Find true north and south with a plumb-lined post and the shadows of sunrise and sunset, checked by the pole star; then turn the principal hall of every compound to face south.
Rules · Site · Materials · Theory
Follow the request of the stones
Set stones by first placing a principal stone and then others that answer it, following the “request” each makes; recall famous landscapes; and obey the taboos: a stone that lay flat in nature should not be set upright, nor one that stood upright laid flat.
The Sakuteiki treats the setting of stones as the core of garden making: the Japanese phrase for making a garden was ishi wo tateru, to set up stones. The designer places a main stone and then adds others in response to it, as if each stone asked for the next. He should remember the scenery of famous places and of nature, and arrange islands, shores and waterfalls after them, but adapt them to the site and his own taste.
The taboos are partly practical and partly geomantic. A stone must keep the orientation it had in nature, or it becomes a stone of ill omen and brings misfortune on the household; tall stones should not stand near the house or point at it; and certain directions are to be avoided for water and stones. Many of these rules are still taught.
Related rules
Draw into the garden the views beyond its walls: a distant hill, a neighbour’s trees, a temple roof, the sky above and the water below, and the changes of the seasons. Adapt the design to the site and borrow from what lies round it.
Where there is no pond or stream, make the landscape of stones alone: set rocks as mountains, cliffs and islands, and let gravel or sand stand for water.
Lay the mats of a room so that their joints form T-junctions: no point where the corners of four mats meet, and no continuous seam running straight across the room.
Every twenty years build an exact replica of each sanctuary on the alternate site beside it, transfer the deity at night, and dismantle the old buildings.
cycle = 20 years · two sites used alternately
Pitch a roof no lower than its covering allows (roughly 45° for thatch, 35° for plain tiles, 20–25° for slate, 15–20° for interlocking tiles, a few degrees for sheet metal) and steeper where snow lies long or rain is heavy.
thatch ≥ 45° · plain tile ≥ 35° · slate ≥ 22½° · pantile ≥ 17½° · metal ≥ 5° · membrane ≈ 1–2°
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Follow the request of the stones”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/sakuteiki-setting-stones. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.