Japanese traditional architecture, Tanrou

Visiting Japan, especially in the Buddhist temples but also in some Shinto shrines, you will surely notice these beautiful covered corridors, surrounding the inner courtyards, similar to the European cloisters, called in Japanese kairo.

The simplest type of kairo is called tanrou, a single corridor with the width of about 2 meters (1 ken). Here is one of the most famous such corridors, the tanrou from Kasuga Taisha in Nara, decorated with the most beautiful bronze lanterns I have seen, all donated by worshipers.