After a long detour into framing and other structural aspects of minka, I would like to return to the subject of minka planning and layouts, but this time in more detail, with a focus on the development of minka from primitive single-space dwellings into the sophisticated and complex plan forms that had emerged by the 19th century, each with its own regional subtypes.
‘Single-space dwelling’ refers here to a dwelling whose interior consists of a single undifferentiated space; it may be either entirely raised-floor or entirely earthen-floored. These dwellings are to be distinguished from dwellings that contain both a raised-floor area (room) and an attached earthen-floored doma utility area, which we will call ‘single-room dwellings’, to be covered in later posts.
It is thought that the earliest Japanese dwellings, whether raised or earthen floored, were all single-space dwellings, without fixed internal walls. But even if a dwelling’s interior is spatially unified, there is naturally an order to the way the space is occupied and used: livestock and agricultural implements are kept near the entrance, the innermost recesses are spread with straw and used as sleeping places, and so on. The solidification of these relatively fluid modes of living eventually led to the appearance of interior partitions, which over centuries of development brought us to the partitioning of space seen today.
A good example of fairly large-scale single-space dwellings that survived in Japan until relatively recently are the chise* (チセ) of the Ainu people of Hokkaidо̄.
An old photograph of a chise.
In the chise, each interior corner and other areas are functionally and nominally distinguished, just as the rooms of a modern house are. The corners spaces of the chise are: the south-west harukisoshikeu (ハルキソシケウ), the south-east sо̄keshi (ソーケシ), the north-east sо̄pa (ソーパ), and the north-west shisoshikeu (シソシケウ). Each of these areas was used for a different purpose.
The harukisoshikeu, the south-west corner of the chise interior near the entrance, is the ‘kitchen’ area, or in Japanese daidokoro (台所). The area immediately east of the harukisoshikeu, adjacent to the central section of the south wall, is the sleeping area (shinjo 寝所) for family members other than the husband and wife.
The south-east corner, the sо̄keshi, was normally kept vacant, as it was the sleeping area for staying guests.
The east wall was a sacred area, used for religious ceremonies and observances, and contains a window called kamuy-buyara (カムイブヤラ) or rorun-buyara (ロルンブヤラ), in Japanese kami-mado (神窓, lit. ‘spirit window’). The Ainu word for spirit is kamuy (カムイ), which may be the etymological origin of the Japanese kami, but the two terms differ somewhat in sense. The kamuy-buyara was used for passing offerings through; looking through it was not permitted.
The north-east corner, the sо̄pa, corresponds to the ki-mon (鬼門, lit. ‘demon gate’) direction in Onmyōdō (陰陽道), the Japanese esoteric cosmology based on Chinese Wuxing (the five elements or agents) and Yin Yang. In these systems, ki-mon (north-east) is a negative and unfavourable direction by which demons and ghosts are believed to enter and exit. Perhaps partly as a defense against these evil spirits, the walls of the sо̄pa are lined with religious objects, and it is not used as a living or sleeping area.
The central north section of the chise is the sleeping place of the husband, and the area adjacent to the north wall is where his belongings are kept. Likewise, the north-west corner or shisoshikeu is where the wife sleeps and keeps her belongings. The space between the husband and wife’s storage areas was used to hang the traditional Ainu atsushi (アツシ), the robes made with the inner bark of the elm tree.
Floor plan of a chise. Labelled are:
The ante-room (semu セム) with its entrance (semapa セマパ)
The inner entry area (ape アぺ), fire area (apeoi アぺオイ), and around it the husband and wife’s area (shiso シソ) , guest area (rorunso ロルンソ) , family area (harukiso ハルキソ) , and lower sitting position (usara ウサラ, perhaps for casual ‘dropover’ visitors or those of lower status)
The south-west corner (harukisoshikeu ハルキソシケウ) with kitchen (daidokoro 台所) area and kitchen window (pon-buyara ポンブヤラ)
The family sleeping area (kazoku no shinjo 家族の寝所)
The south-east corner (sо̄keshi ソーケシ), the guest area, and guest window (itsumun-buyara イツムンブヤラ)
The ‘spirit window’ (kami-mado 神窓 or kamuy-buyara カムイブヤラ)
The north-east corner (sо̄pa ソーパ) with religious or ceremonial items (saigu 祭具)
Sleeping area (shinjo 寝所) for the husband (shujin 主人) and storage area for his items (dо̄gu 道具)
Sleeping area (shinjo 寝所) for the wife (shufu 主婦) and storage area for her items (dо̄gu 道具)
Area for hanging clothes (irui-kake 衣類掛け)
Floor plan of a chise by Isabella Bird, 1878
Reconstructed chise in a museum with the south wall removed to reveal the interior.
Interior of an Ainu chise looking from the harukiso (the south-west position at the fire pit) to the sо̄pa (north-east corner) with its array of religious or ceremonial items. The walls are lined with toma (トマ) mats woven from kina (キナ) (bullrush or cattail, in Japanese kama or kaba 蒲). The wall beams (keta 桁) are hung with woven ropes known as chisesamupe (チセサムぺ). In the foreground, standing in the corner of the fire pit, is an inunpesaoshipe (イヌンペサオシぺ), an artificial ‘flower’ made from wood shavings (in Japanese kezuri-bana 削り花, lit. ‘shaved flower’) analogous to the zig-zag paper nusa (幣) used in Japanese Shintо̄ ceremonies.
Interior of a chise showing fire pit with chisesamupe (チセサムぺ) and inunpesaoshipe (イヌンペサオシぺ), and toma (トマ) mats lining the walls.
Chise were usually constructed on an east-west long axis, facing south, and were typically four bays long and three bays wide. Buildings larger than this were called porochise (ポロチセ), and smaller ones ponchise (ポンチセ). An ‘ante-room’ called the semu (セム) projected out from the west side of the main structure; the entrance to the dwelling was in the south wall of the semu. In early chise there was no semu; instead, entry was directly into the main dwelling from the west, through an entrance known as the ape (アぺ), an arrangement that would have been less than ideal in the cold winters of the north. In addition to serving as an effective windbreak and snowbreak, the semu was also used for the storage of agricultural tools, the preparation and storage of food, the storage of food preparation items such as mortars and pestles, and as a place for work on rainy days.
Modern reconstruction of a chise. This is the south facade, showing the entry opening in the semu and two small windows in the southern wall.
The ‘living’ floor of the chise consists of woven rush mats (goza, 茣蓙) spread on planks and joists, specifically korobashi-neda (転ばし根太, lit. ‘fallen joists’), which are joists placed directly on the ground without stumps. Older chise interiors were entirely ‘ground living’ (doza-sumai 土座住まい) dwellings, without joist floors, though mats or straw would have been spread directly on the ground in most of the interior.
As the fireplace was relatively centrally located in the chise, it can be surmised that a hypothetical partitioning of the space would result in the Japanese minka plan-form known as hiroma-gata (広間型).
* Note that all Ainu words here are transliterations from the Japanese katakana renderings, which are not perfectly faithful to the native Ainu pronunciation.