ishioki itabuki 石置板葺

Wood shingles *itabuki 板葺, held in position with stones. Generally used for roofs of vernacular houses *minka 民家, dating from the Edo period. Examples were numerous in mountainous areas where material for thatch was not plentiful, and in urban areas where such roofing was used for both town houses *machiya 町家 and lesser military-class residences buke yashiki 武家屋敷. Ishioki itabuki began to be replaced by tile in the last years of the Edo period, particularly in large cities and in western Japan, but persisted in Hokuriku 北陸, Chūbu 中部, Tōhoku 東北, and parts of Kantō 関東 regions. In some rural areas it was associated with vernacular houses of high status, such as the houses in Nagano Prefecture built in *honmune-zukuri 本棟造. Stones were used to hold the shingles in place as an alternative to bamboo or metal nails, both of which would have been more time consuming or expensive to obtain. When the shingles (manufactured according to the hikiwari 挽割 system) were laid, the roofers, working from the eaves up to the roof ridge, used lengths of timber to hold them down temporarily. Afterward round natural stones about the size of a human head were placed at close intervals with lengths of timber laid horizontally beneath them to prevent slippage. The roof form was generally gabled *kirizuma yane 切妻屋根. The roof pitch was as shallow as possible (about 3 or 3.5:10), and the bargeboard *hafu 破風 along the verges and the facia boards *hanakakushi-ita 鼻隠板 at the eaves were thick boards which projected slightly from the plane of the roof to provide the stones and shingles with some protection against high winds. It is clear from illustrated handscrolls *emaki 絵巻, and painted screens *byōbu-e 屏風絵 that ishioki itabuki roofs were in use throughout the medieval period, though the detail was somewhat different from that of the later Edo period. In screens showing scenes in and around Kyoto *rakuchū rakugai zu 洛中洛外図, for instance, stones are set securely into a bamboo framework on town-house roofs of the yamato style *yamatobuki 大和葺.