Dozo-zukuri

What dozo-zukuri means

Dozo-zukuri is a way of building in which a timber frame is encased in thick earthen walls and finished with lime plaster. Covering the combustible frame in earth is what makes the method fire-resistant.

In the National Cultural Properties Database the term comes first in the structure field. The former Kitamura Clinic storehouse in Shiga Prefecture is recorded as dozo-zukuri, two storeys, tiled, 26 square metres, giving construction, height, roofing and size in that order.

The building and the method are named separately in Japanese. A dozo is the storehouse itself; dozo-zukuri is how it is built, and the method is not confined to storehouses. The Sanno Club in Yamagata Prefecture includes reception rooms built this way.

A related method uses thinner walls and leaves parts of the timber visible. The two are distinguished case by case, so quoting the wording of the record is safer than deciding from a photograph.

The vocabulary around storehouses

One recurring feature is a roof frame that stands independently on top of the thick walls rather than being tied into them. Because the two are structurally separate, the earthen walls survive even if the roof burns away. The Ozaki Residence storehouse in Kochi Prefecture is described as a two-storey building of this type, gabled and pantiled, entered from the eaves side.

Two surface treatments appear constantly in these records. Flat tiles fixed to the wall with lime plaster raised in half-round ridges over the joints produce a quilted pattern; courses of tiles projecting horizontally from the wall throw rainwater clear of the plaster below. Storehouses in Kochi are known for carrying two or four such courses.

The Sato Residence new storehouse in Iwate Prefecture is described as gabled and entered from the gable end, two storeys, built in dozo-zukuri, with its date of construction known from a ridge tablet. Its walls are divided into three bands by projecting tile courses, the lowest in brick and the rest plastered. Ridge tablets of this kind are sometimes designated as Tsuketari, which is why storehouses are often among the easiest buildings to date.