What sugikawabuki means
Sugikawabuki is roofing of cedar bark peeled and flattened, laid in overlapping courses and held down with bamboo or horizontal battens. It is lighter than tile and has a simple, soft, rustic look.
It is common on gates, walls, tea rooms, buildings in the Sukiya-zukuri manner and farm outbuildings. The related Hiwadabuki uses finely trimmed cypress bark nailed with bamboo pegs and built up thick into curved surfaces for formal shrine and temple roofs; it differs from the simple, batten-held cedar-bark roof in both technique and use.
Reading the records and the building
Records give the roof as gabled with cedar-bark roofing, or simply cedar-bark roofed. The front gate of an old family house in Hidakagawa, Wakayama, a three-bay munamon, has a gabled cedar-bark roof, and the wall of the same property is also roofed in cedar bark. The gate of the Ichiki inn in Kainan, Wakayama, is an Udekimon with a gabled cedar-bark roof and folding board doors hung on posts with knots left showing, part of a gate and wall designed with refined taste.
Cedar bark wears quickly and is often renewed or replaced with other materials, so if the present roof differs from the record, note the record's date. On site, a roof showing the fibrous pattern of bark, held down with bamboo or slender battens, is sugikawabuki.
References
- 寒川家住宅表門｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00009822
- 寒川家住宅塀｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00009823
- 一木旅館門及び塀｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00014289
Last verified: 2026.09.26