Shitami-itabari

What shitami-itabari is

Shitami-itabari is horizontal weatherboarding, each board lapping over the top edge of the one below so that rain runs off without reaching the joints.

Western-style buildings used it widely. The former hall of the Utsunomiya agricultural school in Tochigi Prefecture, built in 1903, is described as a single-storey timber building, Yosemune-zukuri and tiled, weatherboarded outside, with a store projecting behind and six sash windows set closely along each side. Sano Church in the same prefecture, built in 1934, is weatherboarded with a rose window and pointed-arch openings arranged symmetrically across the front.

Japanese-style buildings used it too. The tank store at the Yokoya brewery in Iwate Prefecture, built in 1899, is described as built with an exposed Shinkabe frame on a cut-stone base but weatherboarded outside in a restrained Western manner.

Often it covers only part of a wall. The Fukuda Residence storehouse in Kochi Prefecture has notched-batten boarding at the base of its west face and Shikkui above, with two courses of drip tiles.

Boarding held by notched battens

Where vertical battens notched to fit the steps of the boards hold them in place, records name the type separately. The former Daishi Bank manager's house in Niigata Prefecture, built in 1936, is described as a Japanese-style house with such boarding outside and prized timbers within. The privy at the Muramatsu Residence in Yamanashi Prefecture, from the early Meiji period, has it at the base and is called careful, solid work.

The battened kind belongs mostly to the lower walls of Japanese buildings; plain weatherboarding belongs mostly to the whole exterior of Western ones. The records reflect that division.

On site, look at the overlap from the side. Boards stepping outward with vertical battens holding them are the battened kind; boards alone are plain weatherboarding.