jouya　上屋

KEY WORD :　architecture / folk dwellings

Lit. upper house. Principal part of farmhouse structure. The central portion of the cross-section of the structural frame in traditional vernacular houses *minka 民家. The term is applied to houses with thatched roofs and either diagonal braces and struts *sasu 叉首 or rafters *taruki 垂木. Jouya is usually defined as the area beneath the principal mainspan beams *jouyabari 上屋梁, the ends of which are supported by the feet of the diagonal braces or the rafters. The term distinguishes the high central part of the structure from the lower peripheral zone *geya 下屋 or *irikawa 入側, which is formed when the roof is carried down beyond the limits of the jouya to an outer row of short posts *geyabashira 下屋柱 or *kawabashira 側柱. In the cross-section of the most archetypal structural frames, such as that of Hirose 広瀬 House, a 17c farmhouse in Yamanashi prefecture, posts called *jouyabashira 上屋柱 stand immediately below each end of the jouyabari, providing direct support. In such cases the arrangement of joua and geya is conceptually similar to the core *moya 母屋 and periphery *hisashi 廂 construction of Japanese temple and upper-class residential structures. In more complex frames, like that of Kitamura 北村 House (1687) a farmhouse in Kanagawa prefecture, the jouyabari may project beyond the line of posts, its ends either cantilevered, or supported by struts *tsuka 束, erected on a tall lintel sashimono 差物 or on short connecting beams *tsunagibari 繋梁, spanning from the geyabashira to the first row of full height posts. The latter arrangement can render the precise boundary of the jouya ambiguous. Some forms of minka construction consist only of the jouya, particularly in Kyushuu 九州.

REFERENCES:

*dokuritsubashira 独立柱

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