“shoin-zukuri: Style of Japanese domestic architecture. The name is taken from a feature called the shoin, a study alcove with a built-in desk. Other common features included the toko-no-ma and chigai-dana (built-in shelves). The style, derived from Zen Buddhist monastic dwellings, gradually replaced the shinden-zukuri style during the Muromachi period (1338-1573). It is characterized by a new modesty of scale (forced on the aristocracy by loss of income), asymmetry and an irregular flowing together of masses, and the use of solid wall construction and sliding shoji rather than the movable partitions that divided the main living space in the shinden.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
Mark's Text Terminal 