Mise is a peculair construction attached to houses in fishing villages of Anan District, on the southeastern coast of Shikoku Island.
Mise is composed of upper part (
Uwa-Mise) and lower part (
Shita-Mise);
Shita-Mise serves as a kind of veranda when it is pulled down, and
Uwa-Mise and
Shita-Mise together form a shutter (
Amado) when the former pulled down and the latter lifted up. The form of
Uwa-Mise is similar to
Shitomi-do (latticed shutter), which are observed in some houses in Kyôto and its neighborhood. But
Mise is different from
Shitomi-do or
Battari-Shogi in function, for it acts as a cover against rain.
Mise is distributed only in fishing villages in the whole Kaifu-gun of Tokushima Prefecture and a part of Tôyô-chô in Kôchi Prefecture, but not in agricultural districts in the same region. In particular, it is densely distributed along Tokushima-Kôchi prefectural boundary. Within fishing villages, there are few
Mise along shopping streets, whereas there are plenty in coastal villages where many fishermen live. In villages where population density is low, there are many
Mise even along highways.
Mise is attached to the eave-side along with
Genkan (entrance) of the
Hira-iri type house (the house with an entrance on the eave-side) which is dominant in coastal fishing villages in Anan District.
There are four sizes of
Mise, 90, 135, 180 and 270cm long. 90cm-
Mise is predominant in the north, 135cm-
Mise in the south, and 180cm-
Mise in the central part of the region.
The forms of
Mise are divided into three types: (1) a type which has both
Uwa-Mise and
Shita-Mise, (2) a type which has only
Shita-Mise, (3)
Mise in
Takamado-style. The third type is predominant in the north, the second in the central, whereas in the south all the
Mise belong to the first type.
The size of house of the coastal fishing villages in this district is generally very small. In order to make use of the small
Omote-no-ma (living room) as widely as possible, people use
Shita-Mise as a supplementary place for work, pastime and so on.
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