中門造民家の形態発生論的考察

越後を中心地域として

抄録

Chumon-zukuri means a private house, with a Chumon (originally “middle gate”), which is in the shape of the letter L. This type of house is geographically distributed in the chilly, snowy districts of the northern part of Japan proper. The mode of life there necessitates placing a hall in the center of the main house, which fact is the basic cause of so many Chumon in these districts.
Like la maison-bloc, Chumon-zukuri contains everything in one house, including a pen, a workroom and others; and therefore, is a suitable type of house for life in a snowy province. For this reason, although it originally came into existence on the plains, it is at present most widely popular in snowy districts among the mountains.
In the first place, Chumon-zukuri came into being as a private living-room of a wealthy farmer, or as the earth floored workroom of a stable about the middle of the 17th Century. It was so named because it bore a resemblance to the Chumon in the house of the military caste, which house formed an L shape. The name Chumon is originated from that of Shinden-zukuri in the Heian period. It meant in those days the central side-gate, and later the extended part in the house of the military caste, and finally has come to mean the projected part of a farm house.