|
||||||
kamite 上手 | ||||||
KEY WORD : architecture / general terms | ||||||
Lit.
upper hand. Upper end or high end. The position or seat of higher rank,
or the superior position in a hierarchy. In traditional Japanese theater,
kamite is the equivalent of stage left (though it should be noted
that since the Japanese, unlike Westerners, specified stage positions from
the point of view of the audience, they would say it was on the right).
In the context of an architectural layout, the kamite is the most
exalted space in a suite of connected spaces, and usually the space most
remote from the entrance. Thus, in a *shoin
書院 style reception hall, the ultimate kamite space, with the raised-floor
room *joudan 上段, decorative
alcove *tokonoma
床の間 and associated features is the final room of the suite, furthest from
the entrance hall *genkan
玄関. In traditional vernacular houses *minka
民家 of the Edo period, kamite are rooms used on highly formal occasions
at the end of the house furthest removed from the earth-floored area *doma
土間. Houses with the kamite at the left hand end of the building,
as one faces it, are the most numerous. One space is often described as being kamite (in a hierarchically
superior position) with respect to another, and this is used as a convenient
way of describing the relative positions of rooms within a building or buildings
within a complex. The complementary opposite of kamite is *shimote
下手 (lower hand). In minka the progression from i to kamite
usually runs parallel to the ridge of the roof, except in the rare cases
in which earth-floored and raised-floor living rooms divide along a line
parallel to the ridge, as in the gable entry *tsumairi
妻入 nosegata 能勢型 houses of Osaka and Kyoto regions. |
||||||
REFERENCES: | ||||||
EXTERNAL LINKS: | ||||||
NOTES: | ||||||
(C)2001 Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System. No reproduction or republication without written permission. 掲載のテキスト・写真・イラストなど、全てのコンテンツの無断複製・転載を禁じます。 |
||||||