A prominent box-like ridge framed in timber astride the apex of a roof. In section it resembles a miniature building with a shallowly pitched roof.
1 The classic type, believed to have developed in the early modern period, was used in temples and shrines as a lightweight alternative to the heavy traditional ridge built up entirely from layers of tile. Typically, a row of struts hakomuneuke 箱棟受 were set upon the ridge purlin munageta 棟桁 (see *ōmune 大棟) of the main roof to support the ridge member, called ukemune 請棟. A frame was erected around the struts to support the vertical siding, hara-ita 腹板, the base of which rested upon boards *aori-ita 障泥板 laid along the main roof. The roof of the hakomune was formed by a pair of sloping boards, the amenoshi 雨熨斗, spanning from the ukemune to the hara-ita, and the joint between them was protected by a cover piece called the ganburi 雁振. The hakomune was either cased in copper (especially when the remainder of the roof was made of copper as in many of the structures at Nikkō Tōshōgū 日光東照宮, Tochigi Prefecture) or roofed with tile, the hara-ita being finished with plaster *shikkui 漆喰, in the latter case. At either end of the roof, the hakomune was flanked by large plastered roof ornaments *kagemori 影盛.
Nikkou Tōshōgū *Yōmeimon 日光東照宮陽明門 (Tochigi)
2 In vernacular architecture *minka 民家, tiled and plastered hakomune with huge plastered roof ornaments became an important feature of *misegura 店蔵 roof design during the latter years of the Edo period.
*misegura 店蔵 in Kawagoe 川越 (Saitama)
3 In thatched minka, especially in Saitama, Shimane and Tottori Prefectures, a tiled or shingled *itabuki 板葺 hakomune, rather broader than the classic type, came into use in the Edo period. This form of ridge detailing is considered to have owed its increasing popularity to the difficulty of constructing an effective and durable thatched ridge, and the speed with which thatched ridges deteriorated.