American and Japanese Summer-Houses 
wind tremulously shifted the 
leafy screen without. My 
attention was first attracted 
to it by noticing a number of 
Japanese peering at it through 
an open fence and admiring 
in rapt delight this charming 
conception.” 
There is a summer-house 
in a private garden in Tokyo 
which is of a type now becom¬ 
ing popular in this country. 
Rough posts and a few cross¬ 
pieces form the frame. It has 
a raised floor and is closed 
on two sides only; in one of 
these sides is cut a circular 
A JAPANESE TYPE 
On the Country Place of Hon. John Wanamaker 
circular window five feet in diameter, with¬ 
out any enclosing molding or frame work, 
simply the plaster finished squarely at the 
border. Dark brown bamboos of various 
thicknesses, secured across this opening 
horizontally, form the frame work. Run¬ 
ning vertically, and secured to the bamboo 
was a cross-grating of brown rushes. This 
window being on the sunny side of the 
house was protected outside by a carefully 
trained vine with rich green leaves, so that 
the window was always more or less shaded 
by it. “The effect of the sunlight falling 
upon the vine,” says Doctor 
Morse, “was singularly beauti¬ 
ful. When two or three 
leaves were interposed between 
the sun’s rays, the color was 
a rich dark green; where here 
and there over the whole mass 
a single leaf only interrupted 
the light, there were bright 
green flashes like emeralds; 
while at other points the daz¬ 
zling sunlight glittered like 
sparks. In a few places the 
vine and leaves had been 
coaxed through the grating 
of rushes, and these were 
consequently in deep shadow;. 
The beautiful contrast of 
color, the browns and greens, 
was greatly heightened as the 
window, and in the other 
there is a long narrow open¬ 
ing near the eaves. Crowning 
the whole is a heavily-thatched roof, whose 
peak is capped by an inverted vase whose 
warm red color makes a pleasing harmony 
W'ith the gray thatch of the roof. In the 
majority of Japanese summer-houses, the 
plan is either square or rectangular, but the 
six or eight sided form is occasionally seen, 
and for these a thatched roof is an invariable 
accompaniment. The American practice 
confines thatch to the simple circular or 
square plans, reserving for the more complex 
forms of house rough bark, shingles, or rough 
logs of uniform size. Japanese window 
TEA ROOM AT RIVERTON, MAINE 
322 
