honnikai　本二階

KEY WORD :　architecture / folk dwellings

Lit. true second floor. A full-height upper floor, complete with living, and reception rooms *zashiki 座敷, in a vernacular house *minka 民家. The honnikai first appeared as a feature of town houses *machiya 町家; well apｐointed upper-floor rooms seem to have been common in the larger town houses in Kyoto in the early Edo period. Thereafter they suffered an eclipse, but reemerged in the later Edo period, often at the rear of the house overlooking the garden. By the 18c, a honnikai at the front was particularly associated with the pleasure quarters, like Kyoto's Shimabara 島原 where a surviving example is Sumiya 角屋.

REFERENCES:

*zushi 辻子, *tsushi nikai 厨子二階

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。