Also written 大極柱, shin-no-hashira 心の柱, yaku-bashira 役柱, and naka-bashira 中柱.
1 A sacred pillar imi-bashira 忌柱 or 斎柱.
2 A structural post *hashira 柱, in vernacular houses *minka 民家, which was considered to be an embodiment of *Daikokuten 大黒天, one of the seven gods of good fortune *Shichifukujin 七福神. Daikoku had come to be associated with the kitchen and hearth and was regarded as a tutelary deity of the house. The post was located in a variety of places in the house: a) most commonly at the interface between the earth floored area *doma 土間, and the living rooms kyoshitsubu 居室部, approximately at the center of the building's cross-section. This location marked the boundary between the public front half of the house, hare 晴, and the private domestically-orientated zone toward the rear, ke 褻; b) on the upper side *kamite 上手 of the large room(s), *hiroma 広間 adjacent to the earth-floored area. In the case of houses with a 4-room cross-plan ta-no-jigata 田の字型, the daikoku-bashira marked the center of the plan where the arms of the cross intersected. Examples of this type were found in parts of Tottori and Aichi Prefectures; c) in townhouses *machiya 町家 with a deep plan, the daikoku-bashira was located at the boundary between the raised living rooms and the earth corridor *tōriniwa 通り庭. It was sometimes located at the interface between the front room or shop *mise 店 and the room to the rear of it, or in some cases was further back at the boundary between the living room *oue 御上, or *ima 居間 and the kitchen *daidokoro 台所; d) in some buildings, all main frame *jōya 上屋 posts at the boundary between earthen and raised areas were daikoku-bashira. Multiple daikoku-bashira of this type were common in the Kanagawa and Tokyo area. The daikoku-bashira was often the largest post in the house: its large dimensions may be explained to some extent by the need for a stout post at the center of the structure to support the ridge *munamochi-bashira 棟持柱 or a large beam parallel to the ridge *ushibari 牛梁, as house plans deepened and intermediate posts were omitted. There was also a tendency to oversize the daikoku-bashira because of its symbolic importance, and it was often the first post to be erected when a house was under construction. As a sacred post im-ibashira 忌柱, it was considered a guardian of a household's wellbeing and a status symbol. In addition to the daikoku-bashira, houses sometimes included other sacred posts, notably the *ebisu-bashira 恵比須柱, and the *niwa daikoku-bashira 庭大黒柱, but the daikoku-bashira was usually considered the principal sacred post and was accorded this.
3 A term for the central post in the main hall *honden 本殿 of a Shinto shrine *jinja 神社 built in the *taisha-zukuri 大社造.
