Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/705

 CHINESE AND JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE. 647 The '*' taas " or '• pagodas " are of brick, covered with highly- colored and glazed tiles or marble. Such structures vary from three to nine stories, each being reduced in height and provided with projecting roof (Nos. 2S0, 2S1 e). The verandah, or portico on wooden columns, is characteristic of the style and a special feature of the dwelling-houses. Japan. — Most of the houses are of wood-framing and card-board, which is safer in the frequent earthquakes than stone or brick. Temples (No. 2S1 g) have walls formed of timber posts, and rails dividing the walls into regular oblong panels, frequently moveable. These receive either plaster, boarding, or carved and painted panels. Light is introduced principally through the doorways. An elaborate system of cornice bracketing crowns the walls forming one of the most characteristic features of Japanese buildings (No. 2S3). Immediately above the pillars a highly decorated frieze-like space occurs, over this the bracketing con sists of a series of projecting wooden corbels, supporting hea' horizontal beams and rafters with decorated faces, the total pro- jection of the roof beyond the wall often being as much as S feet. The disposition of the pillars, posts, brackets and rafters forming these cornices appears to be according to well-known modules of measurement. Compare the canons laid down bv itruvius and the Renaissance architects of Europe. Optical illusions are sometimes corrected by cambering the underside of beams {cf. Greek Architecture, page 51). c. Openings. China. — Windows are square-headed, induced bv the rectangular framing of timber posts, or lashing together of bamboos. They are frequently filled in with the lining of the oyster shell, which is as transparent as talc, and admits an effective, subdued light. Glass is seldom found in the native windows, paper being often used as a substitute. Doorwavs are of similar form varied in outline by the use of fretted pendants from the horizontal timbers. Japan. — Owing to the great projection of the roofs and the lowness of the openings, direct light from the sky is seldom obtained, the light of the interior being reflected from the ground (No. 2Sx g). The windows are either filled in with trellis work or bars on the outside, and with wooden shutters and paper slides on the inside. In connection with Temples are numerous gateways, one or two storied, the latter having muniment rooms over. D. Roofs. China. — The framing is of open timber construction (No. 2S3 d). Such roofs appear to be supported independently of the inclosing