A Thatched Summer-House of Stnne 
AMERICAN AND JAPANESE SUMMER-HOUSES 
By Phebe Westcott Humphreys 
TT seems remarkable that Rein should 
make the statement after his early travels 
in Japan that the Japanese garden contains 
no summer-house. He must surely have 
traveled in very remote districts, for it is rare 
to see a Japanese garden of any magnitude 
without some sort of garden shelter, tea-house 
or resting place. And, in fact, much of the 
growing popularity of 
the summer-house in 
this country, as well 
as many of the quaint 
designs encountered, 
are due in a large 
majority of instances 
to our increasing inter¬ 
est in thfe Japanese 
point of view. 
Both in Japan and 
here it is the simpler 
unpretentious type that 
makes the strongest 
appeal to the garden 
builder, and there are 
but a few examples 
in the imperial gardens 
which are at all com¬ 
plicated in their design. 
The usual Japanese 
garden shelter is very simply constructed 
with a seat and an earth floor, though some¬ 
times a boarded or matted floor is substituted. 
These houses are sometimes open on all sides, 
having a square or circular thatched roof 
supported by four corner posts, while others 
have either one or two sides closed by per¬ 
manent partitions in which an ornamental 
opening or window 
usually occurs. 
In describing his 
recent travels through 
Japan, Doctor Edward 
S. Morse is particu¬ 
larly interested in the 
summer-house. One 
example especially at¬ 
tracted his enthusiastic 
admiration. Three 
sides of this summer¬ 
house were closed by 
a plaster covering, 
tinted a rich brown, 
with a widely projecting 
thatched roof throwing 
its dark shade on the 
matted floor. Imme¬ 
diately opposite the en¬ 
trance there was a 
A LATTICE-WORK. HOUSE 
3 21 
