• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Planning & Design
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.29-38
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• 2018

This study aims to analyze the spatial characteristics of a group of samurai residences among other traditional Japanese villages and to accumulate the village-level sample data of a residential group, which can serve as the foundation for a wide range of discussions. Using data that had been gathered since 1989, this study draw up a prototype floor plans to analyze the indoor spatial features of the residences in the modern period, and sampled 35 samurai houses. The following are the results of this study. The general characteristics of traditional Japanese houses were found among many Izumi Fumoto samurai residences up until the early Meiji period. However, after gradually the floor plan became more and more simplified; connections between rooms were reduced, decreasing their flexibility; and there was a rise in the number of houses with a larger area devoted to the Nando, a room for women and family members. The access of a visitor involved changes in one's eye-level view and established physical and psychological boundaries, which this study conjectures was used as a method to ensure that the visitor recognized the authority of the patriarch and to raise the family's reputation. As their floor plan was simplified, Izumi Fumoto samurai houses established one's eye view, boundaries, and procedures as a way to enhance the authority of the man of the family and the family's reputation. In addition, while there was an increasing number of residences that expanded the area of the Nando, in which family members slept and used the space in a stable way, they maintained the exclusivity of private space and did not clearly show who would use it.