The Samurai - Everyday Life in Traditional Japan - page 18

the corridors which run outside them by sliding screens, while the corridors are separated
from the outside world by screens of wooden lattice covered with paper to let in light, with
further heavy wooden screens, like shutters, that would be moved over at night and in bad
weather. The rooms nearest the entrance were for visiting lords, and the more worthy of
trust a person was, the nearer he could approach the audience chamber ( 13 ) and the private
apartments. Near the Shogun's position in the audience chamber were some compartments
which concealed soldiers posted there ready to dash out in an emergency, while the silent
approach of a would-be assassin could be detected because of the special construction of
the plank floor of the “nightingale” corridor which makes it “sing” as one walks along it.
(13) Audience chamber in Nijo Castle, with wax figures of the Shogun and his lords, in
court dress. To the Shogun's left is his sword-bearer, behind whom is the room in which
lurked the bodyguard.
The koku-rating of samurai was used in all sorts of circumstances. Below daimyō with
their minimum of 10,000 koku, it determined the area of the plot on which a samurai was
allowed to build. For example, 8,000 koku entitled him to about two acres, 2,000 koku to
about one acre, while the lowest income of five bales of rice gave the right to about 280
square yards. In fact, the lowest grades lived more or less communally, in “long houses,”
divided into apartments with some degree of shared accommodation. A typical arrange-
ment was to have a gateway with a row of rooms as its upper story. Lastly, there were
some samurai who had no official income at all and no right to a residence; these were
the masterless men, the rōnin, who had either abandoned their allegiance or whose master