fusumagawara 伏間瓦

Also written 衾瓦; also called *kanmurigawara 冠瓦 or *ganburigawara 雁振瓦. Coping tiles that create a finish to the stacked tiles, *noshigawara 熨斗瓦, piled on the ridge. Coping tiles are also used on top of stacked tiles on corner ridges, *sumikudarimune 隅降棟, and the short offspring ridge, *chigomune 稚児棟, or on descending ridges, *kudarimune 降棟. The characters 衾瓦 were used in the Muromachi period because the form of the tiles was thought to resemble the shape of a quilt spread over Japanese-style bedding, futon 蒲団, or bedclothes, yagu 夜具. However, this complicated character was eventually dropped and replaced by two relatively simple ones, also read fusuma 伏間 (cover space).