This One Rings a Bell (12)

Post 12 in the series, so far covering the design of a Japanese bell tower or shōrō (鐘楼). Construction phase to follow, once the design is fully realized. I am at last getting closer now in that regard.

I thought I'd post up a few pictures of where things stand now that I've worked out the gable end treatment. I hope you'll agree that it is really starting to look like a building now:


I'm really pleased with the improvements realized by re-sizing and re-profiling the fukiji.

The gable eave edge build-up consists of 3 layers:


The lower layer, forming the wide board, is the hafū - what in English would be termed a verge or barge board. Above that is a piece which shows it's edge to the front, and climbs on top of the edge of the hafū - this is termed a nobori-uragō. On top of that, just like with the main roof eave edge, is a fukiji, which will be shingled on its face and exposed underside with copper. The slightly down-tilted board on the top of the assembly is termed the koma-bitai, or 'horse head'. In a copper shingled roof, the slope of the koma bitai is typically fairly slight, while on a tiled roof it is more pronounced.

A bird's eye view, showing how the slight lean given the verge board assembly gives it a slight prow forward from this perspective:


The slight lean of the verge board assembly forward is done to counter the effect of visual foreshortening, when viewing the structure from ground level. If the hafū assembly were dead vertical, to the eye it looks slightly as if it is tilting back into the roof.

Next is a view one might have from the ground:


Last one for today:


At this point virtually all of the internal structural components are not illustrated. A decision about whether to go with a copper or tiled decorative ridge needs to be settled before those structural elements can be configured, as the weight difference between the copper and the tile treatments is considerable. At this point the upper ridgepole is provisional, being sized for the case of using copper for the decorative ridge.

Thanks for visiting by the Carpentry Way on your travels today. --> on to post 13