Temple Architecture Carpentry (2 results)

Hundreds of drawings & some text. Nine scrolls (all roughly 260 x 4500 mm.) & one notebook. Japan: late Edo. Japanese shrines and temples require constant maintenance, restoration, and rebuilding. These nine scrolls and one notebook are concerned with the architectural aesthetics of shrines and temples and the highly specialized construction techniques used to construct them, including the complex joinery methods, which did not require the use of nails, glue, or fasteners. As constant reminders in the texts in the scrolls tell us, the crafts illustrated here were to be carefully guarded and passed on to future generations in great secrecy. Apprenticeships could last as long as ten years. Some of the master joiners are named. The drawings in the scrolls are exceptionally detailed, oftentimes in extreme close-up depictions, showing many of the methods of joining, the desired proportions accompanied by measurements, names of individual parts of the materials used in construction, and the problems in building and maintaining a shrine or temple. These nine scrolls contain hundreds of drawings of plans for all aspects of shrines and temples; each is focused on a different topic. These include the many varieties of traditional shrine gates (torii ??), oftentimes with measurements, references to known gates and their creators, and idealized gates with ratios. There are also examples and styles of hafu ?? (decorative bargeboards or gable end boards), including kara hafu (undulating or cusped gables), irimoya (hip-and-gable), and mukuri hafu (curved gables). The concept of kiwari ??, the proportional system used to determine the dimensions of building components based on their relationship to other components, is also discussed in one of the scrolls, along with the methods of measuring and cutting wood to achieve a harmonious structure. Many drawings also illustrate the components of taruki ??, rafters used to help support a roof in traditional Japanese wooden construction. One scroll illustrates an idealized temple building, with succeeding detailed drawings of its components, measurements, and ratios, along with many illustrations of ornaments. Other scrolls are concerned with the ornamental aspects of shrines and temples, all illustrated in great detail, again with measurements and ratios. One scroll deals with decorative windows, screens, wooden sliding doors, and shelves, in many styles. Another scroll discusses and illustrates a N?h performing stage and ancillary buildings constructed in August 1774 for Matsudaira Chikuzen no kami (in Kaga fiefdom?). These nine scrolls are accompanied by a manuscript notebook (37 leaves, 8vo, 247 x 173 mm.), which discusses and illustrates gegyo ??, decorative wooden boards or pendants traditionally attached under the roof gables, found on Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, and castles. At the ends of four scrolls, it is indicated that they were copied in 1811 and 1819. In fine condition; all preserved in an old wooden box.

Brush & ink, some in color or heightened in color. Late Edo. A fascinating collection of fine and detailed architectural drawings of the Kyoto Palace, several Kyoto temples, and mansions. This collection can be divided, very roughly, into three groups: 1. Palace: The Kyoto Palace burned down many times in its long history, and the most recent reconstruction was completed in 1855. About 17 sheets of varying sizes, some quite large, depict ornamental details; floor plans; details of sliding doors; plans for guard offices at entrances, buildings for ladies-in-waiting, and entranceways to court offices; ornaments for bathrooms; floor plans of the inner palace including the emperor's residence (seiry?den ???), the tutors' living quarters and teaching rooms, the layout of the roof beams for the seiry?den, beam measurements, sumigi ?? roof styles, metalwork designs for shitomi ? (traditional shutters or doors), another complete floor plan of the seiry?den with labels for placement for each decorative work of art, and a diagram of the placement of the weight-bearing wooden pillars (color-coded) to support the floors; roof-beam styles; palace outer buildings' floor plans; a very large hand-colored illustration of a decorative drum to perform gagaku ??; pattern sheet of the drum; and a bundle of seven sheets of various palace buildings (some in color). 2. Temples: a drawing of a model of elaborate woodwork; ornamental roof details (in color); layout for roof beams; a rubbing of an architectural detail; floor plan of the building containing the Great Buddha of the H?k?ji temple; detailed measurements of the roof beams of the Rokkaku-do temple; plan for a two-story pagoda (sheet measuring 1210 x 760 mm.); the design of an ornamental bottle-shaped strut (taiheizuka ???); and a sheet with actual size drawings of other ornaments. Some have the name of the creator, Tanaka Heibei ?????, a Kyoto ornamental woodcarver. 3. Miscellaneous: drawings of ornamental aspects of unnamed buildings (about 30 sheets of varying sizes). In very good condition.