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.

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.