House in ancient Japanese tradition. Minka is a traditional Japanese village house. An excursion into the history of Japanese houses

Let's start our tour of Japanese style from a traditional Japanese house. Many articles on the Japanese home mention Minka, which literally translates as the house of people.

Minka is the housing of peasants, artisans, merchants, but not samurai. Minka can be divided into two types: village houses(noka) and town houses (machiya). In turn, in village houses one can distinguish a separate type of traditional Japanese fishermen's houses called gyoka.

Minka were built from cheap and available materials. The frame of the house was made of wood, the external walls were made of bamboo and clay, but there were no internal walls, instead there were partitions or fusuma screens. The roof of the house, mats and tatami mats were made from grass and straw. Rarely, the roof was covered with baked clay tiles; stone was used to strengthen the foundation of the house.

There were two sections inside the mink, the first section had an earthen floor (this part was called doma), the second rose 50 cm above the level of the house and was covered with tatami. Four rooms were allocated in the “white” part of the house. Two rooms are residential, including the one where the fireplace was located. The third room is a bedroom, the fourth is for guests. The toilet and bath were located outside the main part of the house.

The Doma section was used for cooking and contained a clay pot. kamado oven(Kamado), wooden washbasin, food barrels, water jugs. In principle, doma is the grandmother of the kitchen in Japanese style, it is unlikely that you will want to repeat such a kitchen in your own home.

Rice. 2. Kamado stove in a Japanese house

The entrance to the main building was closed by a large odo door; a built-in hotbed of irori(irori). The smoke from the hearth went up under the roof of the house, sometimes through a small vent, there was no chimney. The irori hearth was often the only way to illuminate the house in the dark.

Samurai House

Samurai House was surrounded by a wall with a gate; the larger it was and the better decorated, the higher the status of the samurai. The basis of the house design support pillars, the house is rectangular in plan, and it itself is raised on stilts 60-70 cm from the ground, which protected it from dampness and mold.

Rice. 4. Samurai residence

The house visually resembles a panel house frame house, but only partially understandable depending on the season of the year. The outer walls, which face the street, are fixed and motionless, and the wall facing the courtyard was made sliding. This wall was called amado, it looks like a shield of tightly knit wide boards, installed in cold weather or the night before shoji.

Machiya - urban Japanese houses

Machiya These are traditional wooden town houses that, along with village houses (noka), represent Japanese folk architecture (minka).

Machiya in Kyoto for many centuries represented the standard that defined the form of Machiya throughout the country. That is, if you want to see the real ones matia, then go to Kyoto.

Rice. 8-9. Machiya in Kyoto

Typical Machiya is long wooden house with a façade facing the street. The house itself can be one, one and a half, two or even three floors high.

At the front of the building there was often a store, which was closed from the outside with doors that rose or moved apart. This part of the house constituted the "shop space" of the house.

The rest of the house is the so-called "living space", which consisted of rooms for various purposes, including for storing goods, receiving clients and guests, preparing food or relaxing.

Rice. 10. Machiya schematic illustration

Shoji and Amado

When closing, the amados were tightly adjacent to each other; the outermost amado was locked with a bolt lock. This wall reminds us of an awkward big door compartment, which slides into an outer storage box made at the edge of the wall; the box itself can also be hinged. In a number of designs, the amado was removed completely, they were lifted up and hooked onto special hooks.

Rice. 14. Traditional japanese house minka

Rice. 18. Amados rise on hooks

Rice. 21. Engawa - traditional Japanese house

Rice. 22. Engawa in modern interpretation

Shoji perform the function of both windows and doors and partitions. In English writing, shoji is written shoji.

To put it simply in modern terms, then shoji are traditional Japanese sliding interior partitions, which operate on the principle of compartment doors. Frame and internal partitions This type of door is made from wooden blocks and bamboo.

Rice. 24. Shoji design

The shoji design - upper and lower tracks are reminiscent of modern aluminum coupe door systems.

Inner space shoji, almost called it a compartment by analogy with our doors - the filling is covered with paper, which the Japanese themselves call washi - washi paper.

Washi paper is made from bark fibers. mulberry tree(kozo), Gampi bush (gampi), Mitsumata, as well as with the addition of bamboo fibers, wheat, and rice. Because of the latter component, the paper is mistakenly called rice paper.

Traditional technology The production of washi involves its natural whitening without chemicals, so the material is environmentally friendly. The paper turns out strong and elastic.

The division of the living space of a Japanese house into rooms was done using fusuma sliding partitions. Big differences between sliding doors and there are no partitions. The main difference is in terms: if a doorway is closed, then it is a fusuma door, and these are always opaque partitions; if a whole room or a very large opening is partitioned, it is a shoji sliding partition.

Fusuma doors

Fusuma- This is a wooden frame covered with washi paper on both sides. Wealthier Japanese used silk to decorate their doors. Fusuma doors were opened similarly to shoji doors, that is, according to the principle of compartment doors. Fusuma doors had an integrated handle, the design of which was also given special attention.

Rice. 34. Interesting modern interpretation of Japanese partitions

By the way, also interesting photo movable partitions from the museum house in Kamamura, Japan and similar design already in a modern house.

Usage wooden gratings when creating a furniture façade, it already points to the Japanese style. The photo below shows an interesting design solution in this style when creating a cabinet for equipment.

Hallway or genkan in a Japanese house

In a Japanese house there is something like a hallway that is understandable to us. Noteworthy is the large difference in height between the entrance and the passage to the house. Such a difference has both special cultural significance and also serves as an “airlock” that separates inner part houses heated from a cold unheated entrance.

Almost every genkan There is a getabako shoe cabinet and a bench. In this nook, the Japanese leave their street shoes and put on slippers.

A few more photos of the genkan, but in a modern version. I’m adding a photo because the topic of minimalism in furniture is interesting to me. Light colors and a lot of wood reminiscent of Scandinavian style.

Dojo

Dojo this is a place where a real Japanese person disciplines and improves himself to become a better person. Initially it was a place for meditation, later the term dojo began to be used to name the place where training and competitions in Japanese martial arts take place.

The photo below shows some examples of dojo. This is necessarily a large room, with tatami on the floor, sliding partitions shoji or fusuma.

Tatami in a Japanese house

The floor in a Japanese house is covered with tatami. Tatami these are mats made of pressed rice straw covered with mats, all of this is fastened at the edges thick fabric often black.

Tatami are made rectangular, their sizes vary different parts Japan, in Tokyo, size 1.76 m * 0.88 m. Poor townspeople and rural residents, unlike samurai, slept directly on the floor, laying down bags filled with rice straw.

Hibachi

An interesting part of the Japanese home is the portable fireplaces. hibachi, traditionally in the Japanese home they were used for heating.

Initially, hibachi were carved from wood and covered with clay, then from ceramics and metal. Again, wealthy Japanese craftsmen turned hibachi into an object of art based on the degree of finishing.

Rice. 54. Ceramic hibachi

Rice. 55. Bronze hibachi

Real hibachi were shaped like a pot, sometimes in the form of a wooden stand, with a container for coal in the center. Nowadays such pots are mostly used as decorative items for creating an interior in Japanese style.

Hibachi in the form of a cabinet resembles a modern stove, which was already used not only for heating, but also to boil a kettle.

Irori and kotatsu

In addition to hibachi, there were more effective ways heating: irori And kotatsu. Irori is an open hearth, which was cut into the floor; people not only warmed themselves around it, but also boiled water.

Rice. 65-66. Kotatsu

Minka (literally "people's house(s)") is a traditional Japanese house.

In the context of the division of Japanese society into classes minka were the dwellings of Japanese peasants, artisans and traders, i.e. non-samurai part of the population. But since then, the class division of society has disappeared, so the word “minka” can be used to refer to anyone of the appropriate age.

Minka have a wide range of styles and sizes, which is largely due to geographical and climatic conditions, as well as with the lifestyle of the inhabitants of the house. But in principle, mink can be divided into two types: village houses (noka; nōka) And town houses (machiya). In the case of village houses, one can also distinguish a subclass of fishermen's houses, which are called gyoka.

In general, surviving minkas are considered historical monuments, and many are protected by local municipalities or the national government. Of particular note are the so-called "gasshō-zukuri", which survive in two villages in central Japan - Shirakawa (Gifu Prefecture) and Gokayama (Toyama Prefecture). Collectively, these buildings have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The peculiarity of these houses is their roofs, which meet at an angle of 60 degrees, like hands folded in prayer. Actually, this is reflected in their name - “gassho-zukuri” can be translated as “folded hands”.

The central point in the construction of the mink was the use of cheap and accessible building materials. The peasants could not afford to import something very expensive or use something that was difficult to find in their home village. So, almost all nokas are made exclusively from wood, bamboo, clay and various types grass and straw.

The “skeleton” of the house, roofs, walls and supports are made of wood. During production external walls bamboo and clay were often used, and interior walls were not erected and instead sliding partitions or fusuma screens.

Grasses and straw were also used to make roofing, musiro mats and mats. Sometimes the roof, in addition to thatch, was covered with baked clay tiles. Stone was often used to create or strengthen the foundation of a house, but stone was never used in the construction of the house itself.

When you first see interior of a Japanese home, what is most striking is the complete absence of any furniture. You see only the bare wood of the supporting pillars and rafters, the ceiling made of planed boards, lattice frames shoji, whose rice paper softly diffuses the light coming from outside. They spring slightly under your bare feet tatami - hard, three fingers thick mats made of quilted straw mats. The floor, made up of these golden rectangles, is completely empty. The walls are also empty. There are no decorations anywhere, except for a niche where a scroll with a painting or a calligraphic poem hangs, and under it there is a vase of flowers: .

Just feeling it on my skin in a Japanese house how his closeness to nature turns out on winter days, you truly realize the meaning: this main view self-heating. IN Everyday life Every Japanese, regardless of his position and income, has no greater joy than basking in a deep wooden vat filled with incredible amounts of hot water. In winter, this is the only opportunity to truly warm up. You need to get into the furo after first washing yourself out of the gang, like in a Russian bathhouse, and rinsing thoroughly. Only after this do the Japanese plunge up to their necks into hot water, pull their knees up to their chin and blissfully remain in this position for as long as possible, steaming their body until it turns crimson red.

In winter, after such a bath, you don’t feel a draft for the whole evening, from which even the picture on the wall sways. In summer it provides relief from the sweltering humid heat. The Japanese are accustomed to bask in furo, if not every day, then at least every other day. Having that much hot water for each person would be an unaffordable luxury for most families. Hence the custom of washing from the gang so that the vat remains clean for the whole family. In villages, neighbors take turns heating furo to save on firewood and water. For the same reason, public baths are still widespread in cities. They traditionally serve as the main place of communication. After exchanging news and gaining some warmth, the neighbors disperse to their unheated homes.

IN summer time When it is very hot and humid in Japan, the walls move apart to allow the house to be ventilated. In winter, when it gets colder, the walls are moved to create small interior rooms that can be easily heated with braziers.

The floor of a traditional Japanese house is covered with tatami - square straw mats.. The area of ​​one is about 1.5 square meters. m. The area of ​​a room is measured by the number of tatami mats that fit in it. The tatami mats are cleaned and replaced periodically.

In order not to stain the floor, in traditional Japanese houses they do not wear shoes - only white tabi socks.. Shoes are left at the entrance to the house on a special step - genkan(it is done below floor level).

They sleep in traditional Japanese houses on mattresses - which are put away in the closet in the morning - osi-ire. The bedding set also includes a pillow (previously a small log was often used as such) and a blanket.

They eat in such houses, sitting on futons. Small table with food is placed in front of each of the eaters.

There must be an alcove in one of the rooms of the house -. This recess contains art objects that are in the house (graphics, calligraphy, ikebana), as well as cult accessories - statues of gods, photographs of deceased parents, and so on.

Style motivation

Why is the Japanese house a phenomenon? Because its very nature goes against our usual concept of home. Where, for example, does construction begin? an ordinary house? Of course, from the foundation, on which strong walls and a reliable roof are then erected. everything is done the other way around. Of course, it does not start from the roof, but it also does not have a foundation as such.

When building a traditional Japanese house factors of a possible earthquake, hot and extremely humid summer are taken into account. Therefore, it is basically a structure made of wooden columns and a roof. The wide roof protects from the scorching sun, and the simplicity and lightness of the structure allows the damaged house to be quickly reassembled in case of destruction. Walls in a Japanese house- This is just filling the gaps between the columns. Usually only one of the four walls is permanent, the rest consist of movable panels various densities and textures that play the role of walls, doors and windows. Yes, In a classic Japanese house there are no windows that we are used to!

The external walls of the house are replaced - these are wooden or bamboo frames made of thin slats assembled like a lattice. The gaps between the slats used to be pasted over thick paper(most often rice), partially upholstered in wood. Over time, more technologically advanced materials and glass began to be used. Thin walls move on special hinges and can serve as doors and windows. During the hottest part of the day, the shoji can generally be removed, and the house will receive natural ventilation.

Interior walls of a Japanese house even more conventional. They are being replaced fusuma- lungs wooden frames, pasted on both sides with thick paper. They divide their home into separate rooms, and if necessary they are moved apart or removed, forming a single large space. In addition, the interior spaces are separated by screens or curtains. Such “mobility” of a Japanese house gives its inhabitants unlimited possibilities in planning - according to needs and circumstances.

Floor in a Japanese house traditionally made of wood and raised at least 50 cm above the ground. This provides some ventilation from below. Wood heats up less in hot weather and cools down longer in winter; moreover, it is safer during an earthquake than, for example, masonry.

A European person entering a Japanese home has the feeling that this is just the scenery for a theatrical production. How can you live in a house that has practically paper walls? But what about “my home is my castle”? Which door should be bolted? Which windows should I hang curtains on? And which wall should you put the massive cabinet on?

In a Japanese house you will have to forget about stereotypes and try to think in other categories. For for the Japanese, what is important is not “stone” protection from the outside world, but the harmony of the inner.

Inner world

To some extent, the house in which we live reflects our character, vision of the world, and aspirations. The atmosphere inside the house for the Japanese is perhaps the most important thing. they prefer minimalism, which allows them not to overload the space and energy of the house. Everything is extremely functional, compact and light.

When entering the house, you must take off your shoes to your socks. In the Japanese tradition, socks are white, because the house always reigns perfect cleanliness. However, maintaining it is not so difficult: the floor is lined tatami– dense mats made of rice straw, covered with grass igusa - swamp reed.

There is practically no furniture in the house. The one that exists has been reduced in size to a minimum. Instead of bulky cabinets, there are built-in wardrobes with sliding doors that match the texture of the walls. Instead of chairs there are pillows. They usually eat at low portable tables. Instead of sofas and beds - futons (mattresses filled with compressed cotton). Immediately after waking up, they are put away in special niches in the walls or in built-in closets, freeing up space for living.

The Japanese are literally obsessed with cleanliness and hygiene. On the border sanitary zones At home - in the bathroom and toilet - special slippers are placed that are worn only in these rooms. It is worth recognizing that in the absence of excess furniture, unnecessary trinkets and non-functional items, dust and dirt simply have nowhere to accumulate, and cleaning the house is reduced to a minimum. In a classic Japanese house, everything is designed for a “seated person.” And sitting on the floor. In this you can see the desire to be closer to nature, to the earth, to the natural - without intermediaries.

Light is another Japanese cult. In a house where both external and internal walls are made of translucent materials, a lot of natural light penetrates, even if all shoji closed. Their lattice frames create a special light pattern. The main requirement for light in Japanese home- so that it is soft, dim. Traditional rice paper lampshades diffuse artificial light. It seems to permeate the air itself, without drawing attention to itself, without distracting.

Clean space and peace - this is what the inhabitant of a Japanese home should provide. If we can decorate our rooms with flowers, vases, souvenirs and over time we even stop noticing these things, then the Japanese make only one accent in the interior decoration of the premises (painting, ikebana, netsuke), which will please the eye and set the atmosphere. Therefore, in every house there is a wall niche - tokonama, where a neat Japanese will place the most beautiful or valuable thing he has.

Japanese style

Of course, time and technical progress changed their way of life and... Classic in the full sense of the word japanese houses now there are only rural areas. But every Japanese tries to preserve the spirit in his home national traditions. Almost any Japanese apartment, even in the most modern and “European” apartment building, there is at least one room in traditional style. And this is not a tribute to fashion, but something natural and logical, without which a Japanese cannot imagine his home.

The minimalist style also prevails in Europeanized Japanese housing - it perfectly suits the conditions of scarcity and high cost. square meters, overloaded with the stresses of big city life. The attitude towards one’s space, towards residential territory in overpopulated Japan is reverent, because out of the seven thousand islands under the Japanese flag, only 25% of the land is suitable for living.

Modern housing in Japan

The average size of a house/apartment in Japan is 5 rooms. There are three bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen/dining room. Living space such a house is about 90 square meters. m. For private houses, this is, respectively, 6 rooms and about 120 sq. m. m of living space. In Tokyo, where housing prices are significantly higher, apartments and houses are on average one room smaller.

The vast majority of Japanese children have own room(for each child).

There is almost always at least one traditional style room. The remaining rooms are usually made in European style, with wooden floors, carpets, beds, tables, chairs and so on.

In modern Japanese houses It's cold to walk in the tabi (the floor is not heated), so the Japanese wear slippers. There are special slippers for the toilet to avoid spreading dirt. In general, the Japanese are very scrupulous about personal and home hygiene.

Only in your own home can you feel relatively safe, take a break from the pressure of the outside world and be alone with your family. What is a traditional Japanese house like?

In traditional Japan, the architecture and style of a house depended on the position of its owner - wealthy samurai used the most best materials and attracted the most skilled carpenters to the work. The house of such a samurai was usually surrounded by a wall with a gate, the size and decoration of which corresponded to the position of the owner of the house in the samurai hierarchy. The house had a rectangle at its base and was one-story (now traditional houses after all, they are already making them two-story). The entire structure was raised on stilts (60-70 cm), which protected it from dampness and mold, as well as from small earthquake shocks. The main characters in the design are the support pillars, which were dug into the ground or placed on stone “pillows”. The roof plays second fiddle in the construction of a Japanese house - it significantly more roofs, built in the West, and is designed to protect the house from scorching sun rays and heavy rain or snow.

Walls facing the street are fixed and motionless, while walls facing the street patio, were made sliding. External sliding walls – amado- were made from solid wooden plates and were removed for good during the warm season. There were (and still are) other partitions separating the living quarters from the veranda - shoji. Originally the veranda ( engawa) was done so that the guard (and subsequently all the residents of the house), when walking around the territory, would not disturb the peace of the house and would not damage the beauty of the garden, which is an integral part of the Japanese house. When the shoji and amado are removed or moved apart, the interior of the house forms a single whole with the nature surrounding it. The frame and lattice are made of wood, and the upper part from the outside is covered with rice paper, which allows light to pass through. The division into rooms occurs using internal sliding walls - fusuma, whose upper part was covered on both sides with opaque rice paper, whose surface was often decorated with a drawing. For practical reasons, the paper is secured at the bottom of the frames with bamboo strips.

When entering a house, they must take off their shoes, which can be left on a special stone at the entrance. By wooden floor Verandas or rooms are now allowed to wear slippers, but when entering the area lined with tatami, you must also take off your slippers. Tatami are mats made of pressed rice straw, covered with grass mats and secured at the edges with a special dense fabric (usually black). Tatami is always made rectangular shape, which makes them a convenient unit for measuring the area of ​​a room. The size of tatami varies in different areas of Japan, in particular, in Tokyo the standard tatami is 1.76 x 0.88 m.

In a traditional Japanese house, according to the principle, there is very little furniture, and it is important not to confuse the ascetic bushi house itself with a truly traditional Japanese house. IN best houses the living room had a built-in writing board, shelves for displaying books, and tokonoma(niche) - the aesthetic center of the entire house, where a scroll could hang ( Gakemono) with sayings or a drawing, stand a bouquet of flowers or a valuable piece of art. Scrolls can change depending on the time of year or at the request of the owners. During the holidays, appropriate attributes and decorations are placed in the tokonoma, however, recently, most often a TV is placed in a niche...

Japanese traditional house It has unusual name. It sounds like a mink. Translated, this word means “house of people.” Today in the Land of the Rising Sun such a structure can only be found in rural areas.

Types of Japanese houses

In ancient times, the word “minka” was used to call peasant dwellings Land of the Rising Sun. The same houses belonged to traders and artisans, that is, that part of the population that was not samurai. However, today there is no class division in society, and the word "minka" is applied to any traditional Japanese houses that are of appropriate age. Such dwellings, located in areas with different climatic and geographical conditions, come in a fairly wide range of sizes and styles.

But be that as it may, all minks are divided into two types. The first of them includes They are also called noka. The second type of minka is town houses (matiya). There is also a subclass of noka - a Japanese fisherman's house. What is the name of such a dwelling? These are Gyoka village houses.

Mink device

Traditional Japanese houses are very original structures. Basically they are a canopy that sits over an empty space. The roof of the mink rests on a frame made of rafters.

Japanese houses, as we understand them, have neither windows nor doors. Each room has three walls, which are light doors that can be removed from their grooves. They can always be moved or removed. These walls act as windows. The owners cover them with white, tissue-like rice paper and call them shoji.

A characteristic feature of Japanese houses is their roofs. They look like the hands of a praying person and converge at an angle of sixty degrees. The external association that mink roofs evoke is reflected in their name. It sounds like gassho-zukuri, which means folded hands.

Traditional Japanese houses that have survived to this day are historical monuments. Some of them are protected national government or local municipalities. Some of the buildings are included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Materials of main structures

The peasants could not afford to build expensive houses. They used the materials that were most accessible and cheap. Minka was built from bamboo and wood, clay and straw. Also used various types herbs

Wood was usually used to make the “skeleton” of the house and the roof. Bamboo and clay were used for the outer walls. The internal ones were replaced by sliding partitions or screens. Straw and grass were used to construct the roof. Sometimes tiles made from baked clay were laid on top of these natural materials.

The stone served to strengthen or create a foundation. However, this material was not used in the construction of the house itself.

Minka is a Japanese house, the architecture of which is traditional for the Land of the Rising Sun. The supports in it form the “skeleton” of the structure and are cleverly connected to the transverse beams without the use of nails. The openings in the walls of the house are shoji, or heavy wooden doors.

Roof construction

Gassho-zukuri have the tallest and most recognizable Japanese houses. And their amazing roofs give them this feature. Their height allowed residents to do without a chimney. In addition, it involved the arrangement of extensive storage space in the attic.

The high roof of the Japanese house reliably protected the mink from precipitation. Rain and snow, without lying around, immediately rolled down. This design feature prevented moisture from entering the room and rotting the straw from which the roof was made.

Mink roofs are classified according to various types. In matiya, for example, they are usually gabled, gabled, covered with tiles or shingles. The roofs of most Nok village houses were different from them. They were usually covered with straw and sloped on four sides. Special caps were installed on and also in those places where different sections were joined.

Home interior decoration

Minka, as a rule, consisted of two sections. In one of them there was a This territory was called home. In the second section, the floor was raised above the level of the home by half a meter.

The first room was where food was prepared. Barrels for food, a wooden washbasin and jugs for water were placed here.

The room had a built-in fireplace with a raised floor. The smoke from the fire lit in it went under the roof and did not disturb the residents of the house at all.

What impression does a Japanese house make on European tourists? Reviews from those who first got inside the mink speak of the surprise that the complete lack of furniture caused them. Only nudes are visible to visitors wooden parts housing structures. These are support posts and rafters, planed ceiling boards and shoji latticework that softly diffuse sunlight via The floor is completely empty, covered with straw mats. There are no decorations on the walls either. The only exception is a niche in which there is a painting or a scroll with a poem, under which there is a vase with a bouquet of flowers.

To a European person who finds himself in a Japanese house, it seems that this is not a home, but just a backdrop for some kind of theatrical production. Here we have to forget about existing stereotypes and understand that home is not a fortress, but something that allows you to feel harmony with nature and your inner world.

Centuries-old tradition

For residents of the East, tea drinking plays an important role in social and spiritual life. In Japan, this tradition is a strictly scheduled ritual. It involves the person who brews and then pours the tea (the master), as well as guests who drink this amazing drink. This ritual originated in the Middle Ages. However, it is still part of Japanese culture today.

Tea house

The Japanese used separate structures to hold the tea ceremony. Guests of honor were received at tea house. The main principle of this building was simplicity and naturalness. This allowed for a drinking ceremony aromatic drink, moving away from all earthly temptations.

What design features do Japanese tea houses have? They consist of one single room, accessible only through a low and narrow passage. To enter the house, visitors have to bow deeply. This has a certain meaning. After all, all people had to bow low before the ceremony, even those who had a high social position. In addition, the low entrance did not allow anyone to enter the tea house with weapons in former times. The samurai had to leave it in front of the door. It also forced the person to concentrate as much as possible on the ceremony.

The architecture of the tea house provided for the presence large quantity windows (from six to eight), which had different shapes and sizes. The high location of the openings indicated their main purpose - to let in sunlight. Admire surrounding nature guests could only do so if the hosts opened the frames. However, as a rule, the windows were closed during the tea drinking ritual.

Interior of a tea house

The room for the traditional ceremony had nothing superfluous. Its walls were finished with gray clay, which, reflecting sunlight, created a feeling of being in the shade and tranquility. The floor was certainly covered with tatami. The most important part of the house was the niche (tokonoma) made in the wall. A censer with incense and flowers were placed in it. There was also a scroll with sayings that were selected by the master for each specific case. There were no other decorations in the tea house. In the very center of the room there was a bronze hearth, on which an aromatic drink was prepared.

For fans of tea ceremonies

If desired, on summer cottages Japanese houses can be built with your own hands. A gazebo made in the architectural style of the Land of the Rising Sun is also suitable for leisurely ceremonies. The main thing that must be taken into account is the impossibility of using some traditional oriental materials in our climate. This applies in particular to partitions. It will not be possible to use oiled paper for them.

It is advisable to make a house in the Japanese style from wood, using it for decoration a natural stone, fiberglass and gratings. Bamboo blinds would be appropriate here. This material symbolizes success in Japanese culture, fast growth, vitality and good luck.

When making a gazebo or house, you should not use a wide color scheme. The structure must be in harmony with nature and merge with it. It is advisable to plant a mountain pine tree not far from the entrance. The real decoration of the building will be the water surface, stone lantern, bamboo fence and rock garden. Without this landscape, it is difficult to imagine a Japanese-style tea ceremony. The simplicity and unpretentiousness of the environment will create true tranquility. It will allow you to forget about earthly temptations and give you the highest feeling of beauty. And this will help a person approach understanding reality from new, philosophical positions.

In her magazine you can find a lot of interesting things about Japan, Japanese life and other travels.

Live in an old Japanese house - unforgettable experience. Everything is according to traditions: genkan, washitsu, fusuma, shoji, tatami, zabuton, futon, oshiire. There is even a kamidana. With simenawa and side, as expected. I photographed everything, everything, everything, filmed short video. I invite you on a tour.

Genkan - Japanese hallway. Shoes must be removed in this area. According to the rules, you should turn your shoes towards the door. You need to step on the hill barefoot.

Traditional men's shoes, perhaps this is an option geta

A room in a traditional Japanese style is called washitsu. The space is divided using internal sliding walls fusuma. The frames and gratings are made of wood, the outer side is covered with opaque rice paper. Partitions separating living quarters from the veranda are called shoji. They use rice paper that transmits light.

Kamidana is a niche for kami. A small Shinto shrine, similar to the home altar in Russian huts. Shimenawa- literally “fencing rope”, denotes sacred space. The white zigzag stripes are called shide. Kami are Japanese deities and spirits.

There is no central heating. You can turn on the air conditioner if there is one in the house, or floor heater. Judging by the smell, the heater is gas catalytic, so it is better not to use it. Heating a house with air conditioning is expensive, so they solve the problem locally. Comes to understand the beauty of the Japanese bath ofuro. It’s small in area, you can’t stretch your legs, but the water doesn’t cool down for a long time, and it’s deep, with only your head outside. The owner carefully left the hot water bottles. Electric sheets are also widely used. There is also special devices - kotatsu, .

A futon is a thick, soft mattress spread out at night for sleeping. In the morning he cleans the closet. The cabinet is called oshiire.

In the warm season, the corridor around the perimeter of the house is combined with the garden. The walls simply move, and at the same time it becomes cooler. IN in this case traditional shoji replaced with modern glazing.

Doors are usually decorated with paintings. Please note that the image is shifted to the bottom because it is designed for a seated person. In a Japanese house it is generally not customary to stand upright, so he moved from place to place and sat down on his knees again. The pose is called seiza, literally “correct sitting.”

The living room is adjacent to a European sofa and Japanese table on low legs. A flat pillow is called zabuton. They are used for sitting on the floor or on chairs. Although Japanese chairs are actually a seat with a back.

The kitchen is located outside the house, it is more of a terrace. There is a rice cooker, a microwave, something like a grill, a stove and a refrigerator. A lot of dishes.

The washing machine is just huge

Since the main space of the house is located on a hill, you can arrange a storage room. Underground, like ours.

The window overlooks the garden

This is Voneten Guest House on the island of Izu-Oshima, located in the town of Habuminato, in general a village - https://naviaddress.com/81/700037. I booked the house on Booking. The owner is sociable and hospitable. I met him at the bus stop, took him to the supermarket, launched my drone, and shot a video as a souvenir. It was great. Port Habu is a quiet place, the best experience.

Japanese cat Anko. Well-mannered, she doesn’t go into the house. Even if the door is open, he sits outside.

At the end of the video, a tour of the house.