Previous posts in this series presented the basic categorisation system for minka floor plan layouts put forward by Kawashima Chuuji. While this system is satisfactory in a general sense, and is useful in reconstructing the evolution of the minka from its earliest forms, Kawashima himself emphasises that such a neat taxonomy can never really capture the great diversity of minka seen throughout Japan, according to function, occupation, custom, climate, topography, socioeconomic status, and other variables. And what holds true of the country as a whole also holds true when it comes to attempting to identify distributions and patterns of minka by region, whether that be the regional distribution of any particular typology of minka, or the typology of any particular region. While it is understandable that the most typical or common minka type in any area will be held up as representative of that area, it should also be remembered that even within a particular region there will be many variations on the representative type, as well as other types, oddities and anomalous forms that resist classification. Thus it is impossible to create a really accurate fine-scale map of minka types according to region; such a map will be unavoidably low-resolution. Nevertheless, the exercise isn’t meaningless or futile, because the patterns are there, however messy they might be, and the alternative would be an analysis so granular and microscopic that any sense of them is lost. In any case, here is Kawashima’s own map:
Kawashima’s map showing the distribution of minka types across Japan (excluding Hokkaido)
The map’s legend enlarged
The legend reads:
広間型および広間的間取り Hiroma-gata and ‘hiroma-like’ layouts
４間取り系間取り（田字型）Yon-madori kei madori (ta-ji-gata) four room layouts
曲り屋 Magari-ya literally ‘bent house’ i.e. L-shaped plans.
中門造り Chuumon-zukuri A sub-category of magari-ya.
妻入り（前土間、片側住居、本棟造り）Tsuma-iri (maedoma, katagawa juukyo, honmune zukuri) Gable-entry minka.
二棟造り（主屋無土間）Futamune zukuri (omoya mudoma) ‘Two ridge’ i.e. two building minka (without doma)
イエ・ナカエ接着 (Ie-nakae secchaku) A form of two ridge minka where the two building volumes are joined to form a unified interior.
踏込み土間型 (Fumikomi doma-gata) ‘Step-in’ doma type minka
The hiroma-gata and yon-madori kei madori have been covered in previous posts. The other typologies shown on the map fit less neatly into Kawashima’s classification system; in the next few posts in this series I will look at them in more detail.