page_title: Giyōfū architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Giyōfū architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Former Kaichi School in Matsumoto, Japan. 日本語: 旧開智学校、長野県松本市。
context_page_description: Giyōfū architecture was a style of Japanese architecture which outwardly resembled Western-style construction but relied on traditional Japanese techniques. It flourished during the early Meiji period, and disappeared as knowledge of Western techniques became more widespread.
  Giyōfū style buildings were built by Japanese carpenters using traditional construction techniques, but with a layout and external ornamentation based on observation of Western-style buildings in person or in photographs, or based on design books such as the Shinsen Hinagata Taisho Daisen, which offered molding designs which could be reproduced. Many of these buildings were symmetric and made use of porticoes or verandahs with columns, classical pediments, sash windows, and ornamental gables.
  Giyōfū style buildings often contained Dutch, British, French, and/or Italian architectural elements, combined with a Japanese-style roof. The Japanese roofs on Western-faced Japanese timber frames became signifiers of giyōfū architecture. The clearest evidence for this is in the karahafu and mukuri roofs sometimes attached to these Western-influenced structures.
context_section_description: Giyōfū architecture (擬洋風建築, Giyōfū-kenchiku, "pseudo-Western-style architecture") was a style of Japanese architecture which outwardly resembled Western-style construction but relied on traditional Japanese techniques. It flourished during the early Meiji period, and disappeared as knowledge of Western techniques became more widespread.
  Giyōfū style buildings were built by Japanese carpenters using traditional construction techniques, but with a layout and external ornamentation based on observation of Western-style buildings in person or in photographs, or based on design books such as the Shinsen Hinagata Taisho Daisen, which offered molding designs which could be reproduced. Many of these buildings were symmetric and made use of porticoes or verandahs with columns, classical pediments, sash windows, and ornamental gables.
  Giyōfū style buildings often contained Dutch, British, French, and/or Italian architectural elements, combined with a Japanese-style roof. The Japanese roofs on Western-faced Japanese timber frames became signifiers of giyōfū architecture. The clearest evidence for this is in the karahafu and mukuri roofs sometimes attached to these Western-influenced structures.
caption: Former Kaichi school building (1876), an example of giyōfū architecture
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