Danjōzumi kidan

What danjōzumi kidan means

A danjōzumi kidan is a building platform constructed as a box of cut stone. The usual layout is a bottom course of stones, posts set upright at intervals on it, facing slabs fitted between the posts, and a coping course along the top. The result is a smooth, even stone face with a formal appearance.

From ancient times it was used under important temple and palace buildings. Excavations at the Heian Palace site found a platform of this type in tuff running about 12 metres wide and 27 metres long, identified as the base of the walled corridor around the imperial residence. It also appears under later Buddhist halls and pagodas and under stone monuments such as the Hōtō.

It takes far more work than a platform of random stonework or one of compacted earth alone.

Reading the records and the building

Records name it as the base of a building. The main hall of Tofukuji in Kyoto, a large five-by-three-bay single-storey hall with a hip-and-gable tiled roof and mokoshi, stands on a danjōzumi platform and is described as one of the finest Buddhist halls of the modern period. The stone hōtō of Goryu Sonryuin in Kurashiki, Okayama, stands on a platform of fitted cut stone.

On site, look at the side of the platform. A bottom course, regularly spaced upright posts, flat slabs between them and a coping along the top make a danjōzumi. The type of stone and precision of the cutting also help in reading a building's rank and date.