Last week’s post presented a map showing the general distribution of different types of minka across Japan. Today I would like to look more closely at one of the types included in that map that I haven’t yet covered in previous posts on the subject: the magari-ya (曲り屋).
Magari-ya literally means ‘bent house’; in other words, a minka with an L-shaped floor plan. But what really characterises the magari-ya is its particular mode of occupation, of which the plan is merely the spatial outcome: the cohabitation of humans and animals (typically horses) under one roof. The main volume, the omoya or moya (母屋), is for humans; the ‘stable wing’, umaya or maya (馬屋), is for the animals, and the two volumes are arranged at right angles to one another, with each forming one leg of the ‘L’. The umaya usually extends out southwards from the south facade of the omoya, because this position enjoys the best access to sunlight: an indication of just how valuable horses were to the occupants of these houses.
Magari-ya are most commonly found in the Touhoku region of northern Honshu (the main island of Japan).
A map of the Touhoku region, showing modern prefectures by colour and principal cities.
Perhaps the magari-ya variant most synonymous with the form is the Nanbu magari-ya, found in the Touno district of central Iwate (the area was once the domain of the Nanbu clan, hence the name). Taking the former Fujiwara residence as representative, we see that the main entrance to the building is in the umaya volume, placed centrally and very practically at the inner corner where the two volumes meet, and leading directly into the niwa, the earthen-floored utility area. From this central position one can go right to the umaya (which has its own independent entrance, next to the main entrance), left to the daidoko (kitchen) at the rear/north, or around the corner to the partitioned, raised floor section of the omoya, which contains the ‘living’, ‘sleeping’ and formal areas of the home.
A grand example of a nanbu magari-ya, the former Fujiwara residence, Iwate Prefecture. The photo is taken from the west, showing the umaya wing to the rear right, and the omoya in the foreground. The two dark openings in the umaya volume are the main entrance to the niwa (left) and the umaya entrance (right).
Floor plan of the former Fujiwara residence, showing the stable wing (umaya) at the bottom (south).
Another variant of the magari-ya is the chuumon-zukuri 中門造り, which like the Nanbu magari-ya is closely associated with the Tohoku region, but this time on the western, Sea of Japan side. Characteristic of this variant is that the entry (with horse) to the dwelling is via a door in the gable end of the umaya, into the chuumon entry/passage adjacent to the stable, where the horse is left before proceeding through to the earthen-floored niwa in the main interior space of the omoya.
A thatch-walled chuumon-zukuri magari-ya, the former Yamada residence.
Floor plan of the former Yamada residence.
Chuumon-zukuri with a sculpted thatch umaya: the former Satou residence in Niigata Prefecture.
Floor plan of the former Satou residence
It’s striking how functionally similar the plan of the chuumon-zukuri is to that of the modern Australian garage-fronted house, where you enter in your car, ‘stable’ it in the garage, and then go on through into the house proper via a door between it and the garage. You don’t need to be an architectural historian from the future to point out that the size and position of garages in our homes says the same about the status and centrality of the car in our lives as the position of the umaya does about the importance of the horse to the occupants of the magari-ya.