JAANUS / noshigawara 熨斗瓦

noshigawara　熨斗瓦

KEY WORD :　architecture / roofing tiles

Also noshizumigawara 熨斗積瓦. The ancient name was *tsutsumigawara 包み瓦 (ridge tile). A very thick, slightly curved, rectangular tile with an incised line that runs end to end through the center of the tile. The line permits the tile to be divided easily whenever necessary. It is used to cover the junction point where the broad concave roofing tiles *hiragawara 平瓦 and the semi-circular cover tiles *marugawara 丸瓦 meet at the peak of the ridge. A variation is a single tile with pendant sides called a 'boxed noshigawara' or hako noshigawara 箱熨斗瓦. It is possible that noshigawara originated from an ordinary female tile *megawara 女瓦, now called hiragawara, but set upside-down to form a slightly convex shape instead of the concave shape needed for the hiragawara. This type of stacked tile varies in overall height and is placed on the main ridge *oomune 大棟, the corner ridges *sumikudarimune 隅降棟, off-spring ridges *chigomune 稚児棟 and descending ridges *kudarimune 降棟. The name noshigawara came into use during the Edo period. It is not clear why the change occurred, but some scholars suggest that it is because the character noshi 熨斗 can be read noshi or nosu meaning to smooth out or, by inference, to stretch, and because it is used in such expressions as stretching abalone to dry noshiawabi 熨斗鮑, a paper attached to gifts *noshigami 熨斗紙 and a smooth, finish board noshi-ita 熨斗板.

a) noshigawara 熨瓦　b) *hada noshigawara 肌熨瓦　c) dainoshi 台熨斗　

Zoujyouji Yasukuniden 増上寺安国殿 (Tokyo)　

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