JAPANESE HOUSE-BUILDING. 



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or rough-hewed stones, these in turn resting upon others, which have 

 been solidly pounded into the earth by means of a huge wooden maul 

 worked by a number of men (Fig. 2). In this way the house is perched 

 upon these stones, with the floor elevated at least a foot and a half or 

 two feet above the ground. In some cases the space between the up- 

 rights is boarded up ; this is generally seen in Kioto houses. In others 

 the wind has free play beneath ; and, while this exposed condition 

 renders the house much colder and more uncomfortable in winter, the 

 inmates are never troubled by the noisome air of the cellar, which 

 too often infects our houses at home. Closed wooden fences of a 

 more solid character are elevated in this way ; that is, the lower 

 rail or sill of the fence rests directly upon stones placed at intervals 

 apart of six or eight feet. The ravages of numerous ground-insects, 

 as well as larvae, and the excessive dampness of the ground at certain 

 seasons of the year, render this method of building a necessity. 



The accurate way in which the base of the uprights is wrought to 

 fit the inequalities of the stones upon which they rest is worthy of 

 notice. In the emperor's garden we saw a two-storied house finished 

 in the most simple and exquisite manner. It was, indeed, like a beau- 

 tiful cabinet, though disfigured by a 

 bright-colored foreign carpet upon 

 its lower floor. The uprights of 

 this structure rested on large, oval, 

 beach -worn stones buried end- 

 wise in the ground ; and, upon the 

 smooth rounded portions of the 

 stones, which projected above the 

 level of the ground to a height of 

 ten inches or more, the uprights had 

 been most accurately fitted (Fig. 3). 

 The effect was extremely light and 

 buoyant, though apparently inse- 

 cure to the last degree ; yet this 

 building had not only withstood a 

 number of earthquake-shocks, but 

 also the strain of severe typhoons, 

 which during the summer months 

 sweep over Japan with such vio- 

 lence. If the building be very small, 

 then the frame consists of four corner-posts running to the roof. In 

 dwellings having a frontage of two or more rooms, other uprights occur 

 between the corner-posts. As the rooms increase in number through 

 the house, uprights come in the corners of the rooms, against which 

 the sliding-screens, or fusuma, abut. The passage of these uprights 

 through the room to the roof above gives a solid constructive appear- 

 ance to the house. When a house has a veranda — and nearly every 



Fig. 3.— Foundation-Stonb. 



