Shoin-zukuri

What shoin-zukuri is

Shoin-zukuri is a residential style organised around a formal reception room fitted with a Tokonoma, shelving and a built-in study bay. Posts are squared, Nageshi runs round the walls above the openings, and the ceiling is often a Gō-tenjō: the markers of rank are used deliberately.

Temples adopted it for their state rooms. The Shinden at Ninnaji in Kyoto, built in 1914, is described as 19.7 by 11.8 metres, Irimoya-zukuri with Hiwadabuki, combining a palace-style exterior with an interior in this manner, with a corridor-like projection on the east, in a design befitting a temple of imperial connection.

Jumyoin in Hyogo Prefecture, built in 1691, is described as combining its guest hall and priests' quarters in one building, keeping older features such as the curved gable and panelled door that mark the entrance for distinguished visitors, while finishing the guest rooms themselves in this manner. Rooms for receiving guests were the ones given the treatment.

The white study at the same temple, built in 1890, is described as six rooms in two ranks with an open veranda across the front, bamboo-node Ranma between the front rooms, and an alcove and shelving in the reception room.

Set against the tea-influenced manner

Sukiya-zukuri takes this style and deliberately removes its markers of rank, bringing in the manner of the tea room instead. The two are not opposites so much as a baseline and a set of departures from it.

Posts and trim settle which is which. Squared posts with trim above the openings belong to the formal tradition; bark-edged posts or natural logs with the trim left out belong to the other. The ceiling points the same way: coffered for the formal manner, woven or exposed for the relaxed one.

Real buildings mix them. A single house often has formal reception rooms at the front and smaller rooms treated in the tea manner behind. When writing, distinguish between the style of a building and the treatment of one room within it.