A jettied upper floor projecting beyond the plane of the line of posts defining the limit of the lower part of a town house *machiya 町家. Town houses with hanedashi nikai are depicted in early 17th century screens showing scenes in and around Kyoto *rakuchūr akugai zu 洛中洛外図 ; so it may be assumed that they existed in Kyoto at that time. Surviving examples, however, are concentrated in post towns *shukubamachi 宿場町, particularly in the Kiso 木曽 valley and other parts of Nagano Prefecture, and date from the late 18th century and 19th century. They were a feature of the town-house facade, and directly overlooked the street. Even in cases where the upper floor ran through to the rear of the building, there was no hanedashi nikai at the rear.The projection of the hanedashi nikai varied from around 45 cm to 60 cm. In early examples like the Sanayama 真山 House in Nagano Prefecture(1766) the hanedashi nikai was constructed simply by extending the sleeper *ōbiki 大引 and floor joist *neda 根太 supporting the loft floor beyond the girt *dōzashi 胴差 along the front of the lower floor. Later, brackets *udegi 腕木 were used, allowing the framing of the projection to be independent, with regard to joist spacing, from structural constraints imposed by the room behind. The projection of the hanedashi nikai was often slightly increased by the addition of a projecting lattice window degōshimado 出格子窓 along the front of the structure, but another and perhaps earlier arrangement was to leave it as an open balcony with a low handrail *tesuri 手摺.
