Lit. "clarification for the artisan-builder." The best known manual of construction and building design. It is based on oral tradition and simple manuals known to have existed in the Muromachi period. The ratio and proportion of structural parts began to be recorded during the early 17th century. From these sources, Heinouchi Yoshimasa 平内吉政, the head of an ancestral line of master carpenters originally from Wakayama and Kyoto, was able to put together instructions for his son, Heinouchi Masanobu 平内政信 (d. 1645) who wrote the Shōmei in 1608. In 1610, Yoshimasa, in an addendum, sternly exhorted his son and succeeding generations against revealing their secrets of design and construction to other carpenters and their families. The Heinouchi clan was the official master carpenter's family for the construction department of the Edo bakufu 江戸幕府.
The original Shōmei was brush-written in five scrolls, each containing specific proportions and ratio of parts in minute detail. Rough sketches of building types were also included, as well as the proportion of all wooden parts and even notations about various individuals' experiences. When working on Wakaura Tenmangū 和歌浦天満宮 in Wakayama Prefecture and Izumo Taisha 出雲大社 in Shimane Prefecture, Heinouchi Yoshimasa admonished all carpenters to not only skillfully construct the building, but to strive for excellence in wood proportion, mathematical calculations, carving, and drawing. Only copies of this text exist today. The oldest extant is owned by the University of Tokyo Faculty of Engineering, and is dated between 1697 and 1727.
Shōmei consisted of the following five scrolls:
1. Monkishū 門記集, dealing with various gates.
2. Shakishū 社記集, dealing with shrines, including buildings, gates and fences such as *tamagaki 玉垣.
3. Tōkishū 塔記集, discussing pagodas and *kurin 九輪 with nine rings.
4. Dōkishū 堂記集, dealing with temples including main halls, priests' quarters, belfries, and pagodas.
5. Den'okushū 殿屋集 about palaces the Noh stage *nōbutai 能舞台, and a gate called *heijūmon 塀重門.