KEEPING WARM 
The traditional Japanese house 
remains open to a south garden the 
year round. The overhanging eaves 
shade the house in summer; in 
winter, the sun rises and sets more 
to the south, shining into the house. 
suited for heating not only because of its 
integration with the garden but also 
because of its construction. Like the 
modern skyscraper, it is supported by its 
frame. The exterior walls serve mainly 
to enclose the space, block the wind, and 
give a sense of privacy. Sliding doors of 
paper or glass often constitute one entire 
side of the house, sometimes more, de- 
pending on how extensive the garden is. 
These provide no insulation from the 
cold, and the amado (storm doors) that 
are drawn across at night or during 
heavy storms are only made of a single 
layer of wood or thin aluminum. Inside, 
the rooms are small and the ceilings are 
low, helping somewhat to retain heat. 
But the walls of the rooms consist of 
fusuma (opaque sliding screens), which 
are flimsy and light and can be lifted out 
of their grooves to open up the interior 
space. Between the top of the fusuma 
and the ceiling there is often a wood or 
bamboo latticework transom, which is 
intended to aid ventilation and cannot 
be closed to conserve heat. 
The traditional house is designed for 
winter in only one way: it is built with 
maximum southern exposure. Usually 
the best room in the house faces south, 
where the garden is located. In a well- 
designed house, the overhang of the roof 
is sufficiently long on this side to block 
the rays of the summer sun. On sunny 
days in midwinter, the doors are thrown 
open to let in the sunshine and air the 
house, and the bedding is hung from an 
upper balcony railing to air it and warm 
it up for the cold night ahead. 
The Japanese have traditionally used 
charcoal fires for heat, but these mainly 
warm individual bodies rather than the 
space surrounding them. There are 
three types of arrangements for burning 
charcoal. The most basic is the ro (fire- 
pit or heafth), a square or rectangular 
pit framed with heavy timbers and lined 
with stone or brick, which is built into 
the tatami-covered floor. The ro is not 
usually seen in city houses, except in the 
tea room if there is one; it is more 
prevalent in rural areas, where wood 
may be burned instead of charcoal. The 
ro is used for heating water for tea, for 
warming the hands, and for cooking 
certain one-pot meals, but not for cook- 
ing regular meals; for this task, there is a 
separate cooking stove, often in another 
area of the house. The fire in the ro is 
kept low, and because the ceiling above 
it is often left open to the rafters to allow 
the smoke to escape, its capacity to heat 
interior space is limited. 
The kotatsu is the most effective 
heating device and is still widely used, 
although not in its charcoal-burning 
form. It originated as a wooden frame 
set over the ro and covered with a quilt 
to keep the heat from escaping. Feet and 
legs were pushed under the quilt, warm- 
ing the lower half of the body. A more 
elaborate arrangement is the hori- 
kotatsu, or sunken kotatsu , a deep pit in 
the floor, usually in the main sitting 
room of the house. A wooden grating is 
set over the burning coals of the hori- 
kotatsu and over the whole pit is placed 
a low table covered with a quilt. People 
sit around the table Western-style, that 
is, with their legs hanging down into the 
pit, and cover themselves from the waist 
down with the quilt. For meals and other 
activities requiring a hard surface, a 
separate tabletop is set over the quilt. 
Some traditional houses, even recently 
built ones, still have hori-kotatsu, but 
these are usually electrically heated. 
The common modern adaptation of the 
kotatsu is a low table frame with an 
electric heating element attached to the 
underside; the quilt is placed over this, 
and then a tabletop (usually of Formica, 
although in an elegant house it may 
be made of beautifully finished wood). 
The third of the charcoal-burning de- 
vices is the hibachi, a brazier or firebox, 
which bears little resemblance to the 
grill Americans use to cook meat out- 
doors. Made of pottery or of wood lined 
with copper, this device is used for burn- 
ing a few small pieces of charcoal on a 
bed of finely sifted ashes. The hibachi is 
designed primarily to warm the hands or 
to heat water for tea. Old woodblock 
prints frequently depict its use in a room 
open to a snowy garden. Before the 
introduction of electric, gas, and kero- 
sene heating stoves, the hibachi was 
often the only source of heat in a city 
dwelling. Morse remarked on his own 
quarters in Tokyo: 
My only stove is a square wooden box in 
which is a round earthen vessel filled with 
ashes. ... Ice has already formed outside 
and my room would be very cold without 
the little charcoal fire. I have become 
accustomed to the carbonic gas, though 
most of it settles through the cracks of the 
floor; when it gets too strong, I open the 
door. On enquiry I found that the Japanese 
never suffer any inconvenience from burn- 
ing charcoal, their sole means of heating. 
The old woman who . . . brings in a few hot 
coals from her own hibachi had never 
heard of the gas being injurious, nor had 
she an idea that it could kill one. 
The cost of charcoal has risen so high, 
however, that the charcoal-burning hi- 
bachi has all but disappeared: it is now a 
luxury reserved for such gracious pur- 
suits as the tea ceremony. Gradually, 
kerosene, gas, and electricity have re- 
placed the traditional fuel. Believed to 
present less danger of conflagration, 
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