしき), ‘living room' (hiroma ひろま), and ‘kitchen-dining room' (katte かって).  The doma (not pictured) are on the right of each plan.

Front-zashiki type (mae-zashiki gata 前座敷型) three-room (san-madori ３間取り) layouts tend to evolve into parallel stagger (tate-kui-chigai 縦食違い) four-room layouts.  Labelled: the bedroom (nema ねま or heya へや), zashiki (ざしき), ‘kitchen-dining-family room' (daidoko だいどこ), and tsugi-no-ma, here called the kuchi-no-ma (くちのま, lit. ‘mouth room' in the sense of ‘entry', presumably to the zashiki).  The doma (not pictured) are on the right of each plan.

JAPANESE MINKA XLII - PLANNING 20: FOUR-ROOM DWELLINGS 1

After devoting the last eight posts or so to three-room layout (san-madori 三間取り) minka, today we move on to four-room layouts (yon-madori 四間取り), though four-room layouts have already made many appearances in these posts, in considering the paths of development of one-room, two-room and three-room minka in response to increasing familial requirements or general economic advancement.

As the name suggests, the ‘floored’ or ‘habitable’ part of the four-room layout minka consists of four rooms, not including the earth-floored utility space called the doma (土間). In general, four-room layouts are sub-categorised as either regular (seikei 整形) or ‘irregular’ or staggered (kui-chigai 食違い).

In the regular form, the corners of the four rooms intersect at a single, central point, with the two perpendicular partition lines in a cruciform (jūji-kei 十字形) arrangement; this layout is also known as ta-no-ji-gata madori (田の字型間取り, lit. ‘rice paddy character type layout’), for its resemblance in plan to the character for rice fields (ta,田). In the irregular or staggered form, one of the partitions between two rooms is offset from the intersection.

Hypothetical plans illustrating the two sub-categories of four-room layout (yon-madori 四間取り). On the left is a ‘staggered' layout (kui-chigai gata 食違い型); in this case it is a ‘hiroma type’ (hiroma-gata 広間型) layout, with the ‘stagger’ in the partition line being perpendicular to the room-doma boundary, further classifying it as a ‘perpendicular staggered type’ (yoko kui-chigai gata). The plan on the right is a regular (seikei 整形) four-room layout (yon-madori 四間取り).  Earth-floored utility areas (doma 土間) are not shown, but should be imagined on the right of each plan; i.e. in the first plan the ‘living room’ (hiroma ひろま) and ‘kitchen/dining room’ (katte かって) border the doma, and in the second plan the katte and ‘living room’ (dei でい) border the doma.

Given that minka typically lack internal corridors, one advantage of the staggered layout over the regular layout, apparent from looking at these two plans, is that the staggered layout gives two of the rooms direct access to all three of the other rooms.  In the example above, one can go between ‘living room’ (hiroma ひろま) and bedroom (heya へや) without entering either the ‘kitchen/dining room’ (katte かって) or the ‘formal room’ (zashiki ざしき), whereas in the regular layout, one cannot go from the ‘living room’ (dei でい) to the heya except via either the katte or the zashiki. This ‘universal access’ functionality can be given to any room according to the placement of the ‘stagger’, but for obvious reasons it usually goes to the room that corresponds most closely to the western idea of the ‘living room’, i.e. the room that acts as the functional hub of the house.

The four-room layout can be thought of in a sense as a complete, fundamental form, or at least a developmental culmination. In the Kinki region, where minka development was at its most advanced, the four-room layout became common beginning from around the early Edo period (i.e. the early 17th century). Development beyond this point, at least among the farmhouses of high-status families, was into regular six-room layouts (seikei roku-madori 整形六間取り), with such sub-classifications as sa-ji-gata (サ字型, lit. ‘sa character type’) and ki-ji-gata (キ字型, lit. ‘ki character type’). Each of these forms might be considered an elaborative result of uniquely complex developmental ends, and it is difficult to neatly organise them into coherent types or categories.

As mentioned, there was a nation-wide tendency for all types of layout to find developmental fulfilment in the four-room layout, and this layout has become the representative form of Japanese vernacular dwellings in the ‘modern’ era. In previous eras, the hiroma-gata three-room layout had made up the majority of minka layouts, but with the four-room layout there is the division of the hiroma into two rooms. It is thought that one of the factors that motivated the development of an independent ‘dining room’ and the breaking up of the irori-centred ‘dining - family time - hosting guests’ triad was the desire to improve the liveability of the dwelling in general, and in particular to eliminate the various inconveniences and impracticalities involved with receiving guests in the place of eating. There was also sometimes the economic necessity of taking up sericulture (yо̄san 養蚕), and the consequent need to be able to close up a room or rooms to retain the warmth required for raising (yо̄-iku 養育) young silkworms (chisan 稚蚕).

The facade-side room resulting from the division of the hiroma is called variously the dei (でい), de (で), denoma (でのま), kuchinoma (くちのま), shimonoma (しものま), omote (おもて), ima (いま), genkan zashiki (玄関座敷), etc.; the names all indicate either the use or position of the room, which functions as the space for reception (о̄tai 応対) and living activities, an entry for honoured guests, and a ‘breakout’ or ‘spillover’ extension of the zashiki when conducting religious ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事).

JAPANESE MINKA XLI - PLANNING 19: THREE-ROOM DWELLINGS 8

Next up in this series on three-room minka is what I will call the ‘parallel lineup’ three-room layout (jūretsu-gata san-madori 縦列型三間取り), in which the three rooms are arrayed, or lined up, so that each room shares part of the room-doma boundary; in other words, the three rooms are lined up along, and in parallel with, the room-doma boundary axis, with the partitions or divisions between these rooms being perpendicular to this axis. In most rural three-room layouts, this results in a building that is longer along the room-doma axis, i.e. the room-doma axis is the long axis of the building. In a fully-detached building such as a farmhouse, the logical structural outcome of this arrangement is that the roof ridge is parallel to room-doma boundary axis, so the rooms are also arrayed along the ridge axis. The key point is that when classifying minka layouts according to how the rooms are arrayed, the reference axis is the room-doma boundary axis, not the ridge axis: as we shall see, there are also ‘parallel lineup’ layouts in which the ridge axis is perpendicular to the room-doma boundary axis.

The precursor or prototype of the three-room parallel lineup layout can be seen in the plan below, discussed in a previous post: a two-room (ni-shitsu ２室) parallel lineup layout minka in the Karabitsu (唐櫃) district in Hokusetsu (北摂), current day Hyо̄go Prefecture. It might be better termed a 2.5 room layout, where the nuri-gome (塗りごめ, an area for sleeping or storage with fully-plastered exterior walls) created in one corner of the daidokoro (だいどころ) has been fully partitioned off as a proper room (heya へや), but the horizontal partition returns vertically into the external wall instead of extending straight to the doma boundary, so there is still a sense in which the heya is not a fully-fledged room but remains part of and subordinate to the daidokoro.

A two-room (ni-shitsu ２室) ‘transverse lineup’ (jūrets-gata 縦列型) minka, precursor to three-room transverse lineup layouts like the Izumi house.

The parallel lineup layout is commonly seen among farmhouses (nо̄-minka 濃民家 or nо̄-ka 農家) in the Tanba (丹波) district and surrounds, corresponding to parts of modern-day Kyо̄to, Hyо̄go, and О̄saka Prefectures. A representative three-room example is shown in the plan below, of the former Izumi residence (Izumi-ke 泉家), a farmhouse that has been relocated to the Open Air Museum of Old Japanese Farm Houses (Minka Shūraku Hakubutsukan 民家集落博物館) in Toyonaka City and is designated an important cultural property. The building originally stood in the Nose district (Nose chihо̄ 能勢地方) of О̄saka prefecture, which adjoins Tanba.

Plan of the Izumi residence.  Labelled are the deep ‘porch’ (en えん) for ‘entertaining' (о̄tai 応対), handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事), and tool storage (dо̄gu okiba 道具置場); sheltered entry area for fuel storage (nenryо̄ chozо̄ 燃料貯蔵); stable (maya まや) for raising livestock (kachiku shi-iku 家畜飼育) and composting (taihizо̄sei 堆肥造成); earth-floored utility area (niwa にわ) with entry (doma iriguchi 土間入口), sink (hashiri はしり), and stove (kudo くど), for food storage (shokuryо̄ chozо̄ 食糧貯蔵) and agricultural work (nо̄-sagyо̄ 濃作業); the zashiki (ざしき) for ceremonies (gyо̄ji 行事), receiving guests (sekkyaku 接客) and sleeping (shūshin 就寝), with closet (iriguchi, marked 入) and Buddhist alcove with altar (marked 卍); the living-dining room (daidoko だいどこ) with board (ita 板) floor, edge-located firepit (irori いろり), and shelf closet (todana 戸棚), for dining (shokuji 食事), family time (danran 団らん), entertaining (о̄tai 応対), and handwork; and the bedroom (nando なんど), for sleeping and storage of family possessions (kazai shūnо̄ 家財格納).

On the entry side of the gable-entry Izumi residence there is a do-bisashi or tsuchi-bisashi (土庇), a deep eave supported by posts. In minka of the same type found in the Nishiyama district of Kyо̄to, this element is called the mage (真下), and under it there is a bench-like (endaijou 縁台状) board floor known as a hama-yuka (浜床, lit. ‘shore floor’) or hama-en (浜縁, lit. ‘shore edge’); in the Izumi residence there is an open hiro-en (広縁, lit. ‘spacious edge’), which is a ‘verandah’ (engawa 縁側) or ‘porch’ whose substantial depth gives it greater utility for a range of purposes: in this case, reception of guests (о̄tai 応対), handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事), and drying of cereals (kokumotsu 穀物).

On entering there is a stable (umaya, here maya) on the left and zashiki on the right, completely closed off from the doma (here niwa) with a board wall (ita-kabe 板壁), except for a single-leaf sliding door; this is an old-fashioned method of partition.

The niwa to the rear of the stable contains a sink (nagashi-dai 流し台, here hashiri) and stove (kamado かまど, here kudo) and is used for cooking and farm work; the daidoko, facing and open to the niwa, is the place for activities centred around the firepit (irori いろり). The nando (なんど) at the very rear is used as a bedroom (nema 寝間) and is open to the daidoko only via a single koshi-taka shо̄ji (腰高障子), a sliding panel with an upper half of paper-covered lattice and lower half of thin board; the rest of the nando is completely closed.

The development of this type of minka is illustrated in the first row of four plans shown below. It starts out as a parallel lineup three-room layout (jūretsu-gata san-madori 縦列型三間取り, the first plan). Then, in the second plan, the nando to the rear of the daidoko is moved and the minka becomes a front-zashiki type (mae-zashiki gata 前座敷型) layout; the border between the daidoko and the niwa is now longer, making the daidoko more convenient to use. Additionally, the sink is moved to the rear gable wall, and next to it a rear or back door (ura-toguchi 裏戸口) is added, and the entry doma (doma iriguchi 土間入口) and niwa (にわ) are partitioned off from one another (presumably there is a door in this partition). The opening between the zashiki and doma is widened, and rain shutters (amado 雨戸) are added to the hiro-en, resulting in an ‘enclosed verandah’ (nai-en 内縁).

In the next stage (the third plan), the partition line between the nando and the daidoko is extended forward through the zashiki to divide it into two rooms: a smaller, formal or ‘public-facing’ zashiki, and a living room-like room ima (居間), resulting in a regular four-room layout (seikei yon-madori (整形４間取り). The nando is fully opened up on its daidoko side, reducing its closed character. Finally, the entrance door is moved forward, and the hiro-en is expanded and ‘roomified’ (heya-ka 部屋化).

In the fourth plan, the minka becomes a regular six-room layout (seikei roku-madori (整形６間取り). An ‘entrance zashiki’ (genkan-zashiki 玄関座敷) develops, with attached shikidai (式台), a ‘running board’ type step at intermediate height between the doma or ground and the raised floor. The zashiki are formalised with ‘picture rails’ (nageshi 長押) and equipped with decorative alcoves (toko とこ) and shelves, and a ‘wraparound verandah’ (mawari-en 周り縁) is added to the exterior. The daidoko becomes a central chanoma (茶の間), used only for dining; the rear rooms are bedrooms or storerooms, and are completed by adding closets (oshi-ire 押入) and shelving (todana 戸棚).

The top row of plans show the development of a parallel lineup layout in the Nose district.  Note that on the second plan「外縁」(gai-en, ‘external verandah' should read 「内縁」 (nai-en, ‘enclosed verandah'). 

The bottom row of four plans show the development of the parallel lineup three-room layout (jūretsu-gata san-madori 縦列型三間取り, the first plan) into a ‘merchant house' (shо̄-ka 商家, the second plan), where the zashiki has moved to the rear and a shop (mise 店) and ‘lower shop' (shita-mise 下店 are added at the street/entry facade.  Then in thetownhouse (machiya 町家) the zashiki and ‘living-dining room' swap places.  Finally the machiya expands sideways into a ‘twin parallel lineup' (ni-retsu-tate-narabe ２列竪ならべ) with six rooms.

Legend: stable (u 牛), zashiki (za 座), living-dining or dining room (dai 台), bedroom (ne 寝), living room (i 居), shop (mise 店).

Other than the farmhouses of the Tanba area, the parallel lineup layout has also achieved universal distribution in the Japanese urban environment, in the form of the townhouse or machiya (町家), a building which is both a dwelling and a place of commercial activity, where the doma (called the tо̄ri-niwa 通り庭, lit. ‘passage niwa’) runs from the narrow entrance facade through to the rear, with the line of the roof ridge being perpendicular to the room-doma boundary axis, and the two slopes of the gable roof draining to the front and back of the deep, narrow lot. Though these two minka typologies may share the same general classification in terms of layout, both the orientation of the roof ridge in relation to the room-doma boundary and the location of the zashiki differ between them; the mode of occupation between each is also markedly different.