Shoin-zukuri

Shoin-zukuri (書院造^?) is a style of Japanese residential architecture used in the mansions of the military, temple guest halls, and Zen abbot's quarters of the Azuchi-Momoyama (1568–1600) and Edo periods (1600–1868). It forms the basis of today's traditional-style Japanese house. Characteristics of the shoin-zukuri development were the incorporation of square posts and floors completely covered with tatami. The style takes its name from the shoin, a term that originally meant a study and a place for lectures on the sūtra within a temple, but which later came to mean just a drawing room or study.

The foundations for the design of today's traditional Japanese residential houses with tatami floors were established in the late Muromachi period and refined during the ensuing Momoyama period.Shoin-zukuri, a new architectural style influenced by Zen Buddhism, developed during that time from the shinden-zukuri of the earlier Heian period's palaces and the subsequent residential style favored by the warrior class during the Kamakura period. The term shoin (書院^?), meaning study or drawing room has been used to denote reception rooms in residences of the military elite as well as study rooms at monasteries. A shoin has a core area surrounded by aisles, and smaller areas separated by fusuma sliding doors, or shōji partitions constructed of paper on a wooden frame or wooden equivalents, mairado (舞良戸^?) and sugido (杉戸^?). The main reception room is characterized by specific features: a recessed alcove (tokonoma); staggered shelves; built-in desks; and ornate sliding doors. Generally the reception room is covered with wall-to-wall tatami, has square beveled pillars, a coved and/or coffered ceiling, and wooden shutters protecting the area from rain (雨戸, amado^?). The entrance hall (genkan) emerged as an element of residential architecture during the Momoyama period. The oldest extant shoin style building is the Tōgu-dō at Ginkaku-ji dating from 1485. Other representative examples of early shoin style, also called shuden, include two guest halls at Mii-dera. In the early Edo period, shoin-zukuri reached its peak and spread beyond the residences of the military elite. The more formal shoin-style of this period is apparent in the characteristics of Ninomaru Palace at Nijō Castle as well as the shoin at Nishi Hongan-ji (see photos above).

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