JAPANESE HOUSE-BUILDING. 651 



The permanent partitions within the house are made in various 

 ways. In one method bamboo strips of various lengths take the place 

 of laths. Small bamboos are first nailed in a vertical position to the 

 wooden strips, which are fastened from one upright to another ; nar- 

 row strips of bamboo are then secured across these bamboos by means 

 of coarse cords of straw, or bark-fiber (Fig. 1). This partition is not 

 unlike our own plaster-and-lath partition. Another kind of partition 

 may be of boards ; and against these small bamboo rods are nailed 

 quite close together, and upon this the plaster is put. Considerable 

 pains are taken as to the plastering. The plasterer brings to the house 

 samples of various-colored. sands and clays, so that one may select from 

 these the color of his wall. A good coat of plaster comprises three 

 layers. The first layer, called shita-nuri, is composed of mud, in which 

 chopped straw is mixed ; a second layer, called chu-nuri, of rough lime, 

 mixed with mud ; the third layer, called uwa-nuri, has the colored 

 clay or sand mixed with lime — and this last layer is always applied by 

 a skillful workman. 



Many of the partitions between the rooms consist entirely of light 

 sliding-screens. Often two or more sides of the house are composed 

 entirely of these simple and frail devices. The outside permanent 

 walls of a house, if of wood, are made of thin boards nailed to the 

 frame horizontally — as we lay clapboards on our houses. These 

 may be more firmly held to the house by long strips nailed against 

 the boards vertically. The boards may also be secured to the house 

 vertically, and weather-strips nailed over the seams — as is commonly 

 the way with certain of our houses. In the southern provinces a 

 rough house-wall is made of wide slabs of bark, placed vertically, and 

 held, in place by thin strips of bamboo nailed crosswise. This style 

 is common among the poorer houses in Japan ; and, indeed, in the 

 better class of houses it is often used as an ornamental feature, placed 

 at the height of a few feet from the ground. 



Outside plastered walls are also very common, though not of a 

 durable nature. This kind of wall is frequently seen in a dilapidated 

 condition. In Japanese picture-books this broken condition is often 

 shown, with the bamboo slats exposed, as a suggestion of poverty. 



In the cities the outside walls of more durable structures, such as 

 warehouses, are not infrequently covered with square tiles, a board 

 wall being first made, to which the tiles are secured by being nailed 

 at their corners. These may be placed in diagonal or horizontal rows 

 — in either case an interspace of a quarter of an inch being left be- 

 tween the tiles, and the seams closed with white plaster, spreading on 

 each side to the width of an inch or more, and finished with a rounded 

 surface. This work is done in a very tasteful and artistic manner, and 

 the effect of the dark-gray tiles crossed by these white bars of plaster 

 is very striking (Fig. 8). 



The Japanese dwellings are always of wood, usually of one story 



