What funahijiki means
A funahijiki is a horizontal bracket block set directly on top of a post to carry the beam above it. Its underside is cut away at both ends in a slant or curve, giving it the shape of a boat's hull, from which the name comes. Placed between post and beam, it transfers the load and widens the bearing so that the beam sits steadily.
It is the simplest form of Kumimono, the bracket sets that carry the eaves and beams of Japanese buildings. A bracket set is normally built up of bearing blocks, called to, and bracket arms, called hijiki. In the Mitsudo-gumi form, three blocks stand on a bracket arm to carry the beam, and further stages can be added to project the eaves outward. The funahijiki uses no bearing blocks at all; a single arm carries the beam. When a record says that the bracketing is funahijiki, it means the bracketing stops at this single member.
Being plain, it is widely used on houses, small shrine buildings, kagura dance halls and gates. Because it recalls an older, unornamented manner, it was also chosen deliberately for designs that look back to earlier forms. The record for the main hall of Kojinyama Shrine notes funahijiki on the posts and a simple strut-and-post gable decoration, and describes the whole as a design that looks back to earlier forms.
Reading the records and the building
Records say that funahijiki are set on the posts, or simply that the bracketing is funahijiki. The record for the kagura hall of Otori Shrine calls it a plain building with funahijiki on chamfered square posts, using the bracket to signal the modest rank of the structure. Bracketing is a common indicator of a building's status and date, and records note it often.
On site, look up at the top of a post and check whether any bearing block sits between post and beam. If a long horizontal piece rests directly on the post with the beam running over it, it is a funahijiki. If blocks stand on the bracket arm, it is a fuller bracket set such as mitsudo-gumi, and a large block seated on top of the post is another sign of that.
The form is common in houses, for example on posts carrying the eaves over a veranda. At shrines it appears on worship halls, dance halls and the small sanctuaries of subsidiary shrines, and within one precinct the main sanctuary may have three-block bracketing while the ancillary buildings have funahijiki, the choice reflecting each building's rank.
References
- 大鳥神社神楽殿｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002777
- 荒神山神社本殿｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00011518
- 荒神山神社拝殿｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00011519
Last verified: 2026.09.26