Fig. 229.—Balcony rail and perforated panels.
In a balcony rail ([fig. 231]) a most delicate device was made using for a middle rail a small bamboo, directly beneath [pg 246] which was another rail composed of a longitudinal section of the middle of a large bamboo; such a section included the transverse partitions of the bamboo as well. This process is often resorted to in the construction of the frame-work of delicate shōji, but it is rare to see it used in a balustrade. The effect is exceedingly refined and delicate; and one realizes that in a country where such fragile tracery is incorporated in such an exposed structure, there must be an absence of the rough, boisterous children with whom we are familiar, and who in a short time would be as disastrous to a Japanese house as a violent earthquake and typhoon combined. One further realizes that in that country men must keep their feet where they properly belong.
Fig. 230.—Balcony rail.
The balustrade is often made very solid and substantial, as may be seen in [fig. 232], sketched from the house of a celebrated potter in Kioto. The posts had metal tops, and at intervals along the upper rail metal plates were fixed.
Fig. 231.—Balcony rail.