The Functions Desired and Worldliness of Kyoto Gave a Further Push to Lattice Development
The uniqueness of Kyoto latticework does not come into view when generalizing the lattice as a combination of the squared wooden strips running up, down, and across. Latticework designs and patterns are formed based on the type of business and the functionality that such a business requires, as the expression “you know what kind of business is conducted if you see the lattice” suggests. For example, rice and sake vendors used a kind of rough-hewn latticework (aragōshi) that is thick, solid, and wide, a type known generally as daikōshi (lit. “bench lattice” or “platform lattice”). Because the shopkeepers needed something that would not be damaged even if it were hit by bags of rice or barrels of sake, these lattices used thick strips that were 90 to 105 mm square to make them solid constructs that were not removable. The lattices for sake vendors would be painted in red ochre, while maintaining the white image of rice was important for rice salesmen and so the planed and hewn base of the wood would be left white. The itoya gōshi — known as “the kings of Kyoto latticework” — were used by shops that sold yarn or thread. The pattern of these was known as the oyako gōshi (lit. “parent-child lattice”), using a regularity that combined longer “parent” (oya) strips with short-cut “child” (ko) elements. The reason why the upper parts featured cut patterns was because this could allow even more light to come into a shop. A shop whose latticework with two of every three strips cut short sold clothing; those with three of every four cut sold thread or cords; while those with four of every five cut sold woven goods. These patterns were contrived to guarantee the shops got the amount of light they respectively needed, but before long those patterns came to speak by proxy for the respective businesses. “When they saw a lattice, Kyoto people would know what kind of business the shop offered,” Mr. Tokuda explains. “Lattices had a part to play in how business was done in Kyoto-style. Commerce was conducted in a less-obtrusive fashion. Shopkeepers did not put out any signs but instead just hung a shop curtain (noren) to indicate they were open for business.”
Don’t Flaunt Your Skills, Use Them in the Places That Don’t Show
Mr. Tokuda believes that this is the starting point for Kyoto-style monozukuri (a concept that suggests particular ways of making things). Tokuda Corporation is an artisanal enterprise that continues to make lattices and other Kyoto-style joinery by hand. When he is asked what Kyoto-style joinery is, Mr. Tokuda routinely says, “It’s nothing. If I had to say something, I would say it is commonplace joinery.” The reason he says this is because it looks commonplace to the eye. The true value of the joinery is only revealed when it has been incorporated into a building. Great care goes into the little details that are determined by the place where the creations are to be installed, the size of the space, and how they will be used. In Kyoto, it is customary to remove the lattices that front the streets only during the gala Gion Festival; however, one normally simply cannot tell where the joints for removing them are. On a surface that has been resquared into pieces, the areas that are to be inserted using sophisticated joiner techniques are made to be slightly bigger than the holes into which they will be inserted. They stay firmly in place just by being hammered in, can be removed for the one time a year they need to be, and will continue to be used in that fashion for decades. That feature brings together a quite sophisticated technique.
What gets through, what gets blocked? Lattices are formed solely from a series of vertical and horizontal elements. They have been developed with order-made techniques that maximize the functions required of them while doing away with any fanciness. The opportunities to create latticework that requires such sophisticated skills are declining these days. However, the underlying designs with their ability to control lines of sight in modern high-density urban living are regarded highly not only in Japan but around the world.