usuniwa　臼庭
KEY WORD :　architecture / folk dwellings
　
1　An alternative term for all or part of the earth-floored area, *doma 土間 or *niwa 庭, in farmhouses nouka 農家 of the Edo period. Called usuniwa, lit., 'mortar yard', because the mortar or handmill usu 臼 for pounding rice was often kept and used there. In farmhouses in Mie, Hiroshima and Shimane prefectures, usuniwa referred to the front half of the earth-floored area, which was used as an agricultural workspace. On Izu Miyakejima 伊豆三宅島, it is pronounced usunyaa うすにゃあ.

2　Pronounced usunawa うすなわ. An area with a low timber floor situated immediately to the rear of the stable *umaya 厩 at the lower end *shimote 下手 of traditional farmhouses of the Hida 飛騨 district, Gifu prefecture. Principally an agricultural working space, it sometimes had a hearth *irori 囲炉裏 set into the floor and might also function as a domestic cooking area. In the earliest surviving houses in this district, this area was the doma or *doza 土座. It was referred to as *itaniwa 板庭 when it had a floor.

3　The doma area in the kitchen building, where the cooking range *kamado 竃 was situated. Found in double-ridged *futamune 二棟 farmhouses with a separate kitchen building nakae 中え in parts of Kagoshima prefecture.
　

2)　a) *daidokoro 台所　b) usuniwa 臼庭

Old Taguchi 田口 house
Hida minzokumura・Hida no sato
飛騨民俗村・飛騨の里 (Gifu)

　
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