Heinouchi Masanobu, Shōmei (1608) | The Textbook of Architecture

A secret manual of the Heinouchi family, master carpenters to the Tokugawa shoguns, in five volumes on gates, shrines, pagodas, Buddhist halls and residences. It is the classic statement of kiwari: the system by which every member of a building is sized as a fraction of one base dimension.

Heinouchi Masanobu (1583–1645) came from a line of temple carpenters in Kii province and became master builder (daitōryō) to the Tokugawa shogunate. In 1608 the family’s knowledge was written down in five scrolls, traditionally credited to Masanobu. The work was a secret transmission: it was copied within the family and its pupils and was not published until modern scholars reproduced it in the twentieth century.

Its method is kiwari, “dividing the wood”. The designer fixes one dimension (usually the bay between column centres, sometimes the column itself) and every other size follows as a fraction or multiple: the column’s thickness from the bay, the brackets and beams from the column, the rafters and their spacing from the brackets, the projection of the eaves from the rafters. A carpenter who knows the ratios can build a correct gate or hall of any size from one number, as a classical architect could draw an order from one diameter.

The fifth volume, on residences, is especially valued by historians. Its drawings of the main hall of a warrior’s mansion, with a raised reception room, tokonoma alcove, staggered shelves and writing bay, are the standard early description of the shoin style from which the traditional Japanese house descends.

The book, part by part

I Mon-ki shū: Gates

Gates of every rank, from the great two-storey temple gate to the small roofed gate of a residence, each sized from its bay.

II Shaki shū: Shrines

Shintō shrine buildings in their several styles, and their torii and fences.

III Tōki shū: Pagodas

Three- and five-storey pagodas: each storey’s bay, the diminution upward, the central pillar and the spire.

Fig. 1A five-storey pagoda of Hōryū-ji type. Open in Models ↗

Rules: Diminish the pagoda upward · The central pillar stands free

IV Dōki shū: Buddhist halls

Halls of three, five and seven bays: columns, bracket sets, eaves and roofs.

Rules: Kiwari: size every member from the bay

V Den’ya shū: Residences

Warrior residences: the main hall (shuden) with its reception rooms, tokonoma, shelves and shoin bay; kitchens and gate-houses.

Fig. 2An eight-mat room with its tokonoma. Open in Models ↗

Rules: The alcove fixes the order of the room

Rules drawn from Shōmei

Kiwari: size every member from the bay

Fix the bay (the distance between column centres) and derive every other member from it by fixed ratios: the column from the bay, the brackets and beams from the column, the rafters and their spacing from the brackets, the eaves from the rafters.

The alcove fixes the order of the room

Place the tokonoma, a shallow raised alcove for a hanging scroll and flowers, in the wall opposite or beside the entrance, with staggered shelves beside it; the place of honour is the seat in front of it.

Diminish the pagoda upward

Make each storey of a pagoda narrower than the one below and derive all from the bay of the first storey; in the oldest Japanese pagodas the top storey is about half as wide as the first.

top storey ≈ ½ first storey (Hōryū-ji)

The central pillar stands free

Run a single great pillar up the centre of the pagoda to carry the spire, but do not let the storeys rest on it: each storey stands on its own frame, stacked around the pillar.