644 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



consider such a structure as a dwelling, when so many features are 

 absent that go to make up a dwelling at home — no doors or windows 

 such as he had been familiar with ; no attic or cellar ; no chimneys, 

 and within no fireplace, and of course no customary mantel ; no per- 

 manently inclosed rooms ; and, as for furniture, no beds or tables, 

 chairs or similar articles — at least, so it appears at first sight. 



One of the chief points of difference in a Japanese house, as com- 

 pared with ours, lies in the treatment of partitions and outside walls. 

 In our houses these are solid and permanent, and, when the frame is 

 built, the partitions form part of the framework. In the Japanese 

 house, on the contrary, there are two or more sides that have no per- 

 manent walls. Within, also, there are but few partitions which have 

 similar stability ; in their stead are slight sliding-screens, which run in 

 appropriate grooves in the floor and overhead. These grooves mark 

 the limit of each room. The screens may be opened by sliding them 

 back, or they may be entirely removed, thus throwing a number of 

 rooms into one great apartment. In the same way the whole side of 

 a house may be flung open to sunlight and air. For communication 

 between the rooms, therefore, swinging-doors are not necessary. As 

 a substitute for windows, the outside screens, or shoji, are covered with 

 white paper, allowing the light to be diffused through the house. 



Where external walls appear they are of wood unpainted, or painted 

 black, and, if of plaster, white or dark slate-colored. In certain classes 

 of building the outside wall, to a height of several feet from the 

 ground, and sometimes even the entire wall, may be tiled, the inter- 

 spaces being pointed with white plaster. The roof may be either 

 lightly shingled, heavily tiled, or thickly thatched. It has a moderate 

 pitch, and, as a general thing, the slope is not so steep as in our roofs. 

 Nearly all the houses have a veranda, which is protected by the widely 

 overhanging eaves of the roof, or by a light supplementary roof pro- 

 jecting from beneath the eaves. 



While most houses of the better class have a definite porch and 

 vestibule, or genha, in houses of the poorer class this entrance is not 

 separate from the living-room ; and, since the interior of the house is 

 accessible from two or three sides, one may enter it from any point. 

 The floor is raised a foot and a half or more from the ground, and is 

 covered with thick straw mats, rectangular in shape, of uniform size, 

 with sharp, square edges, and so closely fitted that the floor upon 

 which they rest is completely hidden. The rooms ate either square 

 or rectangular, and are made with absolute reference to the number of 

 mats they, are to contain. With the exception of the guest-room, few 

 rooms have projections or bays. In the guest-room there is at one 

 side a more or less deep recess divided into two bays by a slight par- 

 tition ; the one nearest the veranda is called the toJconoma. In this 

 place hang one or more pictures, and upon its floor, which is slightly 

 raised above the mats, rests a flower-vase, incense-burner, or some 



