Nozurazumi

What nozurazumi is

Nozurazumi is a stone wall built from natural stones left almost unworked. Because their shapes are irregular the faces do not line up, and the gaps between them are packed with smaller stones to hold the whole together.

It is not confined to castles. The stone wall and earthen wall at the Itani Residence in Ehime Prefecture, from about 1893, are described as running east and west from the steps before the main entrance, the wall built of natural stones to about a metre high over a total length of 44 metres.

The south wall on the same property, from the middle Meiji period, is described as built of sandstone in this manner to a maximum height of 2.7 metres, turning east for 73.7 metres and west for 26.2, giving the house the character of an old mountain estate.

It also serves as a footing. The earthen wall at the Ishida Residence in Kyoto Prefecture, from the Taisho period, stands on a footing of this kind, Kirizuma-zukuri and roofed in Hongawarabuki and Sangawara-buki.

Three degrees of working

Stone walls are classified by how much the stones have been worked: unworked as here, roughly split and hammered to fit as Uchikomi-hagi, and cut to close joints as Kirikomi-hagi. Effort and precision rise through the sequence, and later walls tend towards the later types.

One wall may combine them. The wall at the former Mori Residence in Hyogo Prefecture, built between the mid-Edo period and the Taisho era, is described as unworked stone along the middle and western parts of its north side, the middle portion slightly later than the western with well-formed Sangi-zumi at the corner, and squared stone of 1912 along the eastern part and the east side. Differences in method mark differences in date.

On site, look at the outlines of the stones. Rounded corners, irregular sizes and small stones packed into the gaps indicate this type; flat dressed faces indicate one of the other two.