Maneki-yane

What a maneki-yane is

A maneki-yane is a Kirizuma-zukuri roof with its ridge set off-centre, one slope short and the other long. Seen from the front the short slope rises like a beckoning hand, which is where the Japanese name comes from.

Small ancillary buildings favour it. The rear storehouse at the Sato Residence in Nagano Prefecture, from the Meiji period, has a miso room attached, single-storey timber under a roof of this kind in Sangawara-buki. The aviary at the Fujino Residence in Osaka Prefecture, from the middle Meiji period, is 11.6 metres by 1.8, its single-pitch roof given the same treatment.

The Koshikake-machiai of a Roji can have one. The waiting shelter at Chikushi Jogakuen in Fukuoka Prefecture, built in 1940, is 1.8 metres long with a roof of this kind in cedar bark.

The structure field of an Important Cultural Property record uses another Japanese name for the same thing. A building at the former Maeda Residence in Tokyo is recorded as timber, 21.91 square metres, in this form, roofed in pantiles and copper.

Distinguished from a single pitch

A single-pitch roof slopes one way only, with its ridge at one edge of the building. This form keeps two slopes even though the ridge is displaced. The Fujino aviary entry describes a single-pitch roof with the short slope added to make it this type.

Small buildings use it because the long slope sheds the rain while the short one gives height at the front. It suits shelters and store rooms that are narrow across and shallow from front to back.

On site, find the ridge. A roof whose highest line sits well to one side, with one slope plainly shorter than the other, is the form.