Miegakure Linking Qualitatively Similar Garden Areas
The act of stepping down from the veranda and walking in the garden begins with the roji. The roji in its early form consisted merely of a walkway leading to …
Kinetic, Multifaceted Gardens and Miegakure
M iegakure (“hide-and-reveal”) refers to a number of techniques used to configure garden scenes in sequence as visitors walk through a garden. The term was first used in regard to …
The Threshold of the Garden As Architecture
The shinden-zukuri main hall was composed of the building core, or moya, surrounded by outer aisles, or hisashi. The spans between the pillars of the hisashi were fitted with shitomido …
Shoin-Zukuri Gardens and Kano-School Wall Paintings
Of the garden’s six basic compositional elements, the white sand area, which had played a primary role in the Zen temple south garden, was relegated to a secondary role on …
Decorative Arrangement of the Shoin — Zukuri Jodan Zashiki
With the rise in importance placed on class rank in feudal warrior society, the main hall, which was used for formal audiences, was subdivided along the east-west axis in the …
Hare and the South Garden
The simplification of the formal south garden began in the twelfth century with the cessation of imperial ceremonies and the concomitant loss of the shinderis original function. The genesis of …
Ke and the North Garden
In the late Heian period, the most significant change to occur in shinden-zukuri architecture was the division of the interior of the shinden, directly under the roof ridge, into north …
From Abbreviation to Abstraction
As was noted earlier, Higashisanjo Palace was based on a bilaterally symmetrical formula but acquired an asymmetrical layout to conform to its two-cho site. Small and medium-sized residences, with their …
Shinden-Zukuri As Prototype, and Two Divergent Interpretations
T he next wave of continental cultural influence, following the importation of Tang culture in the Nara and early Heian periods, was that of the Song dynasty (960-1279) during Japan’s …
The Garden As Architecture
Shinden-zukuri buildings were single-room residences in which living space was defined with furnishings. There were no distinct rooms, and the relationship between people and furniture was fluid. The architectural interior …
Garden Design Solutions That Address Spatial Constraints
Japanese gardens do not exist as independent entities. Until the Edo period, they were generally designed to be viewed from a seated position in the building interior, and so were …
The Design Process: Stylized Forms (Yo) and Modeling After (МапаЫ)
The term “yd” appears repeatedly throughout the text of Sakuteiki, referring to stylized forms in which each of the six compositional elements can be rendered to express “the natural landscape.” …
The Six Basic Elements of Garden Composition
The prototype of garden design is described in the opening paragraphs of Sakuteiki, while the remainder of the text presents the Japanese garden’s six basic compositional elements—the artificial hills, the …
Prototypes and Interpretations in Shinden — Zukuri Gardens
Shinden-zukuri gardens, which were integrally linked to the structure and composition of the corresponding architecture, developed with as much variety as did palatial buildings in the same style. Like palace …
Architectural Design Solutions That Address Spatial Constraints
Given the limited space available on the east-west axis of a one-chd site, it was probably not possible to execute the formal arrangement on the north-south axis either. Two different …
The Abandonment of Symmetry
Higashisanjo Palace, for generations home to the powerful aristocratic Fujiwara family, was a representative piece of Heian-period residential architecture. Yet even this classic palace lacked many of the requisite components …
Shinden-Zukuri Architecture: Symmetrical Prototype, Simplified Interpretations
“As a rule, a one-cho site contains east and west tai and east and west chUmon.” According to this excerpt from ChUyUki, the diary of Heian-period courtier Fujiwara no Munetada …
. City Plan Prototype and Interpretation: Changan and Heian-kyo
The two Japanese cities that were built in a space and climate vastly different from China’s, at approximately “one - quarter the scale of Changan, should probably be called scale-reduction …
Early Prototypes and Interpretive Approaches
M ount Miwa in Yamato (present-day Nara Prefecture) is a sacred mountain, thought to be manifested spirit according to the indigenous animistic religious beliefs of Shinto. Pre-Nara-period Shinto (pre-645) focused …
THE GARDEN. AS ARCHITECTURE
I have been studying traditional Japanese dwellings (minka) since 1962, particularly in the Kansai, Chubu, and Tohoku regions, and have continued to follow the transformations in these homes with great …
