Japanese architecture has been typified by wooden structures, elevated slightly off the ground, with tiled or thatched roofs. Sliding doors ('' fusuma'') and other traditional partitions were used in place of walls, allowing the internal configuration of a space ...

the term has two meanings: # As more commonly used, the term indicates the

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural sty ...

of a roof, that is, the part along the edge of a roof projecting beyond the side of the building to provide protection against the weather. # The term is however also used in a more specialized sense to indicate the area surrounding the '' moya'' (the core of a building) either completely or on one, two, or three sides.Iwanami Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version It is common in ''Zen'' Buddhist temples where it is a 1 '' ken'' wide aisle-like area and at the same level as the ''moya''.

Pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist, but some ...

s called ''tahōtō'' also have a ''hisashi''. Open corridors or verandas under extended or additional roofs are also sometimes referred to as ''hisashi''. In temples constructed in the hip-and-gable style (''

irimoya-zukuri The East Asian hip-and-gable roof (''Xiēshān'' (歇山) in Chinese, ''Paljakjibung'' (팔작지붕) in Korean and ''Irimoya'' (入母屋) in Japanese) also known as 'resting hill roof', consists of a hip roof that slopes down on all four side ...

''), the gabled part usually covers the '' moya'' while the hipped part covers the ''hisashi''. The ''hisashi'' can be under the same roof as the ''moya'', and be therefore invisible from the outside, or protrude and have a pent roof of its own as for example in the case of many

Zen Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...

main halls (''butsuden''). The main purpose of the ''hisashi'' is reinforcing the building's structure against side motion. Japanese traditional architecture was based on the

post and lintel Post and lintel (also called prop and lintel, a trabeated system, or a trilithic system) is a building system where strong horizontal elements are held up by strong vertical elements with large spaces between them. This is usually used to hold ...

system, which is intrinsically not very strong. To strengthen it, therefore, an extra row of pillars and relative lintels are added, supporting the ''moya's'' walls. The ''hisashi'' can be present on just one or all four walls, and is counted with the suffix . A building can for example be said to be a 3 x 3 ''ken'', 4 ''men'' ''butsuden'' if it is surrounded by a ''hisashi'' on all sides.

A ''butsuden's'' floor plan

What follows the floor plan of a typical Zen main ''butsuden'' such as the one in the photo above at

Enkaku-ji , or Engaku-ji (円覚寺), is one of the most important Zen Buddhism, Zen Buddhist temple complexes in Japan and is ranked second among Kamakura's Five Mountain System, Five Mountains. It is situated in the List of cities in Japan, city of Kamak ...

Kamakura , officially , is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per km2 over the tota ...

. The core of the building (''moya'') is 3 x 3 ken and is surrounded on four sides by a 1-ken wide ''hisashi'', bringing the external dimensions of the edifice to a total of 5 x 5 ken. Because the ''hisashi'' is covered by a pent roof of its own, the ''butsuden'' seems to have two stories, but in fact has only one. This decorative pent roof which does not correspond to an internal vertical division is called , literally "skirt story" or "cuff story". The same structure can be found in a ''tahōtō'' with the same effect: the structure seems to have a second story, but in fact it does not.

References

{{Buddhist temples in Japan Architecture in Japan ja:庇