Shikkui

What shikkui is

Shikkui is lime plaster, slaked lime mixed with a binder and fibre. It dries hard and white and sheds water, and it is the finish most often recorded on the walls of buildings in Dozo-zukuri.

The Kawatsuru former rice store in Kagawa Prefecture, from the Taisho period, has Namako-kabe below and white plaster above. The Okawa Residence main storehouse in Tochigi Prefecture, built in 1851, is finished in black plaster at the base and white above, the black being white plaster tinted with ink to hide dirt where the wall is most exposed.

It covers more than walls. The archive storehouse at the Sakai brewery in Nagano Prefecture seals its eaves and Taruki in plaster against fire, and townhouses in Nuriya-zukuri plaster their sides and eaves the same way.

Regional names appear. The Fukuda Residence storehouse in Kochi Prefecture is finished above in the local variety with two courses of drip tiles.

Relief pictures in plaster

Plaster built up into pictures is a technique of its own. The Fukuda storehouse carries waves modelled in plaster above the drip tiles on its gable ends, and the main house on the same property is noted for the plaster relief ornamenting its gables. Gable ends are where these pictures go.

Records that mention plaster are telling you where it is. Base or upper wall, wall or eaves, gable or long side: the distribution says something about the building.

On site, read the surface. A uniform hard sheen means lime plaster; a rough surface with the colour of earth showing through means an earthen wall. A storehouse black at the base and white above shows the two plasters in use.