What uchien means
An uchien is a veranda outside a reception room that lies inside the sliding shutters or glass doors and so forms part of the interior. It is also called an irigawa-en. A strip of boarded floor between the matted room and the garden protects the room from rain and sun and serves as a place to view the garden and as a passage.
A veranda outside the shutters, exposed to the weather, is a nureen or outer veranda, one form of the Engawa; the uchien differs in lying inside them. Modern Japanese-style houses often wrap an uchien around two or three sides of a reception room, with glass doors outside to make it a bright interior corridor.
Reading the records and the house
Records note where the uchien runs. The main house of Hōjuin at Jizoji in Komatsushima, Tokushima, praised as a fine modern Japanese-style house, has an uchien on two sides of its front reception room at the south-west corner facing the garden, and the temple's detached wing joins the main house at its uchien. The main house of the Iwamura family in Aki, Kochi, has its entrance at the centre of the south lean-to with an uchien on either side.
On site, check whether the boarded strip between room and garden lies inside the shutters or glass doors. If the fittings stand outside it and it is part of the interior, it is an uchien; if it projects beyond them in the open, it is a nureen.
References
- 地蔵寺寳珠院主屋｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00011404
- 地蔵寺寳珠院離れ｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00011406
- 岩村家住宅（旧黒岩家住宅）主屋｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00015095
Last verified: 2026.09.26