Some notes on Heian architecture and its effects on everyday life

[rushthatspeaks]

I thought I'd add a couple of notes on architecture and palace layout. Sources and bibliography available on request, but be aware that I essentially majored in this sort of thing and therefore decided not to start reccing Japanese architecture books without anyone asking because I would be totally unable to stop

Comments

[jonquil]

Thank you so much. That's lovely.

They had sex in kimono and hakama,

I also read in either Dalby or Morris that they slept in worn-out kimonos, so a Heian bed was a swirl of beautiful fabrics.

[herchuckness]

This sort of thing (especially the structure and mutability of the interiors) is very interesting to me, I'm glad you posted it. You don't happen to have any illustrations to share, do you? There are a few in my copy of Genji, they're neat. I'm looking forward to your post on the gardens too.

and therefore decided not to start reccing Japanese architecture books without anyone asking

Rec away! Hopefully they're in English, my Japanese is unfortunately still very limited.

[telophase]

When the emperor processed, i.e. formally made a move from place to place as opposed to casual visits, visits to women etc., a small army of servants would precede him moving all the screens so that he would simply have a hallway in front of him in whichever direction he happened to be walking; if you lived along that line, you had to get out of the way, but you were generally given warning of the emperor processing well in advance.

I would love to see a scene like this in a movie - choreographed correctly, it could be quite wonderful. XD

I second the request for recs - after working in a school of architecture, it's become one of the things that fascinate me.

[kate_nepveu]

It really is a very arresting image, isn't it? I bet you could do it really well in anime, except it might not be clear at first that it was literal. =>

[telophase]

And I suspect all the rearranging was done well before the emperor stood up and walked, but if I were making the movie, I'd do it all with attendants scurrying around bent double, sliding screens away in front of him and replacing them in back, while he walked on, seemingly ignoring them.

[kate_nepveu]

Pre_cise_ly.

[rushthatspeaks]

According to my Japanese Architecture class notes, measurement of rooms by the number of tatami mats they could contain is the earliest form of standardized measurement used in building in Japan. The Kyoto palace certainly has tatami floor divisions-- in woven rice straw with wooden frames-- and is not supposed to have gone major structural renovation since the Heian era, though of course everything's been replaced with exact copies multiple times over the centuries as things like the rice straw wear out. I'll double-check to see what source I got the notes from, but I'm pretty sure tatami were that early, especially since they come into play in the architecture of tea-ceremony and moon-viewing houses.

[rushthatspeaks]

I dug into it a little more on JAAP (the Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System): we're both right. Tatami did not come in structurally, i.e. were not built into the floor, until after the Muromachi period, but it is the word used for the straw mats the nobility used in the Heian, which were mobile and carried around as part of the household furnishings-- and were of a standardized size, as according to my notes ('Japanese Architecture and Planning', Dr. Carola Hein, Bryn Mawr College spring 2000-- still can't find the damn book ref so am assuming these were lecture notes). She makes a lot out of this being the first system of standardization and the first step up from dirt floors and the fact that the measurements are slightly different in Kyoto from other regions because it was the capital.

Here's the JAAP link on tatami: JAAP.

[rachelmanija]

Wow, that is fascinating stuff. Thanks!