The Art of Japanese Architecture. David Young
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building is the use of thick posts to support the roof at both ends, in the fashion of a shrine. Parts of the seventeen posts used in the building are still in the ground. Using modern dating methods, it has been determined that one of the posts was cut in 52 BCE. So far, one pit house and two elevated post-and-beam buildings have been reconstructed.
LONG HOUSE AT SANNAI MARUYAMA
Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of 800 pit structures and 120 post-and-beam structures at Sannai Maruyama Iseki. The long house shown here, based on a model at the National Museum of Japanese History, is the largest of the pit structures. Because of its size, it is believed to be a public building used for meetings and ceremonies. The massive roof rests on walls, unlike most small pit structures in which the roof rests directly on the ground.
Yoshinogari is a very large Yayoi site containing two smaller areas for the most important structures, one on the north and one on the south. Depicted here are the buildings that were reconstructed in the south area in 1986. They are enclosed by a fence on top of a high earthen wall and two moats. There are entrances at both ends and watchtowers on both sides. Elevated storehouses and numerous pit dwellings lie outside the enclosed area.
Ceremonial building at the Ikegami-sone reconstructed Yayoi site. The members of the structure are tied together, as was common in prehistoric buildings and later farmhouses. Since rope can stretch, such buildings could move during a typhoon without causing serious damage. Next to the building is a covered well, made from a hollowed-out camphor tree, probably used for purification ceremonies connected with the large building. Photograph above courtesy of Izumi City.
Changing Conceptions
It was long thought that the Jōmon people lived a simple hunting and gathering lifestyle that required only simple buildings and tools. In contrast, it was believed that the Yayoi people brought a much more sophisticated culture with them from the mainland, including agriculture and more advanced forms of tools, weapons, and architecture. As a result, it was long assumed that Yayoi culture rapidly displaced the more primitive Jōmon culture.
Though there is undoubtedly some truth in this generalization, the distinction between Jōmon and Yayoi cultures should not be overemphasized. Recent findings indicate that although Yayoi villages were more heavily fortified and exhibit a greater degree of social stratification, Jōmon villages were sometimes quite large, diverse, and persisted over considerable periods of time. Moreover, Jōmon people traveled long distances by boat, engaging in trade with areas as far apart as Hokkaido and western Honshu. Imported items included jade and obsidian implements, fish, and asphalt. The latter was mixed with clay to make utensils and to decorate clay figurines. The Jōmon people also cultivated chestnuts and appear to have experimented with growing other crops such as a dry land form of rice.
One of the most interesting findings is that there also is considerable continuity between Jōmon and Yayoi architecture. For example, it was long assumed that elevated storehouses began in the Yayoi Period. It is now known that elevated Yayoi storehouses, which later developed into shrines and palaces, were a continuation of an earlier Jōmon tradition.
Reconstructed shrine from the northern enclosure at Yoshinogari. Like the elevated storehouses, the shrine was constructed on posts sunk in the ground. It also may have had some of the features of later Shinto shrines, such as verandas that encircled the interior space. The actual appearance of the building, however, is conjectural. For example, it is impossible to know whether it had two stories, as indicated in the reconstruction, or a single story, as in the case of later shrines, such as those at Ise.
EVIDENCE USED IN RECONSTRUCTIONS
Archaeologists working at the Yoshinogari Yayoi site in Kyushu.
Reconstructing what buildings may have looked like at Yoshinogari and other prehistoric sites involves educated guesswork based upon archaeological evidence, designs on bronze mirrors and bells, designs on earthenware pots, and clay models (haniwa) of buildings that have been found in concentric rings on the slopes of tomb mounds. Clues can also be obtained from contemporary ethnographic evidence such as Shinto shrines that have periodically been rebuilt over the centuries, the construction methods used in centuries-old farmhouses, temporary structures that were used until recently for a variety of purposes such as birthing, and architectural styles still found in other parts of Asia that supplied immigrants to Japan in prehistoric times. Piecing these various kinds of data together requires a high degree of teamwork.
Iegata haniwa (house-shaped clay model) found at the Saitobaru site in Miyazaki Prefecture.
Pot in the Osaka Prefectural Museum of Yayoi Culture depicting a raised structure, from the Karako site in Nara Prefecture.
The Grand Shrines at Ise
The architectural significance of the Ise shrines is that they are an early example of some of the basic principles of architecture now considered to be typically Japanese, such as using thatch for roofing and exposed, unpainted wood for beams and walls, raising the structure on wooden posts, and adapting a building to the natural environment. Of the ancient shrines in Japan, Ise Jingū is the most important.
Shinto
The clan chief in prehistoric times was also the clan head of a religion that eventually came to be known as Shinto, the Way of the Gods. Shinto is based upon the belief that there is a divine power in nature (kami) that permeates everything but is more highly concentrated in some things, such as particular waterfalls, trees, animals, people, ancestral spirits, and even human artifacts. Often, Shinto shrines are located near natural phenomena, such as a sacred mountain, where there is an especially high concentration of divine power. The term kami also is used in reference to mythological deities such as Amaterasu-Ōmikami, the sun goddess, from whom the imperial line is said to be descended.
Despite the abstract nature of kami, specific concentrations of power assume the characteristics of individual deities that can be offered domicile in shrine buildings dedicated to them. Thus, when individuals visit shrines, they pay respects to particular kami rather than to an abstract divine power.
Shinto ceremonies are organized around the concept of purification. Blood, death, and disease are highly polluting and must be cleansed if an individual is to communicate with the divine. Ceremonies can be as simple as washing one’s hands and mouth at a water basin before praying at a shrine, or as complicated as participating in a full-scale ceremony conducted by a priest, replete with traditional music and dancing by shrine maidens.
Pre-Buddhist Shrines
The three main types of shrine architecture from the Pre-Buddhist period are the Taisha, Sumiyoshi, and Shimmei styles. The Taisha style is represented by Izumo Shrine in Shimane Prefecture. In prehistoric times, Izumo Shrine was situated on a high platform reached by a long flight of steps. According to records kept at the shrine, the original building was 96 meters (315 feet) high, which was later reduced to 48 meters (157 feet), and eventually to 24 meters (79 feet), because of