itakarado 板唐戸

Also read itagarado; also called itatobira 板扉. A 6th-7th century door made of a single, thick wooden plank without wooden clamps *hashibami 端喰, or middle stripping on either side ryōmenbari 両面張. Itakarado opened and closed on perpendicular hinges suichoku no tsurijiku 垂直の釣軸 and usually the planks were made of cypress wood, hinoki 桧. One example is the doors of the Hōryūji *Kondō 法隆寺金堂 (rebuilt 693) in Nara. The solid single plank doors were replaced by narrow, thick boards joined and strengthened by stripping placed across the inner side. In the Heian period, thick boards were placed on all four sides of a door and stripping was attached to both sides. A door was sometimes made of two or three vertical wooden boards fit so closely together that only on close inspection could the different pieces be seen. Wooden clamps were usually placed at the top and bottom to strengthen the door and retard warping or separation due to weathering. Many such doors have astragals jōgibuchi 定規縁, a type of convex molding on the edges where two doors meet. Later, the plank doors were surrounded by a frame *heijiku 幣軸 with a convex cross section. The door opened on pivot hinges *jikuzuri 軸吊 that were often strengthened with decorative metalwork called *hassō kanagu 八双金具. Itakarado is associated with the wayō style *wayō 和様 even though the name carries the character kara 唐, meaning Chinese. During the Kamakura period, two new styles of architecture, *daibutsuyō 大仏様 and *zenshūyō 禅宗様, were introduced. Buildings that were constructed in the ancient wayō style (7th-12th century), gradually absorbed some characteristics from the new styles. Furthermore, ancient Japanese temple architecture was introduced from the Asian continent and kara, eventually took on the meaning of something first class. Because an itakarado was superior in structure and appearance to the earlier rough plank doors, itado 板戸, it is thought that the character kara was inserted to emphasize the new style and its impressiveness.