Architecture in Japan

Architecture in
Japan
NATIVE JAPANESE ARHITECTURE
NATIVE JAPANESE ARHITECTURE

One of the most primitive and holy of the Shinto designs,
the Izumo shrine shares with the Yayoi house model the
beetling gables, gable-end entrance (contrasting with the
Chinese main facade entry) and the peculiar round
timbers balanced on the ridge. The crossing and
projection of the gable rafters is a feature no less
primitive, consecrated in the design. The shrines as they
exist today are poems of carpentry. The subsequent
solution of Shinto temple design combined these initial
forms with style adopted from the Chinese.
Izumo Shrine
Jomon
Period
Reconstruction
of
Jomon dwelling (c.
4000 BC): The roof
rest on the ground;
the fire is on the long
side.
Yayoi Period
Yayoi dwelling; the
roof is over a wattle
screen wall
surrounded by a
damp- excluding
ditch.
Yayoi dwellings: (left) post with footboard, on top a board wall; (right) buildings on a
3rd or 4th century mirror; storehouse, priests house, farmhouse, rulers house.
The Shinto Shrine of Kamiji-Yama in Ise
Light is introduced principally through doorways. A system of

cornice - bracketing in both simple and complex forms is a very
characteristic feature of Japanese buildings.
Standardized arrangements of this bracketing constitute
various orders. Immediately above the pillars or columns is a
highly decorated frieze, and above this, the bracketing consists
of a series of projecting wooden corbels supporting horizontal
members and rafters with decorated faces, thus allowing the
roof to overhang the wall, often by as much as 2.4 meters (8
ft.).
The disposition of columns, posts, brackets, and rafters forming
the cornice is in accordance with well-recognized modules of
measurement, while intercolumniation is governed by the Ken.
Buildings are stilled upon stone piles to a height which would
ensure timber being above ground water during the rainy
*camber- slight rise or upward curve of an otherwise

horizontal structure.
*entasis- a swelling or curving outwards along the outline of a
column shaft designed to counteract the optical illusion which
give a shaft bounded by street lines the appearance of curving
inside.
Owing the great the great projection of roofs over exterior
walls, there is little direct natural light and the greater part of
the light which reaches interiors is reflected from the ground.
Window-openings are filled with timber trellis and provided
with wooden shutters externally and paper-usually rice paperin light sahes, internally, in all cases, exterior walling is
extremely thin; columns receive the main load from the roof
and wall panels are entirely non-structural.
The undersides of beams are frequently cambered to avoid any

impression of sagging, while piers and columns are given a
refined entasis and frequently an inward inclination to mitigate
the effects of earthquake shocks.
Carved and coloured panels formed in enclosure walls, in
projecting eaves to roofs, and in the ramma or pierced
ventilators below cornices are characteristic.
In friezes, panels in high relief occur, representing cloud forms
and objects of natural body. The chrysanthemum, the stork and
pine trees being typical subjects for motifs.
Ornamental brass caps, usually gilded for preservation, and
frequently fixed to the end of projecting timbers and over
connections in wood to hide open joints which may occur
through shrinkage.
Embossed gilded metal work is also freely applied to

gables and pendants. Colour decoration, is applied to both
exteriors and interiors of Japanese temples. Beams,
brackets and carving are picked out in gilding and bright
colours blue, green, purple, madder and vermillion
paintings depcit animal forms, insects, birds, flowers.
Supporting pillars are usually black, red or gold.
Lacquering is extensively employed, and is applied with
consummate skill.
Subjects for decoration are birds, tree attended by
idealistic mountain, cloud and water forms. The Japanese
are noted for their meticulous treatment of detail.

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Architecture in

NATIVE JAPANESE ARHITECTURE

The Shinto Shrine of Kamiji-Yama in Ise

Light is introduced principally through doorways. A system of

*camber- slight rise or upward curve of an otherwise

The undersides of beams are frequently cambered to avoid any

Embossed gilded metal work is also freely applied to

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