The traditional architecture of Japan is not only remarkable for its curved up angles with roofs. Pay attention to the early fortress buildings of Japan hiajiro - protected by stone walls fortifications with a tall tower of tanshu and covered passages. Some principles of the construction of chiaradziro are also used for building modern buildings.

Pagodas deserve special mention - lovely multi-tiered houses, whose name translates as "treasure tower": their form embodies the main treasure of Eastern philosophy - the principle of cyclicity .In addition to beauty and deep meaning, the pagodas are distinguished by high seismic stability: the central core of the building is light and flexible, and the tower skeleton is more massive, due to which the difference in vibration frequencies during an earthquake is achieved: part of the building begins to resonate, the second extinguishes vibrations and the building does not swing .With the advent of a variety of colors in Japan, it has become one of the traditional adornments of local buildings .Especially popular was the red slate with golden edges .

The traditional Japanese house Minka (literally "house (s) of people") was originally the home of the non-Samurai part of the population - Japanese peasants, artisans and traders .However, eventually all the traditional Japanese houses began to be called .There are urban houses matiya (machiya) and country houses - noka (nōka) and gyoka (gyoka) - fishing lodges .They were erected from improvised materials: wood, bamboo, clay, grass and straw, and the house supports were made of wood with a clever structure without the use of nails so that windows could be made in any part of the walls .The outer walls were shoji skeletons made of bamboo and clay benches, and instead of internal walls, sliding partitions were made of rice paper or Fusum screen .To strengthen the foundation, a stone was sometimes used, but it was not used directly during construction .

Town houses matia were built with gable roofs of kirizuma (kirizuma), covered with shingles or tiles. The roofs of the night were either four-pitch straw (yosemune-yosemune), or made with numerous pediments, covered with shingles and straw (irimoya-irimoya). Sometimes the roof was covered with tiles from baked clay.

And, finally, we can not but mention the Gassho-zukuri constructions (gasshō-zukuri - literally "folded hands") preserved in just two villages in central Japan (Shirakawa in Gifu Prefecture and Gokayama in Toyama Prefecture) .The title reflects their main feature: the roof slopes at an angle of 60 ° converge as hands folded in prayer .Perhaps, these are the most recognizable Japanese buildings .In addition, their high roofs could do without a chimney, and they reliably protected the house from moisture: snow or rain, without delay, rolled down, and the roof covering straw almost did not rot .

About what else interesting you can see in Japan you can read on the page "Sights of Japan".