JAPANESE MINKA LXXXIII - INTERIORS 24: LIVING AREAS 4

The oshi-ita (押板, lit. ‘pushing board’) is an ornamental element of minka, somewhat similar in appearance and function to the more well-known tokonoma (床の間), the formal ‘ornamental alcove’, but distinct from it in several ways, most immediately by its shallowness. The oshi-ita can be found in the Chūbu and Kantо̄ regions, and is commonly seen in particular in the minka of the Tama hills (Tama kyūryо̄ 多摩丘陸) region of Kanagawa Prefecture.

As the etymology suggests, the oshi-ita was originally a simple, unfixed board that sat on the floor near or against the wall, and on which an inkstone (suzuri 硯) or tray (tanzara 短皿) were placed; later by extension it came to refer to the floor board of a tokonoma or ‘study’ (shoin 書院).

There are those of the opinion that the oshi-ita is the precursor of the tokonoma, but Chūji Kawashima is inclined to think that it is of independent origin.  In minka, the oshi-ita alcove, only the depth of a post, originally had a religious function and significance: ‘prayer talismans’ (kitо̄-satsu 祈祷札 or o-fuda お札) and ritual vessels (saiki 祭器) were placed in it.  Whereas the tokonoma is installed in the formal zashiki, the oshi-ita is is not normally found there, but is located in the ‘living room’ (the hiroma ひろま or dei でい).  Within these rooms, it is commonly placed behind the yoko-za (横座), the seating position at the firepit (irori 囲炉裏) furthest from and facing the earth-floored utility area (doma 土間), and adjoining the decorative bedroom entrance (chо̄dai-gamae 帳台構え).

This oshi-ita (押板), on the left, is in its most conventional position: adjoining the formal bedroom entrance (chо̄dai-gamae 帳台構え) on the right, and behind the master’s seat (yoko-za 横座) at the firepit (irori 囲炉裏). Former residence of the Kitamura family (Kitamura-ke 北村家), Kanagawa Prefecture, now relocated to the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum (Nihon Minka-en 日本民家園), Kawasaki Prefecture.

In terms of height, the oshi-ita stops at head datum (uchi-nori 内法) height, i.e. the height of the lintels (kamoi 鴨居) of the openings; this is in contrast to the tokonoma, which is slightly taller than the uchi-nori. 

In its position at the boundary of the hiroma or dei and the bedroom (nesho 寝所), the oshi-ita normally runs in the direction of the roof beams (hari-yuki hо̄kо̄ 梁行き方向, i.e. transverse to the long axis of the building), as in the Kitamura house above; in the Kiyomiya house below, the bedroom is on the north side of the dwelling, so the partition wall and thus the oshi-ita run in the direction of the wall beams (keta-yuki houkou 桁行き方向, i.e. parallel to the long axis of the building); the latter example is considered to be an old or antiquated style of oshi-ita. 

An archetypal and rarely-seen style of south-facing oshi-ita, located ‘up’ from the yoko-za seating position at the firepit (irori). Conventionally, the yoko-za faces the doma, which contains the entrance to the dwelling, to the east; here the doma is largely partitioned off and seemingly obscured from the living area, so a south-facing yoko-za that overlooks the unpartitioned part of the doma-living boundary, where people step up from the doma into the living area, is the most logical ‘surveillance position’.

Adjacent to the oshi-ita, and to the left of the lantern in the image, is the bedroom entrance with timber panelled sliding door(s). The oshi-ita is decorated with a flower vase and Buddhist picture scroll. Former Kiyomiya family (Kiyomiya-ke 清宮家) residence, Kanagawa Prefecture; now relocated to the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum (Nihon Minka-en 日本民家園), Kawasaki Prefecture.

Plan of the Kiyomiya house, showing the south-facing oshi-ita (押板) and bedroom entrance to the rear (north) of the irori (炉) in the ‘living room’ (hiroma ひろま), and the earth-floored utility area (dēdoko でえどこ) to the east. Also shown are the lattice partitions (kо̄shi-mado 格子窓) and the ‘step up sill’ (agari-gamachi 上り框) between the hiroma and the dēdoko

Another view of the oshi-ita in the hiroma of the Kiyomiya house, between the entrance to the ‘drawing room’ (dē でえ) to the left and the entrance to the bedroom (ura-beya うらべや) to the right.

The examples below are both from Toyama Prefecture, where the oshi-ita is called the yoroi-tana (鎧棚, lit. ‘armour shelf’) because in the past it was adorned with armour (yoroi 鎧); the small suspended cabinets (tenbukuro todana 天袋戸棚, lit. ‘heaven bag door shelf’) are status signifiers, indicating the dwelling as the residence of a country samurai (gо̄shi 郷士).

The Kitamura family (Kitamura-ke 北村家) residence, Toyama Prefecture (not to be confused with the Kitamura house from Kanagawa Prefecture above). A high-status oshi-ita (押板), with a shelved upper cabinet (ten-bukuro to-dana 天袋戸棚) and full-width shelf (hito-moji dana 一文字棚). Designated an Important Cultural Property.

This example also has a ten-bukuro upper cabinet, but no intermediate shelf. Murakami family (Murakami-ke 村上家) residence, Toyama Prefecture, designated an Important Cultural Property.

The oshi-ita in the image below has a depth somewhat greater than the depth of the posts; in the mountainous areas of the Kantо̄ region there are districts where this type of oshi-ita is known as a kusundoko (九寸床, lit. ‘nine sun toko’).  Sun is the Japanese ‘inch’, standardised as 30.303 mm, so 9 sun is around 270mm.

On the right is a relatively deep oshi-ita, known as a kusun-doko. Former residence of the Emuki family (Emuki-ke 江向家), Toyama Prefecture; now relocated to the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum (Nihon Minka-en 日本民家園), Kawasaki Prefecture.

JAPANESE MINKA LXXXII - INTERIORS 23: LIVING AREAS 3

In contrast to the wall-mounted kami-dana discussed last week, the Buddhist altar (butsudan 仏壇) is set on the floor. The early custom was to place it beneath the kami-dani in the hiroma, but with the addition of the zashiki it was moved into that room. In old minka without a decorative alcove (tokonoma 床の間), a magnificent butsudan was built in the zashiki, making it an ornamental element in place of the tokonoma. The image below, of the butsudan in the Yamamoto family residence, an important cultural property in Osaka prefecture, shows one such example. Typically, the butsudan was installed into an alcove around 90cm (half a ken) square.

In old rear zashiki (oku-zashiki 奥座敷) without tokonoma, ornamentive attention is given to the front of the butsuma, so it serves as the decorative element in the zashiki. Yamamoto family (Yamamoto-ke 山本家) residence, О̄saka Prefecture.

The butsudan of the Pure Land (Jо̄do Shinshū 浄土真宗) sect of Buddhism were especially large; in areas where that sect was followed, the butsudan alcove (butsuma 仏間) was a two-ken (around 3.6m) wide closet-like space, and often constructed to project out from the rear exterior wall of the zashiki. Building the butsuma as a lean-to (geya 下屋) projecting out from the main footprint of the house ensured that there was no upper floor above it, and so it could not be walked over or stepped on from above.

At the rear of the rear zashiki (oku-zashiki 奥座敷), the Buddhist altar (butsudan 仏壇) sits in a Buddhist alcove (butsuma 仏間) of around one tatami mat in area. The butsuma is built as a lean-to structure that projects out from the gable-end wall, to ensure that there is no upper floor above it, so the taboo against treading on the floor above the butsudan cannot be broken. This style of butsuma is common in the Hokuriku region. Former residence of the Emuki family (Emuki-ke 江向家), Toyama Prefecture; now relocated to the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum (Nihon Minka-en 日本民家園), Kawasaki Prefecture.

Pure Land Buddhism thrived in the Hokuriku region; in this and other such areas, a small room of about three tatami mats (around 5m²) called the bо̄sama zashiki (坊様座敷, ‘priest zashiki’ or kyūsoku no ma (休息の間, ‘space of rest’) might be provided for the butsudan.

From the practice of praying the ‘Pure Land in All Directions’ (四方浄土 shihо̄ jо̄do) prayer before the butsudan, it was ideally oriented to face east, so that people sitting before it faced west, but there are also examples of butsudan that face south. In large houses in the Kinai region, the dark part at the centre of the house, the rear of the dei, is often made into a specialised butsuma.

The image below shows the interior of the solemn butsuma in the Kuromaru 黒丸 family house, an important cultural property, on the Noto peninsula in the Hokuriku region. In such houses, there may be a ‘house Buddha’ that is worshipped; these rooms could also be used as dо̄jо̄ (道場) for adherents to assemble in, in place of a village temple.

The butsudan of the Hokuriku region, where the Shinshū sect of Buddhism is popular, are large, and possess a solemn dignity. These spaces also served as meeting places for adherents. Kuromaru family (Kuromaru-ke 黒丸家) residence, Ishikawa Prefecture.

A butsudan and kami-dana installed in the living room (joi 常居) of an L-plan (magari-ya 曲り屋) minka. Nakayashiki family (Nakayashiki-ke 中屋敷家) residence, Iwate Prefecture.

An archetypal and rarely-seen style of south-facing oshi-ita, located ‘up’ from the yoko-za seating position at the firepit (irori). Conventionally, the yoko-za faces the doma, which contains the entrance to the dwelling, to the east; here the doma is largely walled off and obscured from the living area, so a south-facing yoko-za that overlooks the unpartitioned part of the doma-living boundary, where people step up from the doma into the living area, is the most logical ‘surveillance position’.

Adjacent to the oshi-ita, and to the left of the lantern in the image, is the bedroom entrance with timber panelled sliding door(s). The oshi-ita is decorated with a flower vase and Buddhist picture scroll. Former Kiyomiya family (Kiyomiya-ke 清宮家) residence, Kanagawa Prefecture; now relocated to the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum (Nihon Minka-en 日本民家園), Kawasaki Prefecture.

JAPANESE MINKA LXXXI - INTERIORS 22: LIVING AREAS 2

The kami-dana (神棚, lit. ‘god/deity shelf’) is just as described: a shelf (tana 棚) whose function is to hold a miniature shrine that enshrines various Shintо̄ gods (kami 神). It is usually installed above the lintel datum (uchi-nori 内法) in the hiroma or dei. The simplest kami-dana consists of nothing more than a board shelf; at a slightly higher level of refinement, a 50 - 60cm deep plastered alcove might be hollowed out in the wall, with folding doors attached to the front. In cases where the roof space above the room was provided with an upper floor (tsushi つし or ama あま), measures were taken to ensure that people did not tread on the area of floor directly above the kami-dana: a paper on which ‘上’ (ue or kami, ‘above’) was written was stuck on this area of floor, or it might also be raised slightly above the level of the surrounding floor. It was also considered preferable to avoid passing under the kami-dana wherever possible.

A magnificent kami-dana in a minka in the Noto region, where there are many such examples. The wall above the picture rail (nageshi 長押) is fully occupied by the seats of various deities. This room is divided from the zashiki and its Buddhist alcove (butsuma 仏間) beyond by austere obito (帯戸, timber panel and mid-rail sliding partitions), indicating that those of low status are not to enter the zashiki. Former Kuromaru (黒丸) family residence, Ishikawa Prefecture.

The walled area above the uchi-nori is considered the seat of the local Shintо̄ guardian deities and other especially favoured gods, a practice seen at, and perhaps originating at, Ise Shrine (Kо̄tai Jingū 皇大神宮) in Mie Prefecture. Ideally the kami-dana faces either east (an outcome of its being installed behind the yoko-za seating position at the irori, which in the typical south-facing house also faces east); or, when found in the dei, south.

Interior of the ‘living room’ (hiroma 広間, here called the omē おめえ), of a minka from Yamagata Prefecture. Below, the Buddhist altar (butsudan 仏壇) is set back behind timber-panelled doors; above, the kami-dana sits on top of the picture rail (nageshi 長押), with one corner suspended from a beam. Former Shibutani family (Shibutani-ke 渋谷家) residence, now relocated to the Chidо̄ Museum (Chidо̄ Hakubutsukan 致道博物館) in Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture.

JAPANESE MINKA LXXX - INTERIORS 21: LIVING AREAS 1

As the two characters of the Japanese word kiga (起臥) express, ‘daily life’ (the meaning of the word) consists at its most basic of cycles of ‘standing up/being awake’ (ki 起) and ‘lying down/being asleep’ (ga 臥). In the previous series of posts on sleeping spaces (nema 寝間), we looked at the ways that Japanese domestic architecture serves the ga part of this daily cycle; the next series of posts will examine the spaces that cater to the ki.

Typically, the centre of ‘living’ (kikyo 起居 lit. ‘standing being’) in the minka is the gathering room commonly called the hiroma (広間). The hiroma contains a large firepit (irori 囲炉裏), which is the focus of family dining (shokuji 食事), post-prandial ‘sitting in a circle’ (madoi まどい or danran 団らん), evening handwork (te-shigoto 手仕事), and socialising with neighbours (kinrin no kо̄sai 近隣の交際). So the hiroma has a close relationship with fire and farmwork, and is usually open to the doma-niwa (土間庭, lit. ‘earth space yard’), the indoor earth-floored utility area of the minka, with no partition between them. ‘Indoor yard’ is a more figurative translation that perhaps better captures the essence and function of the doma-niwa, which is usually just called either doma or the niwa.

This open informality of the hiroma, with the character of the family ‘tea room’ (chanoma 茶の間), means that at times there may be reasons to be reluctant to bring a stranger an outsider into it. Because of this, a part of the hiroma on the façade side of the dwelling may be partitioned off to become the room known commonly as the dei (でい), which is somewhat more formal than the hiroma; the European equivalent might be the ‘drawing room', meaning ‘room to withdraw to’. The derivation of the dei from the living space (ima 居間, lit. ‘be awake/up space’) is indicated by the fact that dei can also be written 出居, lit. ‘out of + i(ma). The dei is an ‘entertainment space’ or ‘reception space’ in which the master of the house receive guests, but its level of formality is lower than that of the zashiki, which is also used to formally entertain (settai 接待). Many four-room layout (yon-madori 四間取り) minka have a dei, but in hiroma-type three-room layout (hiroma-gata san-madori 広間型三間取り) houses, the hiroma and dei, and their functions, are combined.

Floor plan of the former Kiyomiya family (Kiyomiya-ke 清宮家) residence, Kanagawa Prefecture, now relocated to the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture. An illustrative example of a regular four-room layout (seikei yon-madori 整形四間取り), with earth-floored utility area (dē-doko でえどこ), ‘living room’ (hiroma ひろま), rear bedroom (ura-beya うらべや), ‘drawing room’ (dei でい, here dē でえ), and bedroom (heya へや) labelled.

The dē of the Kiyomiya house, much emptier in its museum state than it would have been in use. This particular dē does not have an irori.

The dei will often contain an irori, and, in the wall to the rear of the irori, a Shintо̄ kami-dana (神棚, ‘god shelf’), Buddhist altar (butsudan 仏壇), and sometimes a shallow decorative alcove known as an oshi-ita (押板). These elements, which we will look at in more detail in subsequent posts, all relate to religious ritual and ceremony: the Shintо̄ and Buddhist deities (shinbutsu 神仏) that protect the house were always present with the family. As the ‘priest’ (shisai 司祭) to these deities, the master of the house has these facilities at his back in his position in the uppermost (saijо̄ 最上) seat (za 座) at the irori, called the yoko-za (横座). From the meaning of ‘in front of the deities’, there are regions in which the hiroma or dei are called the о̄mae (大前, ‘big front’), omē (おめえ), ome (おめ), gozen (御前, ‘honourable front’), okami (おかみ, ‘honorable upper’), and so on.

The zashiki of a rustic minka in the Tо̄hoku region. The tokonoma (床の間, left) is bare; the toko-waki (床脇) space next to the tokonoma is occupied by the Buddhist altar (butsudan 仏壇); there is no ceiling, picture rail (nageshi 長押), or separate ‘attached door heads’ (tsuke-kamoi 付鴨居); instead, grooves to take the sliding partitions are cut directly into the lintel beams. Former residence of the Fujiwara family (Fujiwara-ke 藤原家), Iwate Prefecture, now relocated to the Open Air Museum of Old Japanese Farmhouses (Minka Shuuraku Hakubutsukan 民家集落博物館), О̄saka Prefecture.

JAPANESE MINKA LXXIX - INTERIORS 20: SLEEPING AREAS 7

In previous posts in this series on sleeping arrangements in minka, we have looked mainly at the dedicated bedrooms found in old minka across Japan: small, close, dark spaces, often with no window, and only a small entry to the rest of the house penetrating its otherwise solid walls.

Fast-forward multiple centuries to the Shо̄wa period (Shо̄wa jidai 昭和時代, 1926 - 1989), and there is nothing in particular that could be called a ‘dedicated bedroom’ in the residential vernacular architecture of this era: the habitable rooms or ‘daytime rooms’ (hiru-ma 昼間) are all to some degree universal spaces, with sleeping being only one of their uses. Typically these rooms are characterised by tatami mat floors, built-in closets (oshi-ire 押入), and wide openings in one or two walls, infilled with thin fusuma (襖) or lattice-and-paper or lattice-and-glass shо̄ji (障子) sliding panels.

This and the photograph below show the interior of a typical Shо̄wa period (in this case 1960s) apartment. Note the large built-in closets (oshi-ire 押入), tatami mat floors, and wide openings between rooms (here the sliding fusuma or shouji panels have been removed).

Photograph of the same apartment as above, looking in the other direction towards the tiny kitchen. Either or both of the six-mat rooms would be used as a sleeping place.

This transition was driven to a significant degree by the evolution of Japanese bedding (shingu 寝具), from the primitive woven straw bags and thin boro blankets discussed in previous posts, to the modern cotton-filled futon (布団 or 蒲団). The now-common futon, and its associated storage facilities, have played a central role in the development of minka sleeping spaces.

First, a note on terminology. In English, any thin, non-sprung mattress has come to be known as a futon, which is somewhat ironic given that this was the standard and ubiquitous type of mattress found in Europe before the industrial revolution, when it was simply called ‘mattress’. In Japanese, too, futon is the name given to the thin mattress on which one sleeps (more specifically, this is called the shiki-buton 敷き布団, ‘spread futon’); but it also refers to the ‘comforter’ or ‘duvet’ placed over the body (the kake-buton 掛け蒲団, ‘cover futon’), and can additionally be used to refer to these two items together as a ‘set’.

The cotton plant (wata 綿) has been cultivated in Japan for a long time, but for most of this history the fibre (momen 木綿) was used solely for textiles (ori-mono 織物, ‘weave thing’), and the use of raw cotton (genmen 原綿) as a filling for bedding was a luxury limited to the upper classes. It was only relatively recently, with the mass-importation of cheap foreign cotton that began after the opening up of the country at the end of the Edo period (Edo jidai 江戸時代, 1603-1868) and into the Meiji period (Meiji jidai 明治時代, 1868-1912), that cotton-filled futon began to spread, eventually reaching the remotest mountain villages. But even then, houses with small, dedicated, straw-laid ‘permanent bed’ (man-nen-yuka 万年床) bedrooms that did not adopt futon could still be found in such villages. Occasions that might require tidying up the bedroom, such as a guest staying the night, were extremely rare. In the houses of poor peasants (hyaku-shou 百姓, lit. ‘hundred names’), taking up and cleaning futon was just more labour, for which there was neither the leisure, nor the necessity, nor the storage facilities. In Japan’s humid climate, futon should need to be taken up daily and aired regularly, or eventually mould will develop between the futon and the floor.

The cotton plant (wata 綿) with its balls of fibre (momen 木綿).

Despite exceptions, however, it seems safe to say that most people living under the kind of primitive sleeping conditions described by Suzuki Bokushi and Nishiyama Uzо̄ in previous posts in this series — conditions common until the mid-19th century — would have regarded cotton-filled futon as a great blessing. The old ‘permanent bed’ bedrooms, with no ventilation or light, were breeding grounds for pulmonary tuberculosis, and were targeted for elimination by the ‘lifestyle improvement movements’ (seikatsu kaizen undо̄ 生活改善運動) of the 1920s-1960s. But the material circumstances of these houses — open, drafty, and without any means of heating spaces — and the economic circumstances of their occupants, meant that improvement measures were not easily implemented.

With the advent of the cotton-filled futon, bedrooms gradually became more open, as the futon took over the role of trapping heat — previously fulfilled by bedrooms, which preserve heat within four close and solid walls — by instead holding it closer to the body. With this change, the bedroom transformed into a more comfortable and pleasant space, and such a space is also one that becomes attractive for other purposes. An alternative interpretation is that the bedroom was done away with altogether, and sleeping became a secondary nocturnal function of rooms that had other, primary purposes during the day. For these other activities to occur, however, there had to be a place to store bedding to get it out of the way, and so the closet (oshi-ire 押入) was established as the storage place for the futon.

The futon is much bulkier than the thin boro blanket it replaced, but it remains foldable; an oshi-ire depth (between post centres) of half a ken, or 91 cm, has become standard over time, as it allows enough room for futon to be folded into three and stacked.

In other cases, the shūnо̄ (収納) and nando (納戸), previously storage rooms that were also used as bedrooms, became ‘walk-in closets’, exclusively used for the storage (mono-oki 物置き, lit. ‘thing put’) of futon and other items, as their human inhabitants ‘moved out’ to sleep under warm futon in other parts of the house.

The ‘bedroom’ of the post-war Japanese vernacular dwelling is a world away from those found in the oldest minka.

JAPANESE MINKA LXXVIII - INTERIORS 19: SLEEPING AREAS 6

Below are two examples of an unusual type of sleeping place, both from the Kansai region: suspended upper floor (tsuri-ni-kai 吊り二階) servants’ bedrooms, built next to the earth-floored utility areas (doma 土間) of their respective dwellings. Both have windows that look out over the main entrance (о̄-doguchi 大戸口, ‘big entrance’) or gatehouse (nagaya-mon 長屋門, ‘long roof gate’), to better allow the servants to keep an eye on who is coming and going.

Entry to this servants’ bedroom in the Oku (奥) family residence, an Important Cultural Property, is via a fixed three-rung ladder that leads up through a trapdoor. The rails of the ladder are formed by two of the wall posts. The semi-circles above each rung appear to be to prevent users’ feet from marking the white plaster wall, possibly by omitting the plaster from these areas, which would also give users’ feet greater depth of purchase on the rungs. With no corner post supporting it, this room is truly suspended. Osaka Prefecture.

Servants’ bedroom in the Yoshimura (吉村) family residence, an Important Cultural Property. Osaka Prefecture.

Bedrooms were also used as delivery rooms (san-shitsu 産室 ‘birth room’, also called ubu-ya 産屋 ‘birth house’ and san-jo 産所 ‘birth place’). The image below shows a bedroom, called the tsubo-ne (つぼね), that was also used as a delivery room, in the Tsurutomi villa (Tsurutomi yashiki 鶴富屋敷), formerly the Nasu family residence (Nasu-ke jūtaku 那須家住宅), in Shiiba village (Shiiba-son 椎葉村) in Miyazaki Prefecture. The building is designated an Important Cultural Property.

View of the tsubo-ne of the Tsurutomi villa.

The house itself is of a type associated with this mountainous area called the ‘pole house’ (sao-ya 竿家), probably because of the resemblance of the long, narrow plan-form to a bamboo pole. The internal layout is of the ‘perpendicular lineup’ type (heiretsu-shiki 並列式), with a single row of rooms arranged on an axis perpendicular to the room-doma boundary (in this area the doma, the earth-floored utility area, is called the doshi).

The floor plan of the Tsurutomi villa with its tsubo-ne (つぼね) combining the functions of bedroom and childbirth room.

Exterior view looking down the facade of the Tsurutomi villa.

Shiiba village (Shiiba-son 椎葉村), Miyazaki Prefecture.

The de (出, ‘emerge, come out’) of the de-beya (出部屋, ‘emerge room’) bedrooms of Yamagata Prefecture also refers to childbirth (出産 shussan). There were regions in which a communal bedroom hut was built outside the village for menstruating women, women in labour, and those who had just given birth. Hiya, heya, ubu-ya, tsubo-ne, etc., are all names that originally referred to a hut of this type.

In the Tо̄hoku region, bedrooms go by such names as nebeya, nebiya, nema, nedoko, and toko. More broadly, heya, nando, oku, etc., are common across the country. The distribution of chо̄da has been previously discussed. In Kyūshū and other southern regions, bedrooms are called nesho, uchi-ne, and tsubo-ne. While bedrooms in these warm-climate areas are understandably open or ‘airy’ today, sleeping customs in these areas in the era before futon are not well understood — but more on that subject next week.

JAPANESE MINKA LXXVII - INTERIORS 18: SLEEPING AREAS 5

The chо̄dai (帳台, lit. ‘curtain platform’), also called mi-chо̄dai (御帳台) and mi-chо̄ (御帳), was an interior element of Heian Period (Heian jidai 平安時代, 794 - 1185) classical architecture. Essentially a ‘room within a room’, it consisted, as the name suggests, of a raised platform (dai 台), laid with tatami mats, with a frame of posts and beams over which were hung curtains (tobari 帳), the whole thing somewhat resembling a room-sized four-poster bed. It functioned as a sitting place and sleeping place in the shinden-zukuri, (寝殿造り, lit. ‘sleep palace construction’), the residences of the ruling Imperial nobility of the period.

An illustration showing an aerial view of a shinden-zukuri (寝殿造り) residence. The main hall, the shinden (寝殿), is at the centre of the complex.

A mi-chо̄dai (御帳台).

An opulent chо̄dai (帳台) on the occasion of the enthronement of an Emperor.

By the time of the shо̄gun-ruled Muromachi period (Muromachi jidai 室町時代, 1333 - 1573), the chо̄dai itself had faded from prominence with the decline of Imperial power, but the name survived in the compound word chо̄dai-gamae (帳台構え), the formal, ornamented ‘doorway’ in a jо̄dan no ma (上段の間, lit. ‘up step space’), a room raised a step above the main floor level in a new style of residential architecture that emerged in the period called shoin-zukuri (書院造り) or buke-zukuri (武家造り, lit. ‘samurai house construction’).

The Tо̄gudо̄ (東求堂) of Jishо̄ Temple (Jishо̄-ji 慈照寺) in Kyо̄to, a surviving example of the shoin style (shoin-zukuri 書院造り).

A jо̄dan no ma (上段の間), raised a step above the level of the main floor, the edge marked with a lacquered interior sill (kamachi 框).

Normally the entry sill (shikii 敷居) of the chо̄dai-gamae is itself raised above the floor level of the jо̄dan no ma, and the entry head is set a step below the main nageshi (長押, head rail) of the room. The opening is furnished with four beautifully decorated opaque sliding doors (fusuma 襖). The gamae of chо̄dai-gamae is pronounced kamae (構え) when read alone, and means ‘structure’, ‘installation’, ‘device’, ‘function’, etc.

The magnificent chо̄dai-gamae (帳台構え) in the Ninomaru Palace Great Hall (Ninomaru Goten О̄-Hiroma 二の丸御殿大広間) in Nijо̄ Castle (Nijо̄-jо̄ 二条城), Kyо̄to.

As is often the case, the name chо̄dai-gamae eventually worked its way down to the vernacular dwellings of commoners; in minka, it refers to a ‘formal’ entry to a dedicated bedroom; it is also sometimes known as nando-gamae (納戸構え). Perhaps the idea of ‘ornamenting’ this part of the minka interior came, like the name chо̄dai-gamae itself, from samurai residences; or perhaps it was an independent and inevitable outcome of the care and sturdiness with which the bedroom partition wall was constructed, motivated initially by the need to protect valuable possessions and the bodies of the inhabitants sleeping within; the fact that this wall faces the living area also makes it an obvious candidate for ‘special treatment’ as a focus of decorative attention in the interior. It should be noted that while the words ‘ornament’ and ‘decoration’ (kazari 飾り) in the Western architectural tradition imply adornment with classical mouldings, sculptural elements, motifs, and so on, in the context of vernacular Japanese architecture, kazari often simply means ‘constructed with finer joinery, higher-quality members, and more of them’. While the chо̄dai-gamae of minka are in no way as opulent as those of the shoin-zukuri, one element of the minka chо̄dai-gamae that has been retained from its aristocratic Muromachi-era progenitor is the raised sill. The head of the minka chо̄dai-gamae, however, is typically at the same height as the nageshi of the room.

Below is an example of a chо̄dai-gamae in a minka in Kyо̄to. On the side of the bedroom partition that faces the main living areas, called the oe (おえ) and the daidoko (だいどこ), the timber cladding (ita-bame 板羽目) consists of magnificent boards around three centimetres thick, slotted into the bays between closely-spaced posts, reminiscent of the partition wall of the nuri-gome (塗籠) bedroom-storeroom of shinden-zukuri. Here the bedroom wall has developed into something not only sturdy and secure but also attractive.

The construction of the partition wall of the nuri-gome is clearly visible in the lower left of this illustration.

The chо̄dai-gamae in the Yamada family residence, a minka in the Rakuhoku district of Kyо̄to. As in the nuri-gome, horizontal boarrds are slotted into closely spaced posts. The room is secured with a kururu lock; the keyhole and escutcheon for the kururu ‘key’ can be seen in the lower right part of the door. When the door is shut it automatically locks, and cannot be opened from the outside without the key. Kyо̄to City.

The exterior of the bedroom (nando 納戸) of the Imanishi (今西) family residence, an Important Cultural Property, with what is said to be the only remaining chо̄dai-gamae in a townhouse (machiya 町家) in the Kinki region. Above the left half of the high sill is a board-and-stud wall, into or behind which the board door on the right slides. As in the previous example, the kururu keyhole is visible in the lower right part of the door. Nara Prefecture.

Below is the chо̄dai-gamae in a gasshо̄-zukuri (‘praying hands construction’) minka from Etchū Gokayama (越中五箇山) in Toyama Prefecture, with ‘decorative’ cupboards (kazari to-dana 飾り戸棚) on both sides of the entrance. For a farmhouse, this is joinery and construction of the highest class. The room within is ten tatami mats in area; it serves both as the bedroom of the ‘head couple’ (kachо̄ fūfu 家長夫婦, the patriarch of the household and his wife), and as a general storeroom for everything from chests of drawers (tansu 筆笥) and trunks (nagamochi 長持) to grains (koku-rui 穀類). In this region, the room is called the chо̄da (ちょうだ) or chonda (ちょんだ), names that clearly derive from the chо̄dai of the shinden-zukuri. In other areas, such as the Izu Islands (Izu-shotо̄ 伊豆諸島), Tajima (但馬) in Hyо̄go, Shima (志摩) in Mie, Echigo (越後) in Niigata, and Awa (阿波) in Tokushima, the room has retained the name chо̄dai.

The splendidly-constructed chо̄dai-gamae of the Murakami (村上) family residence, designated an Important Cultural Property, in Etchū Gokayama, Toyama Prefecture. The flanking wall next to the sliding door, behind the irori firepit, consists of a single large board called a biwa-ita (琵琶板, ‘lute board’); at left is a shallow decorative alcove, with shelves above, called an oshi-ita (押板).

In the culturally advanced Kinai region, centred around Kyо̄to, Nara and О̄saka, the chо̄dai-gamae disappeared around the middle of the Edo period; even previous to this, many had been converted into ‘regular’ rooms. But from the northern part of Kyо̄to to the Hokuriku region and in cold climate regions like Tо̄hoku, the chо̄dai-gamae remained until relatively recently, unchanged from its old form.

JAPANESE MINKA LXXVI - INTERIORS 17: SLEEPING AREAS 4

The small, close bedrooms discussed in the last few posts, though certainly ‘specialised’ as sleeping spaces, were also commonly used as storerooms for valuables, and sometimes this was their primary role; from the very first time rooms were partitioned off from previously single-space dwellings, there has been a close association between sleeping and storage. Even in the ancient residences of the nobility, the shinden zukuri (寝殿造り), a corner of the dwelling would be enclosed into a nuri-gome (塗籠), a storage room for valuables that was also used as a bedroom. The name nando (納戸) today refers to a storeroom or ‘walk in robe’; but it once also referred to a bedroom of this type. Often the only partitioned room in the dwelling, with solid, windowless external walls on two or three sides, an equally solid partition wall, often of thick timber boards, on the other interior sides, and a single small entrance, these rooms were the obvious choice for the role of ‘safe room’.

An illustration showing a nurigome (at lower left) in a classical shinden-zukuri residence. The design of the partition wall of stout battens and boards, and the closed board door with its kururu-gi bolt and hole to receive the ‘key’, and keyhole, are clearly visible.

The security of these rooms was completed with a type of lock (kagi 鍵) that adds a ‘key’ known as a kururu-kagi (枢鉤, ‘pivot hook’) and a keyhole (kagi-ana 鍵穴) to the basic sill bolt (otoshi-zaru 落し猿, ‘dropping monkey’; or, in this application, kururu-gi くるる木, ‘pivot timber’). The otoshi-zaru is perfectly adequate for locking a room or house against intruders from the inside when people are home, but it can only be operated from its side of the door, so can’t be used to secure an unoccupied room or house when one goes out; further, a ‘snib’ piece called yose-zaru (寄せ猿, ‘closing monkey’) is required to stop the otoshi-zaru from dropping into its sill mortise accidentally when the door is closed, potentially locking the inhabitants out. In the kururu lock, this drawback is turned into a feature: the yose-zaru is omitted and replaced with the kururu-kagi, so that when the door is closed it locks automatically, but the otoshi-zaru can be lifted, and the door opened, from the outside, at least by the person who has the kururu-kagi, but not by anyone else.

A sliding door with three timber bolts: top, an age-zaru (上げ猿 or 揚げ猿, ‘raising monkey’) with yose-zaru (寄せ猿, ‘closing monkey’); middle, a yoko-zaru (横猿, ‘side monkey’); and bottom, an otoshi-zaru (落とし猿 ‘dropping monkey’) or sage-zaru (下げ猿, ‘lowering monkey), with yose-zaru.

An otoshi-zaru bolt in open position. The otoshi-zaru is raised, but the yose-zaru hasn’t been drawn across to hold it in the raised position, suggesting that this door is open and the bolt is being held up by the sill. If someone closed the door from the other side without remembering to draw the yose-zaru across, the otoshi-zaru would drop into its sill mortise, potentially locking the person out.

An old kururu-kagi (枢鉤) on the left, and on the right a diagram showing how it is used to lift a sill bolt (kururu-gi 枢木) from the other side of the door. Also labelled is the door rail (san 桟) which holds the upper part of the bolt.

A scale model showing the inside face of a hinged door with an otoshi-zaru and ‘pivot lock’ (kururu-kagi 枢鉤) coming through the keyhole (kagi-ana 鍵穴), surrounded by an escutcheon (kagi-ana-tate 鍵穴盾). The end of the kururu-kagi has an elbow, and fits into a hole in the otoshi-zaru.

The outside face of the door, showing the handle of the kururu-kagi inserted into the keyhole. When the bent tip of the kururu-kagi is inserted into the hole in the otoshi-zaru and the handle of the kururu-kagi is rotated clockwise, it lifts the bolt out of its sill mortise (visible in this photograph), allowing the door to be opened.

Unlike a modern key, whose uniqueness lies in the arrangement of its teeth, a kururu-kagi is distinguished from other kururu-kagi by its length. Another random kururu-kagi might fit in its keyhole, but if it is too long or too short, it won’t engage with the hole in the kururu-gi. Though kururu-kagi are simple objects, fabricating one would require the skills of a blacksmith, and to make an effective copy a thief would need to know the distance between the keyhole and the hole in the kururu-gi.

The kururu-kagi normally stayed in the possession of the husband and wife; entrusting their daughter-in-law (yome 嫁) with it was an indication of their recognition of her ‘housewife’s rights’ (shufu-ken 主婦権).

JAPANESE MINKA LXXV - INTERIORS 16: SLEEPING AREAS 3

As we have seen, the oldest and most primitive minka either had no bedrooms at all, or, particularly in cold-climate regions, contained small, cell-like rooms that were used exclusively as bedrooms, and the room itself was the bed. Likewise, the inhabitants might have had no bedding other than the straw laid down to sleep on, or only thin boro-boro (暮露暮露, patchwork) or even nettle blankets. In these houses there were no rooms laid with tatami mats, and naturally no closets (oshi-ire 押入) or other facilities for storing bedding either, since none were required: trunks or chests of drawers were enough for the long-term storage of valuables and clothes.

Below are the floor plans of two minka that are representative of bedroom arrangements in cold-climate areas of the country. The first is from a mountainous district in Fukui Prefecture: there are two bedrooms (ne-doko ねどこ), one for the ‘head couple’ (kachо̄ fūfu 家長夫婦), and the other, next to the stable (maya まや), for the young husband and wife; this room sometimes goes by the name umaya-nando (うまやなんど, ‘stable bedroom’). Other than the later addition of a small window, there are no external openings to the main room (de で) whatsoever. The small, windowless bedrooms are dispersed, and occupied according to the composition of the family. While most minka are dark inside, it is only on seeing an interior like this that one truly appreciates the fact that these farmers’ dwellings were, other than for meal-taking, really just for sleeping in.

Plan of the Higashi (東) family house, Fukui Prefecture, is representative of bedroom arrangements in cold-climate minka. The small, windowless bedrooms are dispersed, and occupied according to the composition of the family.

The second plan is from a minka from Tamugimata (田麦俣), Yamagata Prefecture 田麦俣. The o-heya (おへや, ‘honorable bedroom’) is the bedroom of the master and his wife, and the de-beya (でべや, ‘projecting bedroom’) is that of the young couple (waka-fūfu 若夫婦). The subfloor space under the de-beya is used as a chicken coop (tori-goya 鶏小屋, ‘chicken hut’) — perhaps this pairing was to ensure that the young couple rose early. The ko-beya (こべや, ‘small bedroom’) next to the earth-floored niwa (にわ) is the servants’ bedroom.

Another cold-climate minka, the Shibutani (渋谷) family house, Yamagata Prefecture.

In Akita Prefecture, the room behind the chameya (the chanoma 茶の間, ‘tea room’) is the patriarch’s bedroom; the kojiya in the chūmonbu (中門部, the short leg of the L in the L-shaped chūmon zukuri 中門造り minka) is for the young couple, and the ina-beya (稲部屋, ‘rice room’) next to the doma is for the servants.

In the Tо̄hoku region there is a tendency to partition the rear of the interior into multiple cell-like bedrooms, as shown in the example plan below, a magari-ya (曲り屋, another type of L-plan minka) in Iwate Prefecture.

This magari-ya (曲り屋) minka in Iwate contains five bedrooms, each about two jо̄u (帖) in area. The portraits of the occupants are shown above each bedroom: in the first bedroom (A), the ‘head couple’ (kachо̄ fūfu 家長夫婦) — the master of the household (chichi 父, ‘father’) and his wife (haha 母, ‘mother’) — and their younger daughter (shо̄-ni 小２, ‘elementary school second year’); in the second bedroom (B), the master’s mother (obaa オバア, ‘grandma’); in the third bedroom (C), the young couple — the head couple’s oldest son (otto 夫, ‘husband’) and his wife (tsuma 妻, ‘wife’) — and their baby (mago マゴ, ‘grandchild’); in the fourth bedroom (D), the master’s unmarried sister (oba オバ, ‘auntie’) and the head couple’s older daughter (chū-ni 中２, ‘middle school second year’); and in the fifth bedroom (E), the head couple’s three sons: kо̄-ni (高２, ‘high school second year’), shо̄-roku (小ろ６, ‘elementary school sixth year’), and shо̄-ni (小２, ‘elementary school second year’).

The family tree is shown to the right of the portraits, with the composition of each bedroom indicated by the five bubbles (A to E) drawn over their respective occupants.

The family structure and sleeping positions are shown in the diagrams; to quote from architect and scholar Nishiyama Uzо̄ (西山 夘三, 1911-1994):

“In these hiya (ひや, bedroom), slightly larger than one tsubo (hito-tsuba 一坪, roughly 4m²), futon are laid out over the whole floor; they are of course permanent beds (man-nen yuka 万年床). Around the perimeter of the futon are kept changes of clothes, laundry, small sewing boxes and old chests of drawers. The floors of the hiya are a step higher than the uchi (うち) and niwa (にわ); in this, they resemble the nuri-gome (塗籠) of the shinden zukuri (寝殿造り, villa) in which the nobility of the early Heian period lived; on opening the door to enter one of these hiya, more so than entering the typical bedroom, you have the sense that you are entering a sleeping place. The walls and low ceilings are neatly lined with wallpaper (kabe-gami 壁紙), probably to prevent drafts. Because the hiya are only a bit more than two mats (ni-jо̄ 二帖) in area, once they are occupied with chests of drawers, clothes trunks, and so on, there is barely enough room for a person to lie down. Two or three people sleep in these bedrooms. In this particular house there are comparatively many hiya, but not all farmhouses have this kind of bedroom arrangement. There are even examples where five or six people sleep in a single, terribly overcrowded hiya. Adopting this form of bedroom, in which people sleep packed together in such a tight space, is thought to be partly to prevent cold.”

Below is a photograph of the interior of one of the bedrooms (o-heya) in the Shibutani (渋谷) family residence in Yamagata. When a bedroom lacks a high sill to retain straw or husk bedding, as in this case, timber members called ‘straw stops’ (wara-dome 藁止め) may be used instead. They are arranged in a square or rectangle on the floor, then straw is laid down in this ‘bunded area’ to form the bed. In Japanese, railway sleepers are called makura-gi (枕木), ‘pillow timber’, but the wara-dome at the head of the bed was literally that: its upper side was planed into a ‘fish cake’ (kamaboko 蒲鉾) profile and used as a pillow. In the houses of landholders and others, multiple servants would sleep on such a single, long wara-dome, and it is said that in the morning the end of the wara-dome would be struck with a wooden mallet to get them up.

The head ‘straw stop’ (wara-dome 藁止め) set on the floor of a bedroom. It is about 15cm square in section, with its upper face planed into a rounded profile, indicating that it is used as a pillow. Another wara-dome stands upright against the entry door. Yamagata Prefecture.

A ‘fish cake’ (kamaboko 蒲鉾).

As in the layout common in Akita Prefecture mentioned above, there are regions where a bedroom takes up a corner of the earth-floored utility area (niwa にわ). Often this bedroom is in the position where the stable (umaya 厩) would be, or next to the stable, and is called the mukou-zashiki, niwa-zashiki, shimo-zashiki, etc. It is the bedroom for the young couple, for ‘retired’ grandparents, or for servants. Other somewhat ‘out of the way’ or low-status locations for sleeping included the magi (まぎ), a bedroom above the stable for wakaze (若勢, agricultural indentured servants), and the upper floor of the chūmon (the short leg, usually containing a stable) of a chūmon-zukuri (L-plan) minka, which contained a shishi-mado (獅子窓, ‘lion window’, found in the thatched roofs of farmhouses in Akita and Yamagata that functioned both to admit light and allow smoke to escape, named for its supposed resemblance to the head of a lion), and was a sleeping place for children or servants.

The image below shows a bedroom in the Wakayama family (Wakayama-ke 若山家residence, a gasshо̄-zukuri (合掌造り, ‘praying hands construction’) minka in Shо̄kawa village (Shо̄kawa-mura 荘川村), Gifu Prefecture. In addition to the head couple’s bedroom (chо̄da ちょうだ) at the rear of the dwelling, and the chо̄da for female children, the upper part of the enge (えんげ), a dialect name for a hiro-en (広縁), a deep ‘verandah’ (engawa 縁側) on the south side of the dwelling, has been converted into a low-ceilinged mezzanine-type floor (chū-ni-kai 中二階, ‘semi second floor’), which served as the bedroom (shown in the photograph) for the young women of the household. In this region, only the oldest son and his bride were permitted an official marriage; others entered into an arrangement known as tsuma-doi kon (妻訪婚, lit. ‘wife visit marriage’), a form of marriage in which the husband and wife do not cohabitate; instead the husband ‘commutes’ to the wife’s place of residence. This custom is thought to have influenced the location of the bedroom, chosen so as to make it directly accessible from outside.

A bedroom (chouda ちょうだ) in the residence of a large family in Shо̄kawa village (Shо̄kawa-mura 荘川村), Gifu Prefecture. The room is spread with bullrush (gama 蒲, Typha latifolia) mats (mushiro 莚) called gama-mushiro (蒲莚), and contains a trunk (naga-mochi 長持), lantern (andon 行燈), sewing box (hari-bako 針箱), wooden pillow (ki-makura 木枕), and other items, lending it an antiquated atmosphere.　

JAPANESE MINKA LXXIV - INTERIORS 15: SLEEPING AREAS 2

The evolution of Japanese sleeping spaces is perhaps counter-intuitive from a European perspective, where private, specialised bedrooms are seen as the natural developmental end-point. As we will see, in Japan, the general sequence of development has been: single-space dwellings → small, closet-like dedicated bedrooms → larger, more open multi-purpose rooms; and today, with the Westernisation of Japanese dwellings, a return to private, dedicated bedrooms; but this latter development is beyond our scope.

The first houses humans built were built as ‘lairs’. Of all the functions of a dwelling, its most important is as a sleeping place. Primitive Japanese houses were such enclosures: the whole interior was a single space, and the whole space was for sleeping. So long as a degree of inconvenience and discomfort can be endured, all activities other than sleeping can be undertaken outdoors, but for restful sleep, it is absolutely necessary to have a space with an enclosed perimeter, to protect the body against external attack, predation by wild animals, rain, and cold.

Around the Tempо̄ (天保) era (1831 - 1845), the Edo-period merchant and essayist Suzuki Bokushi (鈴木牧之, 1770 - 1842) travelled to Akiyama-gо̄ (秋山郷), a mountainous district straddling Nagano and Niigata Prefectures, an area of extremely remote rural villages where many old customs survived until relatively recently. Suzuki recorded his impressions in the best-seller Hokuetsu-seppu (北越雪譜, Hokuetsu Snow Notes), published in 1837. Hokuetsu (北越) refers to the west-coast ‘snow country’ (yuki-guni 雪国) region, roughly comprised of the current-day prefectures of Fukui, Ishikawa, Niigata, and Toyama. Suzuki writes:

“The people of Akiyama all sleep in their clothes. They have nothing in the way of bedding. On winter nights they build a big fire in the irori and sleep around it. When it is very cold, they gather straw from other places* and make bags with it to sleep in. Those with wives make bigger bags, and husband and wife go together into the same opening.”

*Farmers in this area practiced slash-and-burn cultivation, so had to source their straw from the plains (hirachi 平地).

As various other domestic activities were gradually brought inside, the first thing to be partitioned off from the rest of the space was the bedroom (shinshitsu 寝室, ‘sleep room’), though these rooms also functioned, sometimes primarily, as ‘safe rooms’ for the storage of valuables. In the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, there is a minka from Akiyama-gо̄, the former Yamada family (Yamada-ke 山田家) residence. This L-plan (chūmon-zukuri 中門造り) dwelling, unlike the one described by Suzuki above, has a bedroom. It is a hiroma-type three-room layout (hiroma-gata san-madori (広間型三間取り), but the interior is largely open: the nakanoma and dei are only divided by sills, and the bedroom (heya へや), though enclosed with board walls, has a mat (mushiro 莚) hanging over it its entrance in place of a solid door. The dwelling itself has reed-thatched exterior walls, and there are no raised timber floor areas; the earth floor of this ‘earth-sitting dwelling’ (土座住まい) is spread thickly with reed heads and varieties of straw. While this minka is still fairly primitive, it at least has a bedroom with solid, carefully built walls, such that the room could have also been used to store valuables, with the addition of a proper door.

Exterior of the former Yamada (山田) family residence, built in 1776.

Interior view of the Yamada family residence, taken from the niwa looking across the living room (naka-no-ma なかのま) towards the bedroom (heya へや) on the left, with hanging mat over the entrance and high sill, and the open formal room (dei でい) on the right.

Plan of the former Yamada family residence. The bedroom (heya) へや) is at the top right.

Bedrooms of this type, which were still being used even into the 1970s in villages in remote or cold regions, were usually extremely ‘close’ and dark, with solid walls on all four sides, broken only by a small entrance. In warmer climates such as that of the Kinki region, they might have been relatively large, perhaps around six tatami mats in area (9.9 m²), but in cold regions like Tо̄hoku, many are as small as two mats (3.3 m²). Such small, dark sleeping closets were thought effective for peaceful rest, to prevent cold, and to protect against the danger presented by bandits and others.

The whole floor of the bedroom would be spread thickly with soft straw, or, in mountain villages, some variety of rice husk (ine-kara 稲殻 or fue-gara). So that this material would not spill out of the room, the entrance sill was set 20 cm or more above floor level, and had to be straddled to enter. In some areas, this high sill is called haji-kakushi (はじかくし, ‘shame/embarrassment hider’); in other areas it is called hako-doko (箱床 lit. ‘box floor’), because the bed entirely occupies the space within the four walls. Often people would sleep on a thin woven straw sleeping mat (ne-goza 寝ござ) or a large hemp ‘wrapping cloth’ (furoshiki 風呂敷) laid on top of the bedding material, but children and others might sleep burrowed directly into the compacted straw. The term ‘permanent bed’ (man-nen-doko 万年床, lit. ‘ten thousand year bed’) is used in Japan today to describe futon that are ‘unmade’, i.e. not stored away every morning as is proper, but left permanently on the floor, suggesting laziness. Obviously loose straw, let alone rice husks, cannot be practically taken up and stored away every day, especially when there is no storage facility, so the bedrooms described above were true man-nen-doko, without the negative connotations implied by the modern usage of the term.

A negoza (寝茣蓙) sleeping mat.

People slept in these bedrooms completely naked (suppadaka 素裸), either covering their bodies with their day-clothes, or drawing over themselves a patchwork (boro-boro) blanket made of boro (襤褸), rags and ragged clothes, stitched together. This latter practice was common enough that there was even a trade in buying up boro in the Kansai region for bulk resale in the Kantо̄ region.

A boro ‘quilt’ from the 19th century.

Even where households had some form of bedding (in the village Suzuki writes of there were two such houses), it was reserved for guests. Suzuki himself was given the use of this bedding when he stayed a night at one of these houses: a thick cloth (tafu 太布) woven from nettle (ira-kusa 刺草, Urtica thunbergiana), which he soon discovered still contained traces of the stinging hairs (ira 刺). Suzuki gives us his thoughts on this experience, writing:

“I slept on this bedding, but that lint found its way into the folds (suso 裾) [of my kimono], and also much into the lining (awase 袷); it is not something that should be near the body.”

From Kantо̄ to the Tо̄hoku region, there were forms of bedding that differed from the simple rectangular blankets found in Kansai: sleeved yogi (夜着 ‘night gown’) that resembled kimono (着物), and another type known as yo-busuma or yu-bushima (夜衾 ‘night fusuma’). Fusuma (衾), not to be confused with the homophonic fusuma (襖), the opaque sliding door panels of traditional Japanese homes, is a type of bedding used to cover the body, first recorded among the nobility of the Heian period (平安時代, 794 - 1185). Later yogi and yo-busuma used by common people were somewhat different to the original aristocratic versions, but retained the names.

A winter yogi.

Kamakura Period (鎌倉時代 1185 - 1333) nobility sleeping on tatami mats under kimono.

JAPANESE MINKA LXXIII - INTERIORS 14: SLEEPING AREAS 1

It is well understood that the external appearance of any vernacular dwelling is an expression of the various factors that make up its local environment and culture, be that climate, material and technological availability, economic conditions, social and legal codes, and so on. Of course, the evolution of a dwelling’s interior is likewise influenced by the same things; but perhaps less often recognised is that the unfixed contents of the dwelling are also vessels of these factors, and so can have equally significant effects on the internal planning and ‘occupational style’ of the dwelling, even when they may have seemingly little to do with architecture.

These effects may be more evident in traditional or historical vernacular dwellings, but they are also present in our own modern houses, though over-familiarity might make them less obvious to us. Carpet, for example, is an ancient technology, but wall-to-wall fitted carpet only really became feasible after the invention of the vacuum cleaner. There is a modern tendency to think that our things are the way they are because we know better than the people of the past, when we are simply responding, often passively or reflexively, to the particular conditions of our time, just as our ancestors did. In the case of architecture, because buildings can become ‘stranded’ by lasting much longer than the conditions that gave rise to them, it is easy to forget that elements of their design that may strike us today as illogical or irrational probably made perfect sense when they were built. Conversely, the conditions of our own time have made possible certain designs and living arrangements that would have been impractical or nonsensical before these conditions existed.

The subject of the next several posts — the bedrooms (shinshitsu 寝室), sleeping spaces (nema 寝間), and sleeping places (shinjo 寝所) of minka — provides, in the story of the evolution of these spaces, an excellent example of the kind of effects that material and technological developments, as manifested in domestic objects — in this case bedding (shingu 寝具) — can have on the internal development of a dwelling.

Two futon laid out in a Japanese-style room (wa-shitsu 和室) in a modern dwelling.

JAPANESE MINKA LXXII - INTERIORS 13: WET AREAS 4

The ‘sink place’ (nagashi-ba 流し場, lit. ‘flowing place’) is one of the central features and facilities of the indoor wet area or ‘water use place’ (mizu-tsukai-ba 水使い場). In the Kansai region the sink (nagashi 流し, lit. ‘flowing’) is often called the hashiri (はしり), from the verb hashiru (走る, to run), which exactly describes piped mountain water flowing ceaselessly into the sink; in the Niigata area it is called the mizu-ban (水盤, ‘water bowl’), a name that seems fitting when one is filling the wash bucket (arai-oke 洗い桶) with water from the water jar (mizu-game 水甕) adjacent to the sink.

Sinks are categorised both according to where they are in the dwelling, and the posture taken when using them. Regarding the former, there is the doma nagashi (土間流し), a nagashi built in the earth-floored utility area (doma 土間); and the yuka-ue nagashi (床上流し, lit. ‘floor-upon sink’), a nagashi built in the raised, board-floored kitchen (daidokoro 台所). As for the latter, there is the tachi-nagashi (立ち流し, ‘standing sink’), used while standing; and the suwari-nagashi (坐り流し, ‘sitting sink’), used while kneeling or squatting. The yuka-ue suwari-nagashi (床上坐り流し), a sink used while sitting on a raised, boarded floor, is associated with the mizu-ya (水屋) of the tea ceremony (chaseki 茶席), and is thought to be an old style of nagashi. In Kyūshū, the bottom of the sink consists of a bamboo screen (takesu 竹簀); these sinks are called arendoko (あれんどこ), from ara(i no) toko(ro) 洗(いの)所, ‘washing place’.

A ‘sitting sink’ (suwari-nagashi 坐り流し) built in one corner of the doma of an ‘earth-sitting dwelling’ (土座住まい). Water is drawn into it via a pipe. Shiga Prefecture.

An indoor well (uchi-ido 内井戸) and stone ‘standing sink’ (tachi-nagashi 立ち流し) built in the kitchen (daidoko(ro) 台所) of a townhouse (machiya 町家). Shiga Prefecture.

An ‘on-floor standing sink’ (yuka-ue tachi-nagashi 床上立ち流し) built in the board-floored kitchen (katte かって); to its left is a stove (hettsui へっつい) with attached flue (entotsu 煙突), and above it shelving for pots, etc. Yamagata Prefecture.

An ‘on-floor sitting sink’ (yuka-ue suwari-nagashi 床上坐り流し) and water jar in a projecting alcove in the south wall of a multi-purpose room called the idoko. Above them are cupboards for tableware. Nagano Prefecture.

A ‘water use place’ (mizu-tsukai-ba 水使い場) with sitting sink (suawari-nagashi 坐り流し). Piped water is received into a small joined-timber sink called here a masu (桝), which sits in a stepped-down slatted floor area where both cooking tasks and laundry are done. Yamagata Prefecture.

JAPANESE MINKA LXXI - INTERIORS 12: WET AREAS 3

Wells (ido 井戸, lit. ‘well door’) belong to the category of man-made water infrastructure. Wells are essentially just holes dug in the ground that provide an opening or ‘door’ (to 戸) onto a source of groundwater, making it accessible from the surface. If necessary, the hole is reinforced with a lining, as represented pictorially by the kanji 井 (i ‘well’).

Wells have a long history in Japan: timbers determined to be the lining boards of large wells have been excavated from the ruins of Nara Period (Nara jidai 奈良時代, 710 - 794) temples. Common folk could not hope to have such large or deep wells at their houses, however; their wells, such as they were, might rather be thought of as ‘augmented springs’ intended to give a helping hand to naturally-occurring seeping sources of groundwater, by increasing or concentrating the volume of emerging water to make collecting it more practical. The picture below is an example of such a well, called a yoko-ido (横井戸 ‘horizontal well’) or yoko-ana-mizu (横穴水 ‘horizontal hole water’). Often these wells were dug into the bank or foot (suso 裾) of the mountain or hill behind the house, probably because digging sideways is easier than digging vertically down.

Long ago, ‘horizontal holes’ excavations made in banks until the mountain water emerged/seeped out. These old wells are of a type called yoko-ana-mizu (横穴水, ‘horizontal hole water’). Fukui Prefecture.

Even when vertical wells were dug, the excavation would be shallow, and made in a place where the water table was high enough that water seemed already about to emerge; such wells were called asa-ido (浅井戸 ‘shallow well’) or shaku-ido (杓井戸 ‘ladle well’). For the lucky few, there were also artesian wells (fuke-i 噴け井 ‘spouting well’), where underground water comes to the surface under its own pressure.

A shallow well called a shaku-ido (杓井戸 ‘ladle well’). To prevent leaves and other debris from falling into it, it has been covered with a roof made of naturally curved timbers clad with Japanese cedar (sugi 杉) bark. Saitama Prefecture.

As mentioned, the construction of a well required both technical ability and significant expense, so most wells were communal, built in the village ‘square’ (hiro-ba 広場, lit. ‘wide place’), like that shown below. These deep ‘dug wells’ (hori-ido 堀り井戸) used a tsurube (釣瓶, lit. ‘fishing bottle’), a bucket or other container attached to a rope, to draw water from the well, and so were called tsuru-i (釣る井 ‘fishing well’), among other names. The two wells in the photograph below are kuruma-ido (車井戸, ‘wheel well’); each uses a pulley wheel and chain to raise and lower twin buckets.

Two communal wells in the village square. The wells are kuruma-ido (車井戸 ‘wheel well’) that utilise pulley wheels. That there are two wells is probably explained by a division of use: one well for drinking water, the other for general purposes. Kyо̄to Prefecture.

There are also wells that employ as their lifting mechanism a hane-tsurube (跳ね鶴瓶, ‘jumping/bouncing bucket’), a counterbalanced structure somewhat like a yajiro-be-e (弥次郎兵衛) toy, with the bucket on a rope or pole at one end of the lever arm and a balance stone tied to the other.

A traditional balancing toy known as a yajiro-be-e (弥次郎兵衛).

A hane-tsurube and well.

A series of hane-tsurube used to flood rice fields from an irrigation canal (yо̄suirо 用水路, lit. ‘use water road’).

Both kuruma-ido and hane-tsurube well types allow one to use one’s body weight to pull down to lift the water bucket, which is much easier than pulling it up directly.

In the Meiji period (Meiji jidai 明治時代 1868 - 1912), the yashiki-ido (屋敷井戸, ‘villa well’), the private well for the individual use of a single family, previously limited to the houses of upper-strata farming families and temple residences, began to appear in the houses of commoners. In the preceding feudal era (hansei jidai 藩政時代), the amount of water allowed to commoners was extremely small, such that people were said to bathe only once a month, and tableware items would be put away in their box trays (hakozen 箱膳) without being washed; but with the abolition of the class system and its sumptuary laws in the Meiji period, the customs and habits of the upper classes gradually penetrated down to the masses. This change, together with advances in the understanding of hygiene, meant that the yashiki-ido and indoor well (uchi-ido 内井戸) spread rapidly.

The ‘villa well’ (yashiki-ido 屋敷井戸) at the house of a wealthy merchant, with a magnificent stone well enclosure and a shrine for the well deity (ido-kami-sama 井戸神様). Okayama Prefecture.

An indoor well (uchi-ido 内井戸) built in the niwa (the earth-floored utility area, usually doma) of a townhouse (machiya 町家) near Kyо̄to; next to it is a ‘standing sink’ (tachi-nagashi, 立流し). Shiga Prefecture.

JAPANESE MINKA LXX - INTERIORS 11: WET AREAS 2

Last week’s post briefly touched on the man-made waterways (yо̄suirо 用水路, lit. ‘use water road’) - the irrigation waterways, canals, ditches, charged gutters, and so on - that are ubiquitous in Japan. Before the introduction of underground reticulated water supplies, these yо̄suirо served as a source of domestic water for many households, particularly in urban areas. The water drawn off from them was called tsukai-gawa (使い川, lit. ‘use river’), kawaba (川場 lit. ‘river place’), and so on; it was conveyed to either an indoor or an outdoor wet area (mizu-tsukai-ba 水使い場, ‘water use place’), as shown in the images below. In either case, there would be a simple shelf for storing pots, kettles, and other implements at the point of use. This facility is called the mizu-ya (水屋, ‘water roof/house’) in Shiga, mizu-goya (水小屋 ‘water hut’) in Tottori, kawa-dana (川棚 ‘water shelf’) in Saitama, kaidana (かいだな, prob. ‘river shelf’) in Gunma; in and east of Chūbu it is kawa-do (かわど, prob. ‘river place’), kawa-ba (かわば, ‘river place’), kado (かど), etc. In the ‘moat farmhouses’ (kangо̄ nо̄ka 環濠農家) of the Kita Kawachi (北河内) district of О̄saka Prefecture, the perimeter of the eave projecting from the moat-facing side of the main house (omo-ya 母屋) is enclosed to form a wet area, called the hinara (ひなら).

An indoor mizu tsukai-ba served by water that has been branched off from an outdoor source. Gifu Prefecture.

A mizu-ya (水屋, ‘water roof’) erected at the mizo-gawa in front of a house. There are shelves for pots and tableware, and preparatory cooking tasks are undertaken here, outdoors. In the main house there is only a jar (kame 甕) for drinking water. Shiga Prefecture.

The same mizu-tsukai-ba as shown above, in use. Shiga Prefecture.

In contrast to a communal spring, which is somewhat like a natural tap or faucet, where the source of water ‘upstream’ of the point of delivery is protected from pollution or despoilation by being underground, the quality of an exposed, surface-flowing water source such as a yо̄suiro cannot be preserved if every household that relies on it uses it however they please; in particular, downstream users can suffer from the actions of those upstream. So various regulations and etiquettes arose, just as they do when rivers flow through multiple states or countries. General wastewater was directed to a man-made pond (tame-ike 溜池), often used as a carp-breeding pond (yо̄ri-ike 養鯉池) or for some other productive purpose; rice water and urine were used as fertiliser; nappies (diapers) and underwear were washed in water drawn into a tub (tarai 盥) that was then emptied into a dedicated drainage channel. There were also rules relating to times of use: early mornings, for example, were reserved for drawing drinking water, and only after around 7am was it considered acceptable to use the water source for other purposes.

Management and use of a village’s water infrastructure was carefully planned and anticipated from the outset. The picture below shows an example in Gо̄barajuku (郷原宿), an old inn town in Nagano Prefecture. Water for general use (yо̄sui 用水, ‘use water’) flows in front of the roadside houses, while potable water is provided at communal, roofed wells built at regular intervals.

An example of water infrastructure planning: in the village of Gо̄barajuku (郷原宿), a roofed well providing water for drinking (inryо̄-yо̄ 飲料用) has been built, in accordance with the regulations, next to a yо̄suirо carrying general ‘use water’ (tsukai-mizu 使い水) for other purposes. Nagano Prefecture.

Below is an example from Fukui Prefecture. Flights of two or three stone steps are installed at the washing places (arai-ba 洗い場) in front of each house to provide access down to the yо̄suiro. In the winter months, such waterways function as ‘snow disposal gutters’ (ryūsetsukо̄ 流雪溝, lit. ‘flow snow gutter’), carrying away the snow that falls from roofs; they can often be seen in old towns and villages in the Hokuriku region.

Mizu-tsukai-ba established at a man-made ‘gutter’ (yо̄suirо 用水路) running in front of townhouses in a town in Mikata-chо̄ (三方町), Fukui Prefecture. A short flight of stone steps leading down to the water is visible in the lower right corner. This yо̄suirо also serves as a ‘snow disposal gutter’ (ryūsetsukо̄ 流雪溝) to carry away the snow that accumulates on roofs and in front of the houses.

Of the two methods of drawing from either natural or artificial sources of flowing water, those that use pipes (kan 管) are called kakehi-mizu (筧水 ‘pipe water’) or yama-mizu (山水 ‘mountain water’), and those that use open channels (mizo 溝) are called nagare-gawa (流れ川 ‘flowing river’), etc. Mizo is usually translated into English as trench, ditch, drain, channel, gully, gutter, etc., but these words can seem inadequate or inappropriate to describe something like that shown below: even today the water flowing in these waterways is often so clear and clean that aquatic plants, frogs, fish, and even sometimes fireflies can be found in them.

A yо̄suiro in Nishiwaki, Hyо̄go Prefecture.

In addition to ‘artificial’ water sources such as yо̄suirо, natural springs (waku-izumi 湧泉) were also heavily utilised, particularly in rural and mountainous areas. Springs may be, as in the image below, of the kiyo-mizu (清水, lit. ‘pure water’) type, where the water seeps out from the belly (hara 腹) of a mountain; or they may be of the type found in the Susono (裾野) region of Fuji (富士), Shizuoka Prefecture, where underground water flows out like a river to the surface.

A ‘water scooping place’ (mizu-kumi-ba 水汲み場), where spring water seeping out from the belly of the mountain is collected for use. Nara Prefecture.

This is not a normal mountain stream that has ‘picked up steam’ over a long distance from many small springs and streamlets feeding into it; it is groundwater that has emerged from a high-volume spring only a short distance upstream. Shizuoka Prefecture.

Below is a communal village mizu-tsukai-ba built at a moderately-sized spring in the foothills (sanroku 山麓) of the Yatsugatake (八ヶ岳) mountain range straddling Nagano and Yamanashi Prefectures. It is a social gathering place for the villagers; they have also expressed their gratitude for the water by enshrining the water deities (mizu-gami 水神) here.

A communal mizu-tsukai-ba built at a spring, enshrining the water deities; it is also indispensable as a social gathering place for the villagers. Nagano Prefecture.

Springs are called deshizu (出清水 ‘out pure water’) in Tо̄hoku and Hokuriku, kama (かま) in Chiba, demizu (出水 ‘out water’) in Chūgoku, and also kumi-kawa (汲み川 ‘drawing river’), tsubokawa (壷川 ‘pot river’), ike (いけ, ‘pond’), etc.; these names are used indiscriminately to refer to either piped or channelled water. There are many places where spring water (yūsui 湧水) is mainly used for drinking, as indicated by the name nomi-kawa (飲み川 ‘drinking river’); the water is drawn with a ladle (hishaku 柄杓) into water buckets (oke 桶) and carried back to each house to be stored in the large water jar (mizu-game 水甕) that sits beside the ‘sink board’ (nagashi-dai 流し台) in each house.

A glazed water jar (mizu-game 水甕), with wooden lid and ladle, stands next to the ‘sink board’ (nagashi-dai 流し台) in this diorama of the kitchen of a minka.

JAPANESE MINKA LXIX - INTERIORS 10: WET AREAS 1

Though water is of course indispensable to life, and to the ‘living’ of the house, many old Japanese farmhouses (nо̄ka 濃家) lacked their own ‘water use place’ (mizu-tsukai-ba 水使い場) and related facilities. Digging a private well for an individual dwelling was prohibitively expensive, so until relatively recently such wells did not exist, with the exception of the ‘villa wells’ (yashiki ido 屋敷井戸) of very wealthy families. Instead, the bank (hotori 畔) of a stream flowing past the front gate (kado-saki 門先) or back door (sedo 背戸), the village spring (yūsui 湧水), or the communal well (kyо̄dо̄-ido 共同井戸) served the same functions. These locations were also vital places of communication for the village.

A ‘water use place’ (mizu-tsukai-ba 水使い場) at a stream, a common natural source of flowing surface water. Though it has been largely left in its natural state, there are still various rules that relate to its use.

In mountain villages, the springs and streams (keisui 渓水) that supplied the villages with water were at a higher elevation than the houses, so drawing from them was comparatively easy, and there are many examples of such villages where each house was furnished with its own sink (nagashi 流し) and ‘wet area’ (mizu-ya 水屋, lit. ‘water roof’). Today the name mizu-ya is primarily used to refer to an alcove in a tea room (chashitsu 茶室) where items for the tea ceremony (cha-no-yu 茶の湯) are prepared and washed, but in its broadest sense, a mizu-ya is simply a place where water is used.

A modern tea ceremony mizu-ya (水屋), with reticulated water supply and shelves for the tea bowls, whisks, and other utensils.

When establishing a settlement, the preference was naturally for a place with easy access to water, but on the plains, fertile land favourable for cultivation was the priority, so farms and houses appeared even where the water sources necessary for irrigation and daily life were somewhat inaccessible, and the many challenges and difficulties presented by such places were subsequently overcome by the energy of the villagers in constructing artificial irrigation channels and other waterways (yо̄suirо 用水路, lit. ‘use water road’; suiro 水路 means ‘aqueduct’). Water flows in many of these structures to this day, and here and there you can still see the washing places (arai-ba 洗い場) that were established along them.

A yо̄suirо used for crop irrigation. Toyama Prefecture.

Even so, in places with low-volume springs and wells where water was especially scarce, a ‘water-drawing (mizu-kumi 水汲み) timetable’ was implemented, and a household could only fetch water when their turn came, which in some places might even mean waking up and going out in the middle of the night. There were also places where the rainwater that fell on roofs and trees, called tensui (天水, lit. ‘heaven water’) or kimizu (木水, lit. ‘tree water’), was collected and made use of.

In this way, the type of facilities present at the mizu-tsukai-ba, and the nature of its use, depended on the nature of the water source, and each had its own characteristic features. In places blessed with an abundance of springs and streams, water was carried through bamboo pipes (take-kan 竹管) and timber gutters (ki-doi 木樋); such devices were called kakehi (掛樋, 懸樋, 筧 ‘water pipe’).

To convey water, a bamboo tube could be used, with the internal nodes (fushi or setsu 節) knocked out; or, as here, a hollowed-out log, in this case Japanese chestnut (kuri 栗, Castanea crenata). Gifu Prefecture.

The water so conveyed was often received into a water tub or tank (fune 槽) called a mizu-bune, not written ‘水槽’ but ‘水舟’ (lit. ‘water boat’), and often abbreviated to simply fune (ふね). The mizu-bune was made out of a large hollowed-out tree, or of stone, or was constructed as a box-like trough with large jointed boards; these fune might be in the village ‘square’ (hiroba 広場) for communal use, or at each house for the use of individual families.

Water troughs at the communal mizu-tsukai-ba established in the village ‘square’. When this photograph was taken, the village had been provided with a simple water supply system; previously, bamboo tubes had been used to carry water. Yamagata Prefecture.

A water trough for an individual household, fed by a pipe. Over it is a rain cover (ame-о̄i 雨覆い) that makes skilful use of naturally curved timbers, supported by a single post. Gifu Prefecture.

In the mountain villages in the vicinity of the famous village of Shirakawa-gо̄ (白川郷) in Hida (飛騨), large water usage areas (mizu-tsukai-ba 水使い場) called minja (みんじゃ) are provided, with large tree-trunk mizu-bune filled with clean spring water, which is further directed into channels (mizo 溝) for doing laundry (sentaku 洗濯) and other uses.

In Shirakawa village and vicinity in the Hida district, there are expansive communal water-use places called minja (みんじゃ), where pristine spring water (kokusui 谷水, lit. ‘valley water) flows ceaselessly into large troughs made from hollowed-out logs. Gifu Prefecture.

JAPANESE MINKA LXVIII - INTERIORS 9: KAMADO 3

This post is the last on Japanese stoves (kamado 釜土), and will simply present more examples, if only to give a sense of the great variety of kamado that once existed in minka.

The picture below shows a small ‘two-burner’ kamado in a house north of Lake Biwa. It is located in the dwelling’s earth-floored ‘habitable doma’, known in this area as the niuji (にうじ). Likewise, in this region the kamado is called the fudo, and the large ceremonial kama, the о̄-kama (大釜 ‘big kama’), is called the о̄-fudo. The niuji is swept clean until it appears polished, and wearing footwear in it is not allowed. A mat (goza 茣蓙) is laid on the earth floor in the framed area in front of the kamado.

The fudo in an earth-sitting dwelling (doza-sumai 土座住まい). The doma is kept impeccably clean, and shoes are not allowed to be worn in it. The stove is tended from the reed mat (goza 茣蓙) laid in front of it. Hirai family (Hirai-ke 平井家) residence, Shiga Prefecture.

Below is a kamado from a minka at the foot of Mt. Akagi (Akagi-yama 赤城山) in Gunma Prefecture; here the kamado is called hettsui. This example is built into one corner a deep, stone-lined irori; the wife tends both the irori and the hettsui from the ki-jiri (木尻) position between the irori and the doma, from the ki-jiri-dai (木尻台, ‘wood tail platform), which is a step down in level from the main floor.

A kamado built into a corner of the irori, expressing a division of function: the kamado is used for ‘boiling’ (ni-taki 煮炊き) cooking. Akuzawa family (Akuzawa-ke 阿久沢家) house, Gunma Prefecture.

The image below, from Tottori Prefecture, shows an example of a kamado built on the sill (agari-kamachi 上がり 框) side of the kaka-za (かか座), the wife’s seating position, from which the irori and kamado are used in combination for cooking.

A kamado built next to the wife’s seat (kaka-za 嚊座) at the irori, at the edge of the doma. The irori is used only for heating, and boiling water. Tottori Prefecture.

Below is an example of an old, primitive style of kamado: the pot or kettle rests on three stones placed in the irori, which is surrounded by a timber frame. This example is from Amami-О̄shima (奄美大島).

A primitive kamado suggestive of the kamado’s origins, consisting of three stones plastered with clay. Kagoshima Prefecture.

The picture below is an example of how, in regions with cold climates, there is a tendency over time for the kudo to sidle up to the raised, board-floored ‘living room’ or multi-purpose room; a duckboard or slat panel (sunoko 簀の子) is placed in front of the kudo, or a low board floor built there, from which to tend the stove.

Here the kamado has drawn up to the edge of the multi-purpose room. The sink area behind it has already acquired a board floor (and modern kitchen unit); next in the modernisation of the doma, a timber slat floor panel (sunoko 簀の子) would be laid in front of the kamado, then this area too would eventually be floored. Kyо̄to City.

In even colder climates, the kudo is moved right up into the board-floored ‘kitchen’ or daidoko, which also contains an irori, as shown in the image below; the irori and kudo are united within a single perimeter frame. The mountainous region of northern Kyо̄to Prefecture is once such area.

Here the kudo has migrated to the centre of the gathering room for eating and family time (danran 団らん). The irori and the kamado are enclosed within the same frame. Kyо̄to.

Kudo in Kinki region prefectures such as Kyо̄to and Nara are, as in the picture below, often built in a semi-circular magatama plan-form, and carefully finished in fine plaster. After being smoothed with a trowel (kote 鏝), the plaster is polished with camellia (tsubaki 椿, Camellia japonica) leaves.

A seven-burner kudo in the Rakuhoku (洛北) district in north Kyо̄to City. The curved plan-form allows a single person to tend each fire and pot from a central position.

The kamado shown below is in the doji (doma) of the Tsurutomi villa (Tsurutomi-yashiki 鶴富屋敷), built in the early 19th century, in Shiiba village (Shiiba-son 椎葉村), Miyazaki Prefecture. The stove consists of two units: a two-burner stone о̄-kama, and a smaller two-burner kamado for everyday use. The board-floored area behind the stove is called kama-no-ushiro (釜の後ろ, ‘stove’s behind’), kama-sedo (釜背戸, ‘stove back door’), etc., and is used for food preparation and serving.

A two-part, four-burner kamado for both formal and everyday uses. Miyazaki Prefecture.

Below is a kudo installed in the tо̄ri-niwa (通り庭) of a townhouse (machiya 町家) in Kyо̄to City. The tо̄ri-niwa is the long ‘strip’ doma that runs the full length of the narrow machiya, from the street to the rear. From right to left in the picture is the white-plastered о̄-kama-sama, the to-gama (斗釜, ‘to stove’; one to 斗 is 18.039 litres), and the roku-dai (六台, lit. ‘six platform’, presumably a six-burner unit), only partly visible.

A kudo in the tо̄ri-niwa of a Kyо̄to townhouse (kyo-machiya 京町家). The о̄-kama-sama is decorated with a pine branch.

Finally, the picture below shows another о̄-kama-sama (大釜様, ‘honorable big stove’; sama is an honorific, more formal and respectful than san) in Kyо̄to adorned with pine and sakaki branches, enshrining the stove deity. It is not used day-to-day, but only on formal occasions.

An о̄-kama-sama adorned with pine and sakaki branches. Inoue family (Inoue-ke 井上家) residence, Kyо̄to.

JAPANESE MINKA LXVII - INTERIORS 8: KAMADO 2

As discussed in a previous post, many of the dialect names for irori, including the word irori itself, express the meaning of ‘a place of people/a place where people are’ (hito no idokoro 人の居所); many others, such as hidoko (火所) and hodo (ほど), have the sense of ‘fire place’ (hi-sho 火所). There are places where these same names are used to refer to the kamado, and regions where the word kamado is used to refer to the central part of the irori; thus we can observe the same mixing and blurring of boundaries in the names for the irori and the kamado as we do in the geographical distribution of the things themselves.

In many regions, the kamado is called the kudo (くど), or less commonly the hettsui (へっつい); in Shiga Prefecture and elsewhere, it is called the fudo (ふど). Kudo and fudo are both cognates of hodo and so belong to the ‘place of fire’ group of names. Especially grand kudo can be found in Kyо̄to and Nara in the Kinki region, and the section of the doma where they are installed is called the kamaya (釜屋, lit. ‘pot house’), a name that originally referred to a separate building, and has survived the merger of this building with the main house. The kudo of the Kinki region have characteristically beautiful magatama-shaped (magatama-gata 勾玉形) plan-forms, and are carefully finished in fine plaster, sometimes into pillowy, marshmallow-like shapes.

A collection of magatama (勾玉),the curved, comma or embryo-shaped stone beads produced from the late Jо̄mon period (from roughly the 6th century BC) into the Kofun period (300 AD - 586 AD).

Smaller kudo might consist of just three pots, each with its own fire, pot opening, and ‘feeder opening’ (taki-guchi 焚き口, lit. ‘burning mouth’): the ‘rice pot’ (meshi-gama 飯釜), the ‘greens pot’ (sai-gama or na-gama 菜釜), and the ‘tea kettle’ (cha-gama 茶釜). The image below shows a three-burner kamado constructed in a shallow pit dug into the doma floor, an old method that is often seen in very old minka. Its perimeter would have been spread with nekoda (ねこだ, large mats of woven straw or rope) and a wooden bench (suwari-ki 坐り木) placed in front of it.

The older the style of kamado, the lower the ‘firebox opening’ is. When tending such a stove, one sits on the doma (on a stool or bench) with one’s feet in the shallow excavation; this style probably originated in the pit dwellings (tate-ana jūkyo 竪穴住居) of the Jо̄mon period. Former residence of the О̄ta family (О̄ta-ke太田家, originally in Ibaraki Prefecture, now in the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum (Nihon Minka-en 日本民家園) in Kanagawa Prefecture.

To borrow a term from the modern gas stove, the largest stoves might have as many as eleven ‘burners’, each with its own fire, arranged in order of size in a curved enclosure that allows a single person to manage each fire and pot from a central sitting position.

In the ‘head house’ of the main family line (honke-suji 本家筋), one of these ‘burners’ will be of extremely large construction, and is called o-kama-san (おかまさん, ‘honourable stove’) or some similar name that conveys a sense of respect. These kama were not for daily use, but were decorated with pine branches or sakaki (榊, Cleyera japonica) cuttings, and enshrined the ‘stove gods’ such as Sanbо̄ Kо̄jin (三宝荒神, often simply Kо̄jin), the Japanese Buddhist deity of fire and the hearth. In Kyūshū, these kama are called doku-don (どくどん), ugama-don (うがまどん), or the like; don (殿, usually dono) is an honorific somewhat higher in respect than san, with the meaning of ‘lord’ or ‘master’. These stoves were only used for once-a-year tasks such as boiling the beans to make miso (味噌, fermented soy-bean paste) or the rice to make mochi (餅, cooked rice that is pounded into a smooth, glutinous, gel-like texture), or on formal ceremonial occasions. There was no real need for such a large kama in the houses of the branch families, as these families would gather at the main house to use its oya-kamado (親かまど, lit. ‘parent stove’), which had to be large enough to accommodate them all.

The image below shows the interior of the kama-ya of an old Yamato (current Nara Prefecture) family minka. Only the lower few kama are for daily use; the majority are о̄ya-kamado reserved for the public or communal events of the branch families of the village. As it is an eleven-burner stove, and tended by multiple people at once, the kamaya space in which it stands is also extremely large.

In the houses of district administrators/authorities (о̄jо̄ya 大圧屋) and other officials, there were ‘parent stoves’ (oya-kamado 親かまど) for use by the villagers (burakumin 部落) for formal events. This large eleven-burner kudo, built in the form of arc, stands at the centre of an expansive kama-ya. Nara Prefecture.

The are also examples of o-kama-san built as stand-alone ‘one-burner’ units, separate from the everyday cooking kudo. The image below shows a huge o-kama-sama in the Rakunan (洛南) area of southern Kyо̄to; it is around 140 cm in both height and width. It has grown to this size over the years as a result of the house custom of adding a coat of plaster to it at each year’s end.

A seemingly standalone o-kama-san used for ceremonial and special occasions. The stove has grown over time as it accumulates new layers of plaster year after year. Kyо̄to Prefecture.

In northern Japan, there are large stoves called to-gama (とがま) that are used for heating up horse feed, but when necessary the pot is changed out and they are put to serving the same functions as the o-kama-san.

JAPANESE MINKA LXVI - INTERIORS 7: KAMADO 1

Long ago, when minka were still single-space dwellings and their interiors were not yet partitioned, all the activity of the household - not only cooking, but heating, illumination, drying, and so on - was focused on the large central fire that burned brightly all year; at night, too, the inhabitants of these ‘earth-sitting dwellings’ (doza-sumai 土座) would sleep on mats spread around the fire. In northern Japan, the cold climate forced people to lead indoor lives even during the day, and the houses were close and dark.

In the warm south of the country, on the other hand, houses were only for sleeping and resting in. These dwellings had raised timber floors to keep out venomous insects, snakes, and animals, and had good cross-ventilation. Bringing fire into this type of construction was problematic, and a fire was hardly needed other than for cooking anyway, so it was preferable to keep it outside; this also removed smoke and hot air from the house.

As we have seen in the last few posts, the internal fire of the northern dwelling eventually evolved into the modern, multi-purpose irori. In contrast, the external fire of the south developed into the subject of today’s post: the Japanese stove, the kamado (かまど or 釜土, lit. ‘kettle earth’), which was specialised for cooking. The kamado did not develop out of the irori, but was distinct from the beginning.

A fine example of a comma-shaped Japanese stove (kamado 釜土, here kudo くど) built in the earth-floored utility area (doma 土間) of the Iguchi family (Iguchi-ke 井口家) residence, Kyо̄to City. This fine example is a ‘seven burner’ stove (nanatsu kudo 七つくど). Usually the large ceremonial pot (о̄-gama 大釜) is at the endmost position, but rarely, as here, it is located in an intermediate position.

Eventually the two mixed together, so that minka in the northern Tо̄hoku region also have kamado, minka in the mountains of southern Kyūshū also have irori, and it is not possible to draw a clear or exact border between ‘irori country’ and ‘kamado country’; but we can make the broad distinction that from the Chūbu region north-east the irori is primary, while from the Kinki region west the kamado is predominant.

When using fire to cook in a pot (nabe 鍋 or kama 釜) under primitive conditions, there are basically two possible methods available: either to suspend the pot above the fire via a rope and hook or some other method, or to sit it on a stone or stones placed in or around the fire, with the simplest stable configuration consisting of three points of support. Whereas the irori primarily employs the former method, making use of the ready means of suspension offered by the dwelling’s roof beams, the kamado, with its origins in the outdoor fire, employs the latter principle; even today the kamado is represented symbolically in some regions by three stones, for the purpose of veneration.

Presumably the Japanese had been building simple stone windbreaks around fires since the Jо̄mon period (Jо̄mon jidai 縄文時代, c. 10,000 BC - 500 AD), but the relatively sophisticated, portable clay kamado first appeared in the Yayoi period (Yayoi jidai 弥生時代, c. 300 BC – 300 AD). These kamado are recognisably ‘modern’ in that they almost completely enclose the fire, with an opening in the side to feed and tend it, and a circular hole in the top on which the pot (kama 釜) sits. They functioned not only to shield the fire from wind and prevent the escape of sparks, but also to concentrate the flames under the pot so that scarce fuel could be used more efficiently. Some of the impetus for this development may have been provided by the cultural and demographic transition from a relatively sparse population of Jо̄mon hunter gatherers to one of sedentary Yayoi farmers living on the increasingly denuded and crowded agricultural lowlands.

A Yayoi period (Yayoi jidai 弥生時代) earthenware kamado from the О̄saka area, excavated from the traces of a dwelling. Rice was cooked in the pot, made of the same earthenware, that fits neatly into the opening at the top.

Eventually the kamado grew to become an immobile structure of stone and clay with substantial thermal mass, and the kama was improved by the addition of a lip or brim (tsuba 鍔) to create what is known as the tsuba-gama (鍔釜), which both supports the pot on the edge of the opening and forms a seal with it, thus preventing any of the heat of the fire from being lost upwards. There was also the migration of the kamado indoors, into the earth-floored utility area (doma 土間) of the minka interior. With these changes, even fuels of low energy density, like straw (wara 藁) or pine needles (matsu-ba 松葉), could be made effective use of, a development that would have been especially welcomed by the farmers of the firewood-poor plains.

An old cast-iron tsuba-gama with prominent tsuba, ring handles, and a wooden lid.

A modern aluminium tsuba-gama.

As its convenience came to be recognised, the refined kamado was adopted even in what had previously been exclusively ‘irori country’, and we can see a division of function between irori and kamado emerge, with a kamado for pot-cooking being built in a corner of the irori, and the irori presumably relinquishing this role to the kamado.

Development of the kamado did not end with modernity and electrification, but took a somewhat unrecognised path, and the kamado is still in widespread use today, albeit in disguise: the electric rice cooker, which first appeared in its familiar automatic form in 1955 with the Tо̄shiba ER-4. With its lipped and lidded kama fitting snugly into a heated enclosure, this kitchen appliance is a direct descendant of the kamado, and forms part of the lineage of a cooking technology that stretches back 2,000 years.

The Tо̄shiba ER-4 automatic (jidо̄-shiki 自動式) rice cooker (denki-gama 電気釜, lit. ‘electric pot’)

JAPANESE MINKA LXV - INTERIORS 6: IRORI 6

Aside from the hook (kagi 鉤) and the fire shelf (hi-dana 火棚) discussed in the last two posts, there are other items associated with and found at or around the irori that are worth mentioning.

One such item is the fairly self-explanatory firewood (maki-gi 薪木) box (hako 箱), called moshigi-ire (もしぎ入れ, ‘firewood container’) in Gunma, ki-wara (きわら), in Toyama, shi-baya (しばや) in Kyо̄to, takimon-buro (たきもんぶろ) in Ishikawa, and so on.

A screen (tsuitate 衝立) is often placed around the firewood box, or around any mess at the irori, to hide these from the entrance. This screen is variously called the soda-gaki (そだがき ‘sleeve fence’), erami (えらみ), mendо̄-gaki (面倒垣 ‘care fence’), and the like.

A delicate semi-permeable tsuitate (衝立) is placed between the entrance and the irori to screen the ‘mess’ from casual visitors standing in the doma.

An additional, smaller screen, called the ita-shо̄ji (板障子, ‘board shо̄ji’), may be placed at the edge of the irori to protect the fire from draughts and prevent sparks from landing on the straw cushions or mats (goza 茣蓙).

An ita-shо̄ji (板障子) made with a thick board of Japanese cypress (hinoki 桧, Chamaecyparis obtusa) and a short length of cypress log (hinoki-maruta 桧丸太) split into two halves to form the legs.

The white stool-shaped object seen in the image below, and the upside down tree root bole (ne-moku 根木) in the image below that, are both crude lamps: called hide-bachi (ひでばち), matsu-dai (まつだい, ‘pine platform’), etc., they are for burning scrap wood (ki-kata 木片, lit. ‘timber odds’) on, for the purpose of illumination. Before electricity, thinly split resinous pine (matsu 松) root, white birch (shira-kaba 白樺, Betula platyphylla) bark, and other timbers were burnt on these platforms to provide additional light.

A ‘platform lamp’ (hide-bachi ひでばち) next to the irori in the former Shiiba family (Shiiba-ke 椎葉家) residence, originally in Miyazaki prefecture but now in the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum in Toyonaka City, О̄aaka Prefecture.　

This image shows a ‘platform lamp’ (hide-bachi ひでばち) made of an inverted root bole.

From northern Kyо̄to to Hokuriku, and in one particular area in the mountains of Chūbu, there are many minka in which adjustable hooks (jizai-kagi 自在鉤) are not employed, even when a ‘fire shelf’ (hi-dana 火棚) is present. Instead, a large iron trivet (go-toku 五徳, lit. ‘five virtues’) is used. The trivet is also variously called kana-wa (鉄輪, ‘iron ring’), kana-go (かなご, ‘metal go-toku’), or simply kane (かね ‘metal’); large examples might weigh as much as 60 kilograms.

There is a small hi-dana over this irori in a minka in Shiga prefecture, but no jizai-kagi; in its place is an electric light, and the pot is held over the fire by a trivet (kanawa 鉄輪).

This irori from a the former Wakayama family (Wakayama-ke 若山家) residence, originally in О̄no County (О̄no-gun 大野郡), Gifu Prefecture, but now in the Hida Folk Museum in Takayama City, combines a large hi-dana, what looks to be a simple jizai-kagi, and a trivet (kanawa 鉄輪). Hanging from the irori are tsuto (苞, tubes made of bound straw) filled with dried fish.

JAPANESE MINKA LXIV - INTERIORS 5: IRORI 5

Normally, a room containing an irori will not have a ceiling or a floor above it; or, if there is a floor, it is what is called tsushi (つし) or ama (あま), consisting of lashed-bamboo mats (take no su 竹の簀) that allow smoke to easily pass through. In the minka of the mountainous Iya (祖谷) region of Shikoku and in the mountain houses of Chichibu (秩父) in modern-day Saitama Prefecture, none of the rooms have ceilings, and the underside of the roof thatch is directly exposed to the space below. In these houses, a board structure is hung above the irori to catch sparks before they can rise to the roof. This structure is called hi-buta (火蓋, lit. ‘fire lid’), hi-о̄i (火覆い, lit. ‘fire cover’), or the like.

In snowy or mountainous country, one can see a sturdy framed lattice or ‘grille’ (hi-dana 火棚, lit. ‘fire shelf’) suspended over the irori with stout ropes. This device developed out of the hi-buta; in addition to preventing sparks from floating upwards, it plays a role in one of the main purposes of the irori: drying. Wet clothes and snowshoes (yuki-gutsu 雪沓) hanging from small hooks and drying above the fire were once a common sight in minka; seeds and grains (shushi 種子) and other foodstuffs were preserved by placing them on top of the hi-dani.

A sturdy hi-dana in the former О̄ta family (О̄ta-ke 太田家) residence, originally built in Gifu Prefecture but now standing in the Nagoya City Higashiyama Botanical Gardens. Note the smoke-permeable lashed-bamboo floor above the hi-dana. The irori uses both a metal pipe type jizai-kagi and a trivet. Smoke and soot from the fire have made the thick ropes holding the hi-dana as hard as steel cables.

Hi-dana is the ‘standard’ name, and the one the device goes by in Niigata and Shizuoka, but it is called ama (あま, possibly from an old word for ‘heaven’ or ‘sky’, or perhaps a variant of ami 網, ‘net’) in Mino, hi-ama (ひあま) or hi-amu (ひあむ) in Toyama, and tsuri-ama (つりあま, ‘hanging ama’) or hi-yama (ひやま) in Gifu, among other names. Where the hi-dana developed into a two-tier structure, the lower shelf was often called the ko-ama (こあま, ‘small ama’).

A two-tier hi-dana over the irori in a minka in Kyо̄to City.

With the addition of the hi-dana, a long adjustable hook (jizai-kagi 自在鉤) hanging down from the roof beam becomes impractical to operate for various reasons, so a short, easy-to-handle variety of jizai-kagi is adopted, hung from a stout main hook (oya-kagi 親鉤, lit. ‘parent hook’) that is attached to the centre of the hi-dana. The oya-kagi is also called sora-kagi (そらかぎ lit. ‘sky hook’, with the sense of ‘hook suspended in mid-air’), o-kagi-san (おかぎさん ‘honorable hook-san’), kagi-tsuru (かぎつる ‘hook hanger’), o-kage (おかげ) ‘honorable hook’), and so on.

A rustic sora-kagi fashioned from a naturally curled timber.

A fine example of a sora-kagi from Toyama Prefecture, carved from keyaki (欅, Zelkova serrata). This style of kagi is sometimes called daikoku (大黒), for the resemblance of its upper part to the Daikoku-zukin, the cap (zukin 頭巾) worn by Daikoku-ten (大黒天), the Japanese god of fortune. The rope supporting the kagi has also been constructed with considerable skill and flair, which is characteristic of this region.

Daikoku-ten (大黒天), the Japanese god of fortune, wearing his Daikoku-zukin (大黒頭巾) cap.

In this example from Ishikawa Prefecture, instead of a sora-kagi there is a horizontal timber tied to the roof beam, with the jizai-kagi hung from this member, called the tanpa-gi たんぱ木. One end of the tanpa-gi projects out further than the other, and this long end is positioned over the wife’s seat (the kaka-za かか座), the idea being that the gods of fortune (fuku no kami 福の神) will reside over this seat. The other, short end is suspended over the guests’ seat (kyaku-za 客座), and on this end is said to sit the gods of poverty.