Further to last week’s post on two room layouts and the two ways in which these rooms can be arranged - the tatebunwari and yokobunwari patterns - I would now like to examine the sub-variations that emerge from these two patterns when they are developed into three room layouts, beginning this week with tatebunwari layouts.

The tatebunwari pattern can be further broken down into two sub-types: the heiretsugata, or what I will call the ‘column type’ layout, and the hiromagata or ‘hiroma type’ layout.

In the heiretsugata type, the rooms are arranged in transverse ‘columns,’ with the ‘outermost’ room fully and exclusively bordering the doma. In the example shown below, this room is called the gozen, typically where meals, family ‘together time’ and handwork would take place; further in comes the omote, for sleeping and other activities, and then the innermost tsubone, for receiving guests and other more ceremonial or formal activities.

A typical *tatebunwari* pattern *minka* of the subtype *heiretsugata* or ‘column’ type.

In the hiromagata type, the ‘everyday’ space (in the example below called the hiroma) again fully borders the doma. Hiroma in general usage simply means a wide or large room; in the context of rural minka it is the ‘general’ room for eating and other everyday activities. The inner portion of the raised floor area is here divided not transversely but longitudinally, into the rear heya (literally ‘room’) for sleeping, and the front zashiki, a formal space for the entertaining of guests, etc.