File:JapanHomes064 ROOF WITH SHINGLES PARTLY LAID.jpg

English: From original book: "The shingler's nail-box has the bottom prolonged and perforated, so that it may be temporarily nailed to the roof (fig. 64).... Fig. 64, A, represents a portion of a shingled roof with courses of shingles partially laid, and a shingler's nail-box held to the roof. The box has two compartments, — the larger compartment holding the bamboo pegs; and the smaller containing iron nails, used for nailing down the boards and for other purposes. There are other methods of shingling, in which the courses of shingles are laid very closely together, and also in many layers. Remarkable examples of this method may be seen in some of the temple roofs, and particularly in the roofs of certain temple gateways in Kioto, where layers of the thinnest shingles, forming a mass a foot or more in thickness, are compactly laid, with the many graceful contours of the roof delicately preserved. The edges of the roof are beautifully rounded, and the eaves squarely and accurately trimmed. On seeing one of these-roofs, one is reminded of a thatched roof, which this style seems evidently intended to imitate. The rich brown bark of the hi-no-ki tree [Chamaecyparis obtusa] is also used in a similar way; and a very compact and durable roof it appears to make. In better shingled house-roofs it is customary to secure a wedge-shaped piece of wood parallel to the eaves, to which the first three or four rows of shingles are nailed; other courses of shingles are then laid on very closely, and thus a thicker layer of shingles is secured (fig. 64, B)."