A Guide to Kyoto’s Wooden and Traditional Architecture
At the edge of the underside of a roof of a temple building, one can often see the exposed rafters. Many of them are double layered. While these exposed rafters are not structural in function, they are there to mask the hidden roof structure that is at a steeper angle above them.
The base rafters, or jidaruki (地垂木) are the rafters closest to the building, and the the flying rafters, or hiendaruki (飛檐垂木) are attached to the jidaruki and extends out to the eaves. As seen here at the Zen Temple complex of Tenryu-ji (天龍寺), in the beautiful neighbourhood of Arashiyama in Kyoto.
Even though Suikoushya International Craft School is now up and running in France, our Kyoto workshop will still continue to operate and we want to welcome you when you’re in Kyoto!
Here in Kyoto you can explore the many different wooden architectural treasures of Japan!
The base rafters, or jidaruki (地垂木) and the the flying rafters, or hiendaruki (飛檐垂木)
