Traditional

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 t ...

uses post-and-lintel structures – vertical posts, connected by horizontal beams.

Rafter A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members such as wooden beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the wall plate, downslope perimeter or eave, and that are designed to support the roof shingles, roof deck and its associate ...

s are traditionally the only

structural member Structural elements are used in structural analysis to split a complex structure into simple elements. Within a structure, an element cannot be broken down (decomposed) into parts of different kinds (e.g., beam or column). Structural elements can b ...

used in Japanese timber framing that is neither horizontal nor vertical. The rest of the structure is non-load-bearing. While fixed walls are used, a variety of movable partitions are also used to fill the spaces between the pillars. They may be free-standing, hung from lintels, or, especially in later buildings, sliding panels which can readily be removed from their grooves. Their type, number, and position is adjusted according to the weather without and the activities within. They are used to modify the view, light, temperature, humidity, and ventilation, and to divide the interior space.Formal Audience Hall (Shoin)
Interview with Matthew Welch, Curator of Japanese and Korean Art The timbers are called , the space between them ; thus the items filling the are termed equipment.

Pictorial overview

File:Saikū Historical Museum - Display item04 - The palace of Saiô - Miniature model.jpg, Museum model of the

Saikū The , was a palace complex located in what is now the Takegawa neighborhood of the town of Meiwa, Tai District, Mie Prefecture, Japan. Forming a small village, it was established in the Nara period as the palace and public offices of the ''Saiō ...

, the

Saiō A , was an unmarried female member of the Japanese Imperial Family, sent to Ise to serve at Ise Grand Shrine from the late 7th century until the 14th century. The Saiō's residence, , was about 10 km north-west of the shrine. The remains of ...

's palace. An inner square room with plaster walls contains a sleeping canopy; a second inner room with wall-curtains contains folding screens; the far outer wall shows horizontally-hinged shutters, and near outer wall has blinds. screens stand in the near side of the outer corridor, and in the short sides of the same corridor. File:Saikū Historical Museum - Display item05 - The room of Saiô.jpg, A full-scale model of part of the same palace. The Saiō sits on a tatami dais, with a behind her, a to her left, and a boxlike to her right. Above and before her, a is rolled and tied up. Museum reconstruction of the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese ...

Shinden style ''Shinden-zukuri'' (寝殿造) refers to an architectural style created in the Heian period (794－1185) in Japan and used mainly for palaces and residences of nobles. In 894, Japan abolished the ''kentōshi'' (Japanese missions to Tang China ...

. File:Genji emaki Kashiwagi.JPG, An 1100s (late Heian period) illustration, showing a bound in green cloth (rolled, above), a grey with multicoloured streamers (half of it tied up behind the hung from the same lintel), three (two white with black streamers, and one orange with multicolour streamers), a (right), and (right rear, matching ). File:Sumiyoshi monogatari emaki, Tokyo, 2.jpg, Transition from Shinden style to

Shoin style is a style of Japanese residential architecture used in the mansions of the military, temple guest halls, and Zen abbot's quarters of the Muromachi (1336－1573), Azuchi–Momoyama (1568–1600) and Edo periods (1600–1868). It forms the basis ...

. Between the young man and the seated nun, sliding ; behind them, non-sliding . On the young man's side, shutters, horizontally split, the upper half held up by hooks; on the nun's side, diagonally-planked sliding . Behind the young man speaking with the maidservant, similar non-sliding panels. File:150425 Ishitani Residence Chizu Tottori pref Japan32s3.jpg, Sukiya style, early 20th century. , , , and plaster walls visible. The use large single glass panes, which would have been extremely expensive before

float glass Float glass is a sheet of glass made by floating molten glass on a bed of molten metal, typically tin, although lead and other various low-melting-point alloys were used in the past. This method gives the sheet uniform thickness and very flat sur ...

became available in the 1960s. File:Imperial Throne of Shishinden in Kyoto Imperial Palace.jpg, Throne on display in the

Kyoto Imperial Palace The is the former palace of the Emperor of Japan. Since the Meiji Restoration in 1869, the Emperors have resided at the Tokyo Imperial Palace, while the preservation of the Kyoto Imperial Palace was ordered in 1877. Today, the grounds are open t ...

; from outside inwards, blue-bound blinds, pillar slots for shutters (currently removed), white (wall-curtains) caught up with red-and-black ties, and (canopy and dais, in red and purple). Older styles often persist in rare ceremonial use.

By type

Hanging

Free-standing

Sliding ()

Fixed (walls)

Notes

References

{{reflist Japanese architectural features Partitions in traditional Japanese architecture