Nōryōbō 納涼房

Keywords
Architecture
General Terms

Lit. "cool dwelling." Formerly the name used for the priests' quarters at Jingoji 神護寺 (Momoyama period) in Kyoto. Now more often called *Daishidō 大師堂. The term nōryō conjures up the image of a cool place near a pond or river where the high priests could gain relief from an otherwise hot location. Tradition has it that the founder *Kōbō Daishi 弘法大師 (774-835) of the Shingon 真言 sect, lived here. The present structure was rebuilt in the Momoyama period but retains vestiges of the aristocratic dwelling style called *shinden-zukuri 寝殿造. This style features the use of latticed doors backed with timber that open horizontally *shitomido 蔀戸, in each front bay; a veranda the surrounds the structure on all four sides; square posts; and boat-shaped bracket arms *funahijiki 舟肘木. The roof is covered with thinly cut wood shingles *kokerabuki 柿葺, and is of the hip-and-gable type *irimoya yane 入母屋屋根. The entrance is on the gable end. The gable pediments are filled with boardbacked, crisscross lattice *kitsune gōshi 狐格子. The building is square (9.42 m) but the walls are divided up differently on each side: when facing the building, the front has 3 bays, the left side has 4 bays, the rear and right side have 5 bays. The pillars on the exterior walls are not in line with each other. The core has four pillars, one at each corner. These line up diagonally only with the outer corner pillars.