Entrance - Genkan

The front entrance of a house. The entrance to the Hojo of a Zen temple. The front entrances of public buildings are also often called genkan. Originally, the entrance to the Hojo was called genkan because it meant the entrance to the mysterious path in Buddhism, that is, the entrance to the Buddhist priesthood.

The first facilities for this purpose at the entrance to a residence were probably the carriage porch and wooden doors built in the Chumon Corridor of the Shinden-zukuri style of architecture in the Heian period. The carriage porch of the Chumon Corridor uses double folded wooden doors between the pillars, has a noki karahafu (gabled roof), and has steps leading up to the veranda. These facilities were carried over to the Chumon of the Main Hall of the Middle Ages, and in the Main Hall, a carriage porch was installed between the pillars at the base of the short protruding Chumon, followed by a hakiage renji, a lattice window with horizontal latticework, a double-leaf wooden door between the pillars at the end, and a gable door attached to the veranda beyond that. The carriage porch, end wooden doors, and gable doors were used differently depending on the status of the holder. In the early modern period, the Chumon became more formal, and the shikidai and genkan became entrances and exits. At first, the low wooden floor onto which the protruding palanquin was lowered was called the genkan, and the intermediary room was called the shikidai, but in the Edo period, the whole area came to be called the genkan. Since palanquins and carriages were still used in the residences of nobles in the early modern period, the main entrance was called the koshiyose or kurumayose rather than the genkan.

Private houses were not allowed to have genkan (front porches), and town houses had large doors at the entrance to the passageway, and even farmhouses had entrances to the dirt floors as their entrances, but upper-class private houses such as village headmen were allowed to have genkan (front porches) to welcome officials. In the Meiji period, this prohibition was lifted, and common people's houses began to have genkan (front porches). However, until Japan was defeated in the war, genkan (front porches) retained a sense of formality, with a front porch for the master and guests, an inner porch for the family, and a back door for servants. In recent years, this distinction has disappeared in urban housing, and many houses now only have one genkan (front porch). In public buildings, with a few exceptions such as elementary schools, people still wear their shoes inside, but no matter how Western styles are adopted, people still do not wear their shoes inside Japanese homes, and it is hard to imagine that modern genkan (front porches) will disappear from Japanese homes in the near future.

[Hirai Sei]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

住宅の正面の出入口。禅宗寺院の方丈への入口。公共建築の正面出入口も玄関とよばれることが多い。仏教における玄妙の道に入る入口、すなわち仏門に入る入口を意味することから、方丈への入口を玄関とよんだのが初めである。

　住宅の入口にそのための施設を設けたのは平安時代の寝殿造の中門(ちゅうもん)廊につくられた車寄(くるまよせ)や板扉が初めであろう。中門廊の車寄は、柱間に両折板扉を用い、軒唐破風(のきからはふ)をつけ、縁に昇るための段を設けている。これらの施設は中世の主殿造の中門に受け継がれ、主殿では短く突き出した中門の付け根の柱間に車寄を設け、続いて連子(れんじ)を横に入れた連子窓である刎上(はきあげ)連子、端の柱間に両開きの板扉を入れ、その先の落縁(おちえん)に妻戸をつける。これら車寄、端の板扉、妻戸を身分によって使い分けていた。近世になると中門は形式化し、式台および玄関が出入口になる。初め突き出た駕籠(かご)を下ろすための低い板床を玄関、取次の部屋を式台とよんでいたが、江戸時代に入って全体を玄関とよぶようになった。公家(くげ)住宅では近世にも輿(こし)や車を使っていたので、正面入口は玄関ではなく、輿寄あるいは車寄である。

　民家では玄関をつくることが許されず、町屋(まちや)では通り庭の入口に大戸を設け、農家でも土間への入口が出入口であったが、庄屋(しょうや)など上層の民家では役人を迎えるために玄関をつくることが許された。明治になってその禁がなくなり、庶民の住宅にも玄関がつくられるようになった。しかし、敗戦まで玄関には格式が残っていて、主人や客のための表玄関と、家族のための内玄関、使用人のための勝手口が使い分けられていたが、近年の都市住宅では区別がなくなり、玄関一つの家も多くなった。公共建築では、小学校などわずかな例を除いて屋内でも下足のままであるが、いかに洋風が取り入れられても日本の住宅では下足のまま生活することはなく、近い将来日本の住宅から現在のような玄関がなくなることは考えられない。

［平井　聖］

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