During the Edo period, Sazae-do (formerly Shoj 正 -ji, Entsu Sanritsu-do) was built in Aizuwakamatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture. A one-way double helix that goes up and down as it goes up the sloping slope. At that time, once the 33rd Kannon statue of the Western world was enshrined, the architecture with plenty of entertainment that the Kannon pilgrimage came here alone. We asked the architect, Mr. Nobutori Fujimori, to introduce the highlight to what kind of structure it is.
Photo: Mitsumasa Fujitsuka (From "Japanese Wooden Heritage")
Eisaido (Sazae-do) is the only one in the world, "a double-helix structure of a wooden frame"
Aizu Sazae-do is a double helix structure with a hexagonal three-layer structure that makes full use of 16 pillars in the center, 6 pillars in the center and 6 corner pillars. In Europe, spiral staircases have been seen since ancient times in church towers, etc. However, in Japanese architecture there were basically only straight stairs.
Illustration of Aizu Sazae-do and Fujimori-sensei (illustration: Tomomi Katsube)
During the Edo period, Sazaedo (Pilgrimage Kannon Hall), which was popular from Kanto to Tohoku, is also drawn in many Ukiyo-e paintings, but the spiral structure is only Aizu Sazaedo. Moreover, it is an unusual mechanism called double spiral. First of all, you enter from the front, go up the spiral slope clockwise, and go over the drum bridge at the top, and it becomes a downward counterclockwise slope for a while and leads to the exit on the back of the first floor. In other words, it's a one way street where you can't get up and down.
Two amazing ideas at Sazaedo
A ladder is installed on the wall along the slope of the spiral. In the past, one of the thirty-three Kannon statues of the West was placed at a height of approximately 70 cm. This is an interesting idea that you can pilgrize the 33rd place at the end of the street before you leave the Sazae-do hall.
The statue of Kannon has been transferred by the abolition of Buddha Buddha and now it takes the picture amount of "Imperial twenty-four Takashi" (Aizu Zen Moral Textbook)
There is a cloud-shaped sculpture above the lion holding the Kannon. On the lower side of the dumplings, there is a small container for the change. This is funny. If you don't bother collecting 33 boxes of rice boxes, put a small coin or rice here and it will be a shelter type that gathers all in a large coin box under the edge along with a mallet. ing. It is thought that it is rationally thought that there is only the creation of the residence.
Comparable to Hokusai and Kuniyoshi! Decoration of rule violation dragon beyond architecture
A strange thing is happening here as a way of building architecture. The front dragon is moving excessively. As a rule of architecture, the structure and the decoration are basically different, and since the dragon is a sculpture, it does not go to the main building.
I feel the passion of the craftsman that this is still to the sculpture of the dragon which swirls on the pillar of the front entrance
However, this dragon has been tangled with the main building. Three pillars play like a jungle gym with pillars, beams and waves. The architecture of Azuchi-Momoyama was no matter how flashy it was in the columns and structural materials, and protected the area and decorated it before the structural materials. However, in the Edo period, it became excessive from around Nikko Toshogu, and violated the rule that the decoration eats up to the structure. It is like a dragon like that extreme, an expression of the spiritual culture of the times.
Also pay attention to the floor made of Sazaedo and slopes only
If you think that the slope of Aizu Sazae-do (Sazae-do) is a spiral staircase, it is not so, and non-slip bars are hit on the floor surface. I thought it was a stairs, so I was surprised to go there.
Slope going down helically in a hexagonal column building
Then the lower side of the floor on which you are standing is the ceiling of the outward path. At the same time, the non-slip bars hit by the floor boards and boards fill the gaps in the ceiling on the way out so that the waste does not fall down. In addition, even if it turns around in a spiral, the building itself is a hexagon, so it is not a circular motion, so it bends sharply, and a double spiral feeling is not transmitted even in photos. Walking up, you will not understand the sense of coming down as it is actually walking.
Sazae-do, I was surprised at how to use the new members!
Even so, I feel that I built a double spiral wooden. In wooden construction, all materials are processed according to the drawings and almost assembled on site. I think that it is a great skill and skill to properly understand this complicated double helix structure with your head and build it on the spot.
Focus on beam members. Normally, wooden members are basically horizontal and vertical. This bent member seems to have been cut out from a fairly large tree
The power of samurai since Azuchi Momoyama was poured into architecture until around the year Kinkai (1624-1644), but with the ban of the Shogunate government, no flashy architecture was created, and among the townspeople Its own aesthetics and technology gradually accumulated, and in the latter half of the Edo period the technology was over-ripened. How to take the parts Even if you deliberately take care ... I think that the carpenter's girder wanted to exert power.
Fujimori Terunobu Born in 1946 in Nagano Prefecture. Architect, architect historian (engineering doctor). Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, Director of the Edo-Tokyo Museum. Fujimori's works, such as houses with dandelions and leeks planted on the roof, teahouses like bird's nest boxes with peeled wood pillars and pillars with high roofs, are new and nostalgic that transcend the conventional wisdom of architecture. It is known as a creative architecture that combines it. His books include "The Tokyo Plan of the Meiji Era" (Iwanami Shoten), "Architectural Detective Adventure Tokyo Sakai" (Chikuma Shobo), and "Japanese Wooden Heritage" co-authored with photographer Mitsumasa Fujitsuka (World Culture Company).
Please also read this article about Sazaedo and Aizuwakamatsu
Aizu Wakamatsu day trip Travel reports to access attractions, cute souvenirs
My motto is "I'm serious about being stupid", and I am having fun and having fun every day.
