hiromagata　広間型

KEY WORD :　architecture / folk dwellings

The name given to a room plan common in vernacular houses *minka 民家, particularly farmhouses nouka 農家, during the Edo period. The plan is characterized by a large central multipurpose living room *hiroma 広間, occupying the entire cross section of the building. The hiroma occupies the center of the plan, abutting the earth-floored area, *doma 土間　at the lower end of the house *shimote 下手, on one side, and a raised floor living room at the upper end of the house *kamite 上手, on the other. The number of rooms at the upper end beyond the hiroma varies: most commonly there are two, but sometimes there are three or four rooms. The hiroma＋two variant is known as the three-room hiroma type, hiromagata mimadori (or sanmadori) 広間型三間取り, the other two rooms being a formal reception room, often called *dei 出居, at the front of the house and an enclosed sleeping room or storeroom or backroom *nando 納戸, to the rear. Until the 1950s it was thought that the farmhouse type with a regular four-room, tanojigata 田の字型, plan represented the archetypal minka layout, but postwar research revealed that the hiromagata mimadori preceded it in many areas, and that many hiromagata houses were later converted to the four room plan by partitioning the hiroma into two rooms. Although there are regional variations, the hiromagata mimadori plan is now recognized as one of the most widely distributed of surviving minka layouts. In the Edo period, especially from the late 17c - early 18c, it was the house type of relatively prosperous middle ranking farmers and village headmen, shouya 庄屋 or nanushi 名主, especially in the Kantou 関東, parts of Touhoku 東北, Chubu 中部 and Western Honshuu 本州. It was less common in Kyuushuu 九州 and Shikoku 四国, and very rare in the Kinki 近畿 district. At one time the nakanema mimadori 中ねま三間取り houses of Shikoku were regarded as a subtype of hiromagata, but it is now considered more appropriate to regard them as a separate category.

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