From Castle to Teahouse. John B. Kirby, Jr

that no towers were built with four floors. The reason for this exception is a superstition: in spoken Japanese the word for four (shi) is the same as the word for death.

      Chutelike openings called ishiotoshi—actually trap doors for dropping stones on the enemy—protected the corners of many of the main towers and other strategic points. Another defensive device consisted of long poles with pails at the ends for pouring boiling water on the attacking forces.

      The main towers of the larger castles were often surrounded by subsidiary towers called shotenshu. In some cases these lesser towers were connected to the main towers; in others, they were independent structures. Underground passages were sometimes constructed from the shotenshu to facilitate escape or the starting of counteroffensives.

      The nonmilitary structures within the castle compounds were usually in the shoin or the sukiya style of architecture.

      

2 The Shoin Mansion

      

THE shinden style employed for the mansions of court nobles in the Heian period (794—1185) was the first Japanese architectural expression in dwellings of major size. Residences in this style consisted of buildings connected by covered passages which surrounded a garden with a meandering brook. These houses were designed for luxurious living, and the brook was considered a necessity as an ideal place for composing poetry.

      It was no wonder that the court nobles, who spent their time in ceremony, in wearing handsome costumes, and in writing poetry, were to lose political power to the military class. As a consequence, in the 13th century a new style of architecture developed to meet the needs of the warrior class. The buke style of dwelling which housed the warriors was surrounded by walls with large gates; the galleries of the shinden style disappeared.

      Shoin architecture originated in the shinden style and embraced the buke form. The shoin style adopted many of its forms from the Zen sect of Buddhism. The chapel of a Zen monastery differed from that of other sects in that it was a place for living and study rather than for worship. It contained a desk or shoin and a recessed altar usually with a statue of Bodhidharma, the founder of the sect. Often a small window was located above the shoin to provide light. This room came to be called the shoin, and the use of its features gave the name to the new style of architecture: shoin-zukuri or shoin style. The altar of the Zen room became a recess in which pictures were hung, and the shoin simply became a platform with a window above it. The series of shelves built into the wall at one time served to store papers and books.

      13. Roof Types: Irimoya (left), Kirizuma (center), and Shichu (right).

      The shoin style was adopted by the samurai and nobles rather than by the commoners, who built simpler houses. The style developed during the Ashikaga period (1393—1573), reached its height in the Momoyama period, and degenerated at the beginning of the Tokugawa period (1615—1868). Early traces of the shoin style can be seen in the top floors of the Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku) of the Rokuon-ji, originally built in 1397, and the Silver Pavilion (Ginkaku) of the Jisho-ji, which dates from 1488. The former was almost totally destroyed in 1950 in a fire set by an obsessed student monk but has since been restored. The top floors of both buildings have bell-shaped windows, and the Silver Pavilion displays a shelf arrangement similar to that of the shoin.

      The plan of a shoin building was rectangular and called for three or more rooms completely surrounded by a corridor or porch. This porch could be open to the outside or enclosed by sliding doors or shutters. When there was more than one large shoin building, the structures were usually connected by covered corridors which joined the buildings at the corners so as not to sacrifice the light at the sides.

      The roofs of shoin buildings were constructed of tile or bark. Three types of roof shape were used: the gabled roof or kirizuma, the hipped ridge roof or shichu, and the hipped and gabled roof or irimoya. The gables were usually ornamented with carvings and metal decorations.

      The entrance to a shoin building was through a genkan or entrance porch of sufficient size for a person being carried in a palanquin to be brought under the shelter of the roof. This entrance porch was also the place where rough footwear for outdoor use was changed for soft slippers suitable for walking on the tatami mats and polished wooden floors.

      14. Entrance Porch (Genkan). The genkan was of sufficient size to permit palanquins to discharge their passengers under the shelter of the roof.

      Kangaku-in

      15. Tokonoma. This type of alcove with a raised base probably developed as a stationary wall on which to hang paintings.

      Konchi-in

      16. Arrangement of Shelves (Chigaidana). Shelves of differing height form the chigaidana, above which a cabinet with sliding doors is often placed.

      Emman-in

      17. Window-and-Shelf Alcove (Tsukeshoin). This type of alcove, from which shoin architecture derives its name, originated as a writing desk.

      Emman-in