JAANUS / nando 納戸

nando　納戸

KEY WORD :　architecture / general terms

1　A store room in which clothes and valuables could be kept in the houses of the civil, ecclesiastical and military upper classes, in the latter part of the ancient period, and throughout the medieval and early modern periods, up to the beginning of the Meiji period. In the medieval period, it also functioned as a sleeping room for the master and mistress of the house. In larger residences, such as those of feudal lords daimyou 大名 in the Edo period, there were often two such rooms, the large nando, oonando 大納戸 and the small nando, konando 小納戸. The former was used for storing special items and the latter for items used regularly. Sometimes, as in the case of Edojou 江戸城 Omotegoten 表御殿 Oonando 大納戸, it might be a complete set of buildings. In smaller complexes it was often no more than a single room toward the rear of the main structure omoya 主屋, away from the public reception rooms. It was usually dark and enclosed, with few windows and entrances. Moreover, in order to protect its contents it was generally lockable. In cases where the nando was a single room within a larger structure, the entry often took the form of a doorway called nandogamae 納戸構え or *choudaigamae 帳台構え, with a raised threshold and single sliding door *katabikido 片引戸.

2　In vernacular houses *minka 民家 of the Edo period, a term for what was in many cases originally the sleeping room for the master and mistress of the house, though it was also used for the storage of clothes and valuables, particularly prior to the mid 18c, when few farmers had storehouses, and closets were still a rarity. Its location varied somewhat according to the house plan, but the most common position, especially in farmhouses with the entrance on the non-gabled side (see *hirairi 平入), was in the rear half of the house adjacent to the earth floored area *doma 土間. In other houses, at least one of the small rooms to the rear of the large living room *hiroma 広間 was usually a nando which once again functioned as a store or a sleeping room or both. Especially in the early Edo period, the room was typically small and dark, either completely closed to the outside or with perhaps a single small window. The entry to the nando often had a high threshold, a lockable sliding wooden door, itado 板戸 and a flanking wall *sodekabe 袖壁 (see *choudaigamae 帳台構え). The partitions defining it often contained important built-in fittings such as the shallow decorative alcove *oshi-ita 押板, and Buddhist altar *butsudan 仏壇, and the room also had its own tutelary deity, the nandogamae 納戸構え, who was particularly revered in western Japan. There was a tendency for the nando to become more open, especially from the late 18c on. The doors came to be replaced by conventional overlapping sliding doors, hikichigaido 引違い戸. In some cases this kind of nando was gradually turned into a kind of private living room *ima 居間 for master or wife, often renamed koza 小座. See also *nurigome 塗篭, *choudai 帳台.

3　In minka of the Edo period in Aomori prefecture, a freestanding ancillary structure used for the storage of clothes and utensils.

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