kawaramaki　瓦巻

KEY WORD :　architecture / roofing tiles

Lit. roof tiles that wrap around. Roof tiles used to cover the ridge of a farmhouse with a thatched roof, or a merchant's establishment. Semi-circular tiles are wrapped around the thatch piled on the ridge. In the eastern part of the Kantou 関東 plain, dwellings with tiles carefully piled to cover and crown the ridge of a thatched roof, merchant's dwelling are common. One example is the Watanabe house (late 19c). In this area, the stacked ridge tiles are called *kanmurigawara 冠瓦 or *ganburigawara 雁振瓦. In Saga prefecture, on the Saga plain, ridge tiles on a thatched roof are called kamegawara 亀瓦 (turtle tiles) or kamegawara 甕瓦 (jug tiles). The thatch on the roofs of these houses is rather rough. There is a special layer of short cut straw covering the ridge. This is tied down. On top, large, semi-cylindrical tiles are overlapped, starting from the end tile. They are held in place by bamboo dowels with protruding ends. Example: the Yamaguchi house, constructed in the latter half of the 19c. In Kagawa prefecture, on the Sanuki 讃岐 plain, the Obika 小比賀 house (17c) has a very precise row of semi-cylindrical tiles along the ridge of a neatly thatched roof. They are called gappuri がっぷり. This method is called shihoubuta-zukuri 四方蓋造.

REFERENCES:

*fusumagawara 伏間瓦, *noshigawara 熨斗瓦

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NOTES:

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