Give a hall an odd number of bays across the front (three, five, seven, nine or eleven) so that the central axis passes through a bay and a doorway, never through a column.
A south court for ceremony, water from the east
Leave a court of white sand six or seven jō deep between the main hall and the pond, eight or nine at a palace, for the rites held there; bring the stream in from the east, past the front of the house, and let it leave toward the south-west.
south court = 6–7 jō (c. 18–21 m); at the imperial palace 8–9 jō
The shinden estate is a stage for court life: banquets, archery, dances and poetry gatherings took place in the open court before the main hall, with the pond, its islands and the fishing pavilions beyond as the scenery. Hence the fixed depth of the sand court and the symmetry of the halls round it. The rule for water is geomantic: flowing from the quarter of the Azure Dragon (east) to that of the White Tiger (west), the stream carries impurity away from the house.
Related rules
Lay out the royal city as a square of nine li on each side, with three gates in each wall and, within, nine roads running north–south and nine east–west, each wide enough for nine chariots abreast.
side = 9 li · 3 gates × 4 sides · 9 jing + 9 wei · road width = 9 gui (tracks)
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.
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.
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.
Set out the posts of a house on a square grid of one ken (six shaku, about 1.82 m) and size rooms, doors, screens and mats to fit the grid.
1 ken = 6 shaku ≈ 1.82 m · 1 tsubo = 1 ken² ≈ 3.3 m² = 2 mats
Cite this page Chris Paton, “A south court for ceremony, water from the east”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/sakuteiki-south-court. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.