The Japanese House

__________________________________________________________________________ ILLUSTRATIONS

1) Some typical Japanese farmhouses (acc. to Minzokugaku jiten)

2) Illustrations of ancient types of houses and granaries based on archaeological documents (acc. to It 1977)

3) Perspective view of a farmhouse in Niike (Okayama Pref; acc. to Beardsley 1959). The house only differs in its dimensions from similar urban houses; with regard to its construction it is not much different either. Here too the clear division into a lower "earth-room" (doma) and a higher dwelling part is evident.

4a) Schematic representation of the development of spatial division of the Japanese farmhouse (acc. to Eder 1963). It begins with a two-part basic type with entrance on the side of eaves or gable. One type develops by enlargement, the other by greater depth. All further developments are variants of these basic types (genkei).

4b) Slightly different interpretation of the development of spatial division of the Japanese farmhouse from an original one-roomed "primitive type" (1) (genshikei) to the bipartite basic type (2) [note here that the "primitive" one-roomed Ainu-house is ideologically bipartite! See Egenter 1989e]. On the left side the development to the three-roomed type (sanmakata) and the four-square type (tanojigata) and its variation with interlocked rooms (kuichigaugata) is shown: the kitchen has been placed behind the hearth-room (dei) and a sacred pillar (daikokubashira) is found in this type between earthen part and higher oor of the dwelling part. On the right side the hearth-room (dei) dominates the upper part of this large-room type (3) (hiromagata). All these types have their entrance on the eaves-side. The type presented with the number (4) at right has all upper dwelling-rooms lined up in one row (heiretsukei) and the entrance is gable-sided. Note that the basic bipartition remains essentially the same through all different types.

4c) Another interpretation from basically bipartitioned type (A) to variations of the three room type (B1-3) to variations of four and more rooms (C1-3) to the four squared type D and the type with six rooms (E). The numbers give the designation (function) of the rooms: 1 earth-room (doma), 2 livingroom (ima), 3 kitchen (daidokoro), 4 sleeping room (nema), 5 ceremonial room (zashiki). The doma is assumed to remain practically the same; the development takes place in the upper part. The kitchen, originally undifferentiated, nds its denite place and the ceremonial part tends to become more and more important (acc. to It 1969).

5a) Map of Japan with 13 types of farmhouse plans (Minzoku jiten). All types show a bipartition into lower earth-room (doma or niwa) and upper dwelling part with partitioned rooms (some with open living room (oe).

5b) Four Japanese housetypes in perspective view with main characteristics: all show lower earth-room (doma) and upper dwelling part (acc. to Beardsley 1986)

6) View from earth-room (doma) towards the upper part built on piles of an old house in Hyogo prefecture. On the left one can see into the "ceremonial room" (zashiki), on the right into the living room (ima) and, at the rear, into the sleeping room (shinshitsu) (acc. to Yoshida 1971).

7) The ancient type of doma is not closed off from the roof as in the case of the upper dwelling part. There is an unhindered view of the roofconstruction, which is supported by heavy and naturally bent wooden beams. Usually these irrationally crooked beams are interpreted as stabilisation against the impacts of earthquakes, but they are certainly also an expression of ancient formal concepts, of an archetypal design, which works with polar contrasts (acc. to Yoshida 1971).

8) Plan of the main shrine of the ancient Sumiyoshi-shrine of Osaka. The internal space is bipartitioned. A thin wall secludes and unites an inner sacred part and an outer access room in polar relation. (acc. to It 1977)

9) Synopsis of several types of the most ancient shrines of Japan. The styles are as follows on the right: 1. Taisha-, 2. Shinmei- and 3. Sumiyoshistyles; on the left: 4. Kasuga-, 5. Nagare-, 6. Hachiman- and 7. Hiyoshi-styles. 1, 3, 6, and 7 show polar bipartition of the enclosed sacred space: an "interior" (rear) and exterior (front) part can be clearly distinguished. In all these cases the sacred room is a closed construction on stilts with planked upper oor showing just one frontal opening on the side of the eaves or gable. 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 all are provided with verandas surrounding the building (4 only has one on the front). All types show stairs connecting the ritual ground in front with the sacred door of the shrine, and all (except 2 and 3) show either unsupported extensions of the front roof or special accessory roofs which cover (and emphasise) the openness at the access space. They relate to the polar >place-access< concept of the whole arrangement (acc. to Ent 1974).

10) Tokonoma in the tea-room "taishido", early 19th century, Keieiji, Nagoya. The oor of the tokonoma is slightly elevated. The frame is of natural, unplaned wood. The front pole is usually uneven: contrast of a puritan geometry! (acc. to Yoshida 1935)

11) The feudal period in Japan has tightened and politically integrated into the feudal palaces the cultic hierarchies of space that characterise the Japanese house. The illustration shows a higher-class farmer-samurai seated in his best room in the place of honour before the cultic niche (tokonoma). Near him are seated visitors of the same rank. The room in front is one step lower. The next lower rank will sit on the veranda. Visitors of these three ranks are allowed to use the main door of the house. Servants have to enter through the garden-door and to offer their services kneeling on the ground in front of the veranda. The most respected of them is allowed to kneel on a mat (acc. to Eder 1963).

12) Schematic representation of of a simplied basic type of Japanese farm-house with cultplaces and cult-markers (Rendering of the author) Legend: X a b c d e f g h i k l m n o p q horizontal and vertical thresholds between sacred and profane sacred space of the roof cultic decoration of the cult-pillar "board of the gods" (kamidana) with cultic rope shrines with cultic decoration buddhistic altar open fireplace with hierarchy of seats cult pillar with cultic decorations and board for offerings sacred upper part of the basic plan working room and kitchen hearth cult places of the hearth god entrance of the house with cult-rope New Year's decoration of the entrance gate with cult rope cultic marker of the "deitiy of the courtyard" (yashiki gami) cultic delimitation made of four bamboo stalks and cultic rope Shinto altar with cult objects and sacrificial offerings

13) At the place where water ows into the house a New Year's altar is erected for the >water-deity< (mizugami). A rice mortar (uzu) is reversed and on its top rice cakes are offered (acc. to Ogawa 1954).

14) Farmhouse of the type whith a big living room (oie, oe, chanoma) around the open hearth (irori) which is sunk into the planked oor. On the right the large working space on the ground (doma) with kitchen and cooking-hearth (kama) and at the right the horse-stable. Standing between doma and upper living room is the cult pillar for Daikoku and Ebisu (daikokubashira). In the rear corner the buddhistic altar (butsudan). On the "board for the gods" (kamidana) various Shinto cult places marked by small shrines (yashiro) and designated with the corresponding cult-system are shown (acc. to Eder 1963)

15) Every year in a village close to the town of Okayama (Okayama Prefecture) two halves of the village each choose a child by drawing lots. In its district each child will become the "main person" (tojin) of the annual festival of the communal village deity (ujigami). The two chosen children are considered to be holy and will be served by their parents in the ceremonial room. At the end of the rites and ceremonies, which last 3 weeks, a cultic "original hut" (o- hake) is erected temporarily in the front garden of each of these two houses. Presided over by the holy children, sacricial ceremonies take place in front of these huts. At the end the cultic huts are taken down and rebuilt behind the corresponding farm houses, where they are left to decay.

16) At the great New Year's festival (geta matsuri) on the small "island of the gods" (Kamishima), a large ring is made of branches and wrapped in white paper to become the sacred seat (yorishiro) of the deity of the New Year. On the morning of New Year's day this ring represents the rising sun. For the big festival banquet at night, for which the whole village assembles in the same house (toya), the holy object is set up in front of the tokonoma. Like a king the eldest man of the house presides over the banquet supported by the sanctity of the holy ring and the sacred place: the house becomes a temporary palace.

17) Town festival of the Omihachiman-shrine of Mino (Gifu Prefecture). Over 40 mobile shrines are decorated as "ower- palanquins" (hana-mikoshi); these are carried to the central shrine of the town by ecstatic processions of young men from several districts. With the exible bamboo-strip

construction bursting out of the roof of the mobile shrine, ancient prebuddhistic archetypes nd temporary expression. The huge umbrella decorated with red paper unites those who are carrying their god (acc. to gurafusha).

18) Here the ritual demarcation is shown with considerable dimensions. The two thinner columns imply the gate, the large one represents the house. At the end of the festival all markers are ritually burnt (Wakayama prefecture)

19) Before the spring sowing the eld god (ta no kami) is taken from the wooded hills behind the village and brought into the house where he is set up in the cult niche (tokonoma) and offered a small banquet. Then he is brought to a particular place in the elds where he will guard the rice seedlings during the warm period of the year. In autumn the same procedure is celebrated in reverse sequence (acc. to Gurafusha 1970, Kagoshima pref.)

20) Within the house the sacred place on the "board for the gods" (kamidana) is decorated with holy cult signs (shgatsusama), or, in other words, the place is marked (acc. to Haga 1959)

21) Doormarkers are usually interpreted as decorations of the entrance gate for the New Year (kadomatsu). But the primitive techniques by which they are prepared shows clearly that we are dealing with a type of custom which is much older than that which produced the structure of the highly developed wooden house.

22) New Year's door-markers (kadomatsu) from various regions of Japan (acc. to Yanagita 1951)

23) Primitive altar for the returning souls on the occasion of the festival of dead souls (O-bon).

24) The Japanese garden as an art form using natural materials and as an object of meditation: the daily and seasonal impacts of Nature on its formal elements allow the people dwelling at this place to realise their humble position within the cosmos (acc. to Yoshida 1935)

25) Access-place-scheme: The picture shows a small shrine in the woods (Saigy-Monogatari-Emaki, 13th Century). The shrine marks a place within nature, the torii the access path leading to it (acc. to Kageyama 1973)

26) Access-place scheme: Hypothetical reconstruction of the inner Ise-shrine precincts (daijing miyain) as it is supposed to have been in ancient times (acc. to Fukuyama). In former times the symmetry would have been more dominant than today, with ve gates along the access path leading to the main shrine (shden) (acc. to It 1977)

27) Access-place scheme: section of the Kasuga shrine Mandala. At the lowest part and in the centre a gate is set up (torii). In the higher regions of the picture the shrine complex of Kasuga shrine is found at the foot of the Kasuga mountain of Nara. Here too a particular topographical region is marked. Access and place form a polar unit (acc. to Kageyama 1973).