Castle palace practicalities

[Jaak]

There are numerous descriptions of Japanese commoners´ houses and numerous houses themselves. These normally include a kitchen. When the commoner is rich enough and by the applicable sumptuary laws permitted to have raised wooden floors, the kitchen is in the ground level part of the house.

Tea huts are built for the nobles. They have a hearth and a very small mizuya - both raised to the level of the floor of the hut.

But where is cooking done in a samurai palace, like Ninomaru?

Do receptions for guests commonly include banquets/dining? I understand that the Edo period Japanese had abandoned the limited use of chairs and tables that had been introduced in Asuka period, and each diner ate from a small individual tray put on tatami floor level. So will samurai palaces normally incorporate a kitchen associated with a reception room?

Also, the residents, and probably guests, may need to use privies - so privies are needed somewhere in the palace. The lord of the palace may also be using a bathroom.

So does anyone have a depiction of a samurai palace where the placement and details of these rooms is mace clear?

[JLBadgley]

Depends on the "palace", but the kitchen was either on the ground floor or in an out building, in my experience. I've almost always seen the kitchen on the ground floor, given the way the stoves were built.

A banquet (kyo?) was originally large trays of food, from which people took their food. That slowly changed and the honzen style of banquets became more prominent, with each person getting their own individual tray (or trays) with the food arranged on top. These later banquets were often organized as "ichiju-sansai" (one 'soup' to three dishes) This could vary, but in general it seems to be the format followed in many Edo period feasts.

Lavatories are another issue. I've seen special rooms in castles and other palaces. In the Heian period, there were holes in the walls where the water from the gutters entered into the residence, flowed through and area, and then out. A larger hole was dug, with one or two planks set astride it. This might have had a roof over it for inclement weather.

I meant to do a diorama on this at one point: "Going through the ages."


-Josh

[Tatsunoshi]

Nijo Castle in Kyoto is an example of a palace (while called a castle, it's more of a daimyo palace) where the kitchen was located in an outbuilding a short distance from the main structure. Himeji Castle's kitchen was in the main floor of the tenshu.

[ltdomer98]

[JLBadgley]

[shikisoku]

Can 藩邸（Hantei） be called palace?
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[Bethetsu]

[lordameth]

I like the word "mansion" for 藩邸。
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My blog on Japanese art & history: http://chaari.wordpress.com

紫水晶殿 - The Amethyst Lord