Ancient Architecture of Japan
The Kofun period burial mounds (3rd-6th centuries) for the rulers and the high aristocracy of ancient Yamato were massive tomb hills shaped like keyholes, surrounded by multiple water-filled moats.

According to the religious beliefs of the Japanese at that time, after death, a person would go to another world accompanied by their retinue and various belongings. The clay funerary sculpture known as haniwa could depict warriors, musicians, domestic animals, sea vessels, everyday items, and even entire houses.
A 5th-century haniwa portrays a structure with multiple entrances, each adorned with a covered porch: all the roofs feature an overhanging ridge capped by a distinctive high, sloping arch.
Another haniwa (see photo below) depicts a house of simpler construction—clearly showing the crossed rafters at the roof’s ends, along with the ties between the two ridge beams.



The roofs of traditional Japanese structures, still found in rural areas and known as minka (“folk houses”), are often thatched and are typically quite massive in their construction.

More intriguing in this haniwa is that this grand house is enclosed by a high wall with a gate under an ornately designed top. Later, similar high-walled structures became common for Shinto shrines, the ancient Japanese religion. The most famous and revered shrine is the Ise Jingu, a complex dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu, with its history in Ise Province dating back to the 4th century.
The inner sanctuary of the complex, Naiku, remains a sacred space, completely inaccessible to pilgrims and tourists. Inside the small temple is a bronze mirror, one of the Three Sacred Treasures of the Japanese emperors, symbolizing the lineage’s connection to the sun goddess.
Shinto beliefs included the mandatory renewal of the deity’s—kami’s—residence, leading to the unique tradition of periodically rebuilding the shrine: about every 20 years, the old complex was carefully dismantled, and an exact replica was constructed simultaneously. This practice not only preserved the ritual purity of the temple but also ensured the continuous maintenance of the building tradition, passing down the ancient craftsmanship secrets from master to apprentice. However, this tradition was interrupted several times due to the wars of the Warring States period (15th-16th centuries) and the economic difficulties of other eras. The shrine’s most recent reconstruction took place in 1993, and while the Naiku shrine is not Japan’s oldest wooden structure, it preserves the appearance of the earliest Japanese temples to this day.
The shrine’s simple wooden structure with a massive roof stands on high stilts. This building type is called azekura and originated from granaries and warehouses that required natural ventilation in Japan’s humid and hot climate. It is no surprise that such a simple and effective design was used in the 8th century for the construction of the imperial treasure house Shosoin on the grounds of the legendary Todai-ji temple in Nara.

This monumental structure is externally very simple: numerous pillars create a clear and confident rhythm in the treasure house’s stilt foundation. The roof, with its wide overhanging eaves, is tiled, and the triangularly hewn logs alternate with broad, smooth sliding doors. This hewing method not only creates a play of light and shadow on the walls but also facilitates the building’s ventilation. In dry, hot weather, the logs shrink, creating numerous air gaps; in wet seasons, the logs swell with moisture, sealing off the storage area from dampness. This storage method is practical for both grain and the precious rarities housed in Shosoin, which include works of art from China, Korea, India, Persia, and even Europe, some of the earliest dating back to the construction of Shosoin and the entire Todai-ji temple in the 8th century.
Thus, ancient architecture has been preserved not only in archaeological sites but also in rural minka and in the living, continually renewed monuments of temple architecture.