Japanese Kawara Tile

Kawara (瓦) is the Japanese word for a fired clay roof tile. Kawara roofs, with their regular rows of grey or reddish-brown tiles and heavy ornamented ridges, are one of the most recognisable features of Japanese temples, castles and houses.

History

Ceramic roof tiles came to Japan with Buddhist temple building. The Kondō (main hall) of Hōryū-ji near Nara is roofed with ceramic tiles on an irimoya (hip-and-gable) form. For many centuries tiles were largely reserved for temples, palaces and castles, while ordinary houses were thatched or shingled. In the Edo period, urban townhouses (machiya) and storehouses (dōzō) adopted tiles because they resisted fire better than thatch; storehouses combined thick earth plaster walls with tiled roofs.

Ornaments

Ridge ends carry onigawara, ornamental tiles or statues depicting an ogre (oni) or fearsome beast. They were historically used on Buddhist temples and now appear on many traditionally styled buildings. Their likely ancestor is the oni-ita, a painted board meant to protect against roof leaks, and before them came floral ornaments called hanagawara. Onigawara became strongly three-dimensional over time.

Production centres

Kawara are made in several regional centres, each with its own clays and finishes. The best known are:

• Sanshu (Mikawa), in Aichi Prefecture around Takahama, a major centre of the ceramic industry.
• Sekishu, centred on Gōtsu in Shimane Prefecture, long known for its reddish-brown glazed tiles.
• Awaji, on Awaji Island in Hyōgo Prefecture, known for smoked silver-grey (ibushi) tiles.

Types and fixing

Traditional roofs used separate concave and convex tiles (hongawara), while the single-piece S-shaped sangawara became standard on houses. Older roofs bedded tiles in a thick layer of clay, which made them heavy. Modern guidelines require tiles to be fixed mechanically to battens with nails, screws or wire, improving resistance to typhoon winds and earthquakes.

Today

Kawara compete with lighter metal and fibre-cement roofing on new houses, but remain the standard for temples, shrines and traditional-style homes.