Word of the Day
縁側
En·GA·wa
Japanese
“The narrow veranda that runs along the edge of a traditional Japanese house — neither fully inside nor fully outside — gave Japanese domestic space its defining transitional threshold, a place where the boundary between shelter and garden dissolves.”
The Japanese word engawa (縁側) names the narrow wooden veranda or corridor that runs along the exterior edge of a traditional Japanese building, between the interior rooms and the garden or exterior ground. The word is composed of two elements: en (縁), meaning 'edge,' 'border,' 'connection,' or 'relationship,' and gawa or kawa (側), meaning 'side.' The compound captures the engawa's essential character as a liminal space — a 'relationship-side' or 'connection-edge' that is neither entirely inside the building nor entirely outside it. The raised wooden floor of the engawa typically extends a meter or so from the outer wall of the house, covered by the overhanging eave of the roof and positioned between the interior rooms (to which it opens via shoji or fusuma panels) and the exterior garden.
3 stops · from Japan (Heian and Muromachi periods) to International architecture discourse