Japan and her people . er, tacking them down to the rafters on theirupper side. The tatami or mats are each three feet wide and sixfeet long and about two inches thick, each piece boundat the end with black cotton cloth ; all rooms are madein proportions to fit them, as an eight-mat, ten-mat,twelve or four-and-a-half mat room. When the matsare laid, covering the entire floor, and the shoji andfusuma are in place, the house is felt to be furnished;the rest is luxury or ornament. There may be a fewlow chests of drawers, a writing stand ten inches high, ahibachi (box for coals), and some thin, sq
Japan and her people . er, tacking them down to the rafters on theirupper side. The tatami or mats are each three feet wide and sixfeet long and about two inches thick, each piece boundat the end with black cotton cloth ; all rooms are madein proportions to fit them, as an eight-mat, ten-mat,twelve or four-and-a-half mat room. When the matsare laid, covering the entire floor, and the shoji andfusuma are in place, the house is felt to be furnished;the rest is luxury or ornament. There may be a fewlow chests of drawers, a writing stand ten inches high, ahibachi (box for coals), and some thin, square cushionsto sit on ; in the tokonoma one flower vase, one kake-mono or hanging scroll; no more. It is bare, assuredly, and not at all comfortable toEuropean muscles; but to the eyes, perfectly restful,perfectly harmonious. The proportions are always inmultiples of three, the color low-toned, delicate, leavingall accent to the flower and kakemono, which are to beenjoyed without distraction—and changed, by the way,. A JAPANESE HOUSEHOLD. 175 as the mood or the season changes. The scheme hascertain positive advantages over the fatiguing com-plexity of Western life. The rest of the needfuls of a house are few; theremust be a shichi-rin, or stovelet for cooking—one isalmost forced to use Japanese words where there is noEnglish equivalent—the hibachi being only for warmth,or merely to boil a kettle, on a little iron stand setamong the ashes. They say the shichi-rin, seven riu,gets its name because it burns only seven-tenths of asens worth of charcoal; one sen—worth half-a-cent—being till lately a days allowance for one fire. Thenthere must be quilts to sleep on, and pillows, whichreally are small blocks of wood with a little cushionatop, or else a bag of buckwheat chaff—this last is notat all bad either; men use it because nowadays theyhave no elaborate hair-dressing to save, as the Momenhave. All this bedding is rolled up by day andkept in deep closets, closed like t
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