{{Short description|Audience hall in Japanese architecture}} {{Italic title|reason=:Category:Japanese words and phrases}} [[File:Shiroshoin Nishi Honganji.jpg|thumb|250 px|The Shiro-shoin at Hongan-ji]] {{Quote box |width=200px |align=right |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=right |quote = As life styles change, so does architecture. In few other ways can we see so directly and concretely the changes in the social and cultural life of the Muromachi elite as in the development of shoin-style architecture and the invention of the new form of domestic structure known as the kaisho. |source = Ito Teiji,<ref name=histcol>{{cite web|title=Historical and Societal Aspects|url=http://www.columbia.edu/itc/ealac/V3613/shoin/history.htm|work=www.columbia.edu|publisher=University of Columbia|access-date=15 July 2011}}</ref> |quoted = 1 }}
{{nihongo|'''''Shoin'''''|書院|drawing room or study}} is a type of audience hall in Japanese architecture that was developed during the Muromachi period.<ref>Ueda, Atsushi. (1990). The Inner Harmony of the Japanese House</ref> The term originally meant a study and a place for lectures on the sūtra within a temple, but later it came to mean just a drawing room or study.<ref>Iwanami {{nihongo|Kōjien|広辞苑}} Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version</ref> The ''shoin-zukuri'' style takes its name from this room. In a shoin-zukuri building, the ''shoin'' is the ''zashiki'', a tatami-room dedicated to the reception of guests.
The emerging architecture of the Muromachi period was subsequently influenced by the increasing use of ''shoin''. One of the most noticeable changes in architecture to arise from the ''shoin'' came from the practice of lining their floors with tatami mats.<ref name="Welch">{{cite web |url=http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/architecture/japanese-audience-hall-interview.cfm |title=Curator interview |author=Matthew Welch |work=www.artsmia.org |publisher=The Art of Asia |access-date=14 July 2011}}</ref> Since ''tatami'' mats have a standardized size, the floor plans for ''shoin'' rooms had to be developed around the proportions of the ''tatami'' mat; this in turn affected the proportions of doors, the height of rooms, and other aspects of the structure.<ref name="Welch"/> Before the ''shoin'' popularized the practice of lining floors with ''tatami'' mats it had been standard to bring out only a single ''tatami'' mat for the highest-ranking person in the room to sit on.<ref name="Welch"/>
The architecture surrounding and influenced by the ''shoin'' quickly developed many other distinguishing features. Since the guests sat on the floor instead of on furniture, they were positioned at a lower vantage point than their Chinese counterparts who were accustomed to using furniture.<ref name="Welch"/> This lower vantage point generated such developments as the suspended ceilings which functioned to make the room feel less expansive, and also meant that the ceiling's rafters were no longer visible as they were in China.<ref name="Welch"/> The new suspended ceilings also allowed for more elaborate decoration, resulting in many highly ornate suspended ceilings in addition to the much simpler ones.<ref name="Welch"/> Other characteristic developments to arise from the lower vantage point were the ''tokonoma'' and ''chigaidana''. The ''tokonoma'' was an elevated recess built into the wall to create a space for displaying Chinese art, which was popular at the time, at a comfortable eye level.<ref name="Welch"/> The ''chigaidana'', or "staggered shelves", were shelving structures built into the ''tokonoma'' to display smaller objects.<ref name="Welch"/> At the same time as the development of the ''shoin'' architecture, ''fusuma'', or "sliding doors", came to be a popular way to divide rooms.<ref name="Welch"/> To accommodate the sliding doors, builders began creating square-shaped columns.<ref name="Welch"/>
The asymmetry of the ''tokonoma'' and ''chigaidana'' pair, along with the squared pillars, differentiated the ''shoin'' design from the Chinese design of the time, which favored symmetric pairs of furniture and round pillars.<ref name="Welch"/> Soon after its advent, ''shoin'' architecture became associated with these evolving elements as it became the predominant format for formal gathering rooms.<ref name="Welch"/>
== References == {{reflist}} {{Japanese architectural elements}} {{Buddhist temples in Japan}}
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Category:Japanese architectural features Category:Rooms