What shihanjiki means
Shihanjiki is a way of laying square floor tiles or stone slabs so that their joints run at forty-five degrees to the walls. The squares read as diamonds, and the joints form a diagonal grid, giving the floor more movement than tiles laid square to the walls.
In Zen-style Buddha halls and meditation halls the floor is often paved with tiles laid this way. In houses and shoin buildings it is used for entrances and earth-floored areas, and some floors of plaster or rammed earth are scored with joints imitating the pattern instead of using real tiles or stone. When the same pattern is applied to walls, it is called shihanbari.
Reading the records and the building
Records describe floors laid in shihan tiles or the shihan manner. The meditation hall of Hofukuji in Soja, Okayama, a gable-entry hip-and-gable building, has sitting platforms on both sides and a central strip two bays wide paved in shihan tiles, with a shrine cabinet, and is said to preserve the form of a Zen meditation hall well. The shoin of the Yabashi family in Ogaki, Gifu, known as Kōotei, is recorded as showing skill akin to sukiya work, including an entrance floor of black plaster scored with shihan joints. For walls, the second storehouse of the Mizote family in Hayashima, Okayama, catches the eye with its base and gable faced in diagonally laid tiles with recessed joints.
On site, check whether the floor joints run diagonally to the walls; joints parallel to the walls indicate ordinary square laying. Note too whether the material is tile, stone or scored imitation.
References
- 矢橋家住宅書院（紅於亭）｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00000243
- 寶福寺禅堂｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00007676
- 溝手家住宅二号蔵｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00013638
Last verified: 2026.09.27