BUILDING LAYOUT INSIDE RURAL HOUSE COMPOUNDS IN SPECIAL PRESERVATION AREAS FOR HISTORIC LANDSCAPE

Asuka village in Nara prefecture is designated as one of the special preservation areas for historic landscape since 1960's and is well-known for its richness in historic remains originated from Asuka period. This paper focuses on rural house compounds from six different village sections. Village sections located within the plain area are classified into three groups in terms of village layout, i.e. group 1: clustered village (Okuyama, Kawahara and Noguchi), group 2: linear village along the street with east-west axis (Asuka), group 3: linear village along the street with north-south axis (Oka and Shimasho). Composition of rural house compounds in Asuka village and Nara basin consists of main building, directly attached to the main building (tsunoya) and further attached buildings (huzokuya, hanare). We firstly set up the hypothetical model for the building layout development pattern of house compounds which includes every possible extendable pattern of main and attached buildings. The model was examined by the result of our field research which revealed the fact that dominant development patterns follow the basic rule of traditional Japanese idea of the divination of the auspices of a house from its position and orientation.