Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/92

 The windows and doorways had hinged shutters, similarly solid; the roof also was plastered pending the time when tiles became more accessible, and a supply of mud was kept for the purpose of sealing all crevices in case of necessity.

Although men were so constantly required to defend their houses against attack, no serious attempt was made until towards the close of the Military epoch to plan a building on defensive lines. Towers were sometimes erected near the gate for the purpose of watching for the approach of an enemy, and such expedients were employed as fixing nails, point upward, in the roofs of enclosures. But since no missile of greater penetrating power than arrows had to be expected, the strength of a building did not receive much consideration, and one result of that defect was that every war involved the destruction of many mansions by fire. Japanese generals were not without a sense of the value of fortifications. A celebrated example is that of the shelter trenches thrown up by the Taira leader, Munemori, at Ichi-no-Tani, in the province of Settsu, towards the close of the twelfth century. This work is often spoken of as a "castle," but in truth it was nothing more than a field fortification. Between beetling cliffs on the south and a precipitous slope on the north there lay a plateau which the Taira captain protected on the east and west by deep fosses, embankments, and strong palisades, effectual obstacles, if