Shoin-zukuri

Shoin-zukuri (Japanese: 書院造; 'study room architecture') is a style of Japanese architecture developed in the Muromachi, Azuchi–Momoyama and Edo periods that forms the basis of today's traditional-style Japanese houses. Characteristics of the shoin-zukuri development were the incorporation of square posts and washitsu floors, i.e. those completely covered with tatami. The style takes its name from the shoin, a term that originally meant a study and a place for lectures on sutras in a temple, but which later came to mean just a drawing room or study.