Keywords
Architecture
Folk Dwellings
A small upper floor or mezzanine loft space *chūnikai 中二階, usually only about one *tsubo 坪 in area, and often suspended from the main cross beams *hari 梁, at the top of the jikubu 軸部 of the house.
It was commonly found in the Edo period vernacular houses *minka 民家 in parts of the Kawachi 河内 plain and Izumi 和泉 near Osaka, and on the island of Sado 佐渡 and was believed to have been used as servant accommodation. The earliest surviving example, at Yoshimura 吉村 House, Habikino 羽曳野 in Osaka, dates from ca. 1620-40. In Tokushima Prefecture, a similar space was referred to as *hiroshiki 広敷.