Japanese Houses
The Structure of a Japanese House
The entrance to a Japanese house
Traditional Japanese houses are built by erecting wooden columns on top of a flat foundation made of packed earth or stones. Wooden houses exist all over the world. What are the particular characteristics of houses in Japan, where there are four distinct seasons, including a hot and humid summer and a cold winter?
A family sits on zabuton. (The Japan Forum)
In order to avoid moisture from the ground, the floor is elevated several tens of centimeters and is laid across horizontal wooden floor beams. Areas like the kitchen and hallways have wooden flooring, but rooms in which people sit, such as the living room, are covered with mats called tatami that are made from woven rush grass. Japanese generally don't use chairs on top of tatami, so people either sit directly on the tatami or on flat cushions called zabuton. This is why people take off their shoes when entering a Japanese house.
The frame of a Japanese house is made of wood, and the weight is supported by vertical columns, horizontal beams, and diagonal braces. Diagonal braces came to be used when the technology of foreign countries was brought to Japan. one characteristic of Japanese houses is that they have a large roof and deep eaves to protect the house from the hot summer sun, and the frame of the house supports the weight of the roof. (225 words)
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