Senjokaku, the Hall of One Thousand Tatami Mats

Very close to the Itsukushima Shrine you can visit another landmark of Miyajima, the Senjokaku. Built in 1587 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Senjokaku was intended to be a Buddhist library and a place for chanting Buddhist sutras. However, because Hideyoshi died, it seems that the building was never finished and that's why it wasn't painted, there is no ceiling and it doesn't have an outer gate.

Senjokaku can be translated as the "hall of one thousand tatami mats", a figurative name to refer to a very large building - the largest structure on Miyajima Island. But the fact is that, traditionally, the size of the rooms is measured in Japan in tatami mats. For example, the traditional tea rooms have a surface of 4½ mats and the shops have about 5½ mats. Of course, there are also differences from zone to zone, because the standard tatami size varies a little: from 0.88 x 1.76 meters in Tokyo, to 0.955 x 1.91 meters in Kyoto...