Kyoto Traditional Architecture guide

A Guide to Kyoto’s Wooden and Traditional Architecture Rengeo-in (蓮華王院) is yet another temple in Kyoto that was constructed in the Japanese Style Architecture(和様). Rengeo-in, otherwise known as Sanjusangen-do (三十三間堂), is over 900 years old, having survived numerous earthquakes, and

A Guide to Kyoto’s Wooden and Traditional Architecture The wooden bracket system, or kumimono (組物), is one of the more distinctive features found in traditional temples and shrines. While functionally they are to take the load of the large roofs

A Guide to Kyoto’s Wooden and Traditional Architecture One of the other features of Horyu-ji (法隆寺), the oldest extant wooden structure in the world, is the use of a bracket arm that’s carved in the shape of a cloud. Such

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

The Takenaka Carpenter Tools Museum (竹中大工道具館) in Kobe is a short train ride from Kyoto. It hosts a wide variety of resources on Japanese carpentry, form books, display of tools, to replicas of some of the most intricate Japanese joineries

A Guide to Kyoto’s Wooden and Traditional Architecture The different lighting fixtures on the ceilings of Tenryu-ji Temple (天龍寺).     Even though Suikoushya International Craft School is now up and running in France, our Kyoto workshop will still continue

A Guide to Kyoto’s Wooden and Traditional Architecture Although Kyoto is perhaps best known for its temples and shrines, there are many other types of wooden buildings of note in the city that are worth visiting. While the classical Japanese

A Guide to Kyoto’s Wooden and Traditional Architecture In the very same Ninnan-ji goten complex (仁和寺宸殿), one will be able to stand up close and appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into a functioning shitomito (蔀戸), such as the tsurikanamono (吊金物),

A Guide to Kyoto’s Wooden and Traditional Architecture In Japanese temples and shrines, you can often see beams that are slightly curved and tapered at the end. Given its resemblance to a rainbow, they are called as such in Japanese

A Guide to Kyoto’s Wooden and Traditional Architecture Having been the capital of Japan for more than a thousand years, Kyoto has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to aristocratic architecture, temples and shrines. Each temple or shrine seemingly