Fukinuke

What fukinuke means

A fukinuke is a space that rises from a lower floor to the level above, or to the roof, with no floor in between. It may be an area of an upper floor left open to connect two levels, or a single-storey space without a ceiling so that the roof structure shows.

In Japanese farmhouses, the space above the earth floor is often open to display the heavy beams and let smoke from the stoves rise. In storehouses, part of the upper floor is sometimes left open for handling goods or admitting light. Modern Western-style buildings make entrance halls and stairwells into fukinuke to create a sense of space.

The similar-sounding fukihanashi means a structure left open to the outside without walls or doors, which is different from the vertical space of a fukinuke.

Reading the records

Records state which part is open. The east storehouse of the Sono family in Gobo, Wakayama, has boarded floors on each level, two rooms on the ground floor, and the space above the eastern room open. The south storehouse of the same property has two boarded rooms on the ground floor with the space above the middle of the western room open. The records show how the two levels of a storehouse were connected.

On site, look up from inside to see whether the floor above is missing, so that the roof or the ceiling of the upper storey is visible.