Ochimune

What ochimune means

An ochimune is a roof attached beside a main block with its ridge set one step lower than the main ridge, or the part of the building beneath that roof. Rather than carrying the main roof straight on, the builder drops the height and raises a separate ridge, so from outside the roofs step down in sequence.

The space beneath usually serves purposes subordinate to the main living rooms: kitchen, storeroom, bath or pickling shed. On Yamatomune farmhouses a tiled ochimune beside the thatched main block is typical, and the record for the Tsuji family house notes that the kitchen in its eastern ochimune was once earth-floored.

Other terms describe parts projecting from a main block. A Geya is a lean-to roof set against the main wall, and a Tsunoya usually projects at right angles from the main block; an ochimune differs in raising a lower ridge in line with the main building. Records do not always draw these distinctions strictly.

Reading the records and the house

Records use the term and often add what lies beneath. The detached house of the Tanaka family, eight bays long, has its northern half under an ochimune containing a storeroom, bath and pickling shed, distinguished by roof height from the reception rooms in the southern half. The Wada family house in Kawachinagano has tiled ochimune attached at both ends of its thatched main block.

On site, follow the heights of the ridges. A second ridge continuing in the same direction one step below the main ridge is an ochimune. The roofing often differs from that of the main block, and a thatched main house with tiled ochimune is common in Nara and southern Osaka.