Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-11-23
HOMES OF THE JAPANESE.
No Windows Nor Regular Doors-walls
and Floors-The Go Down."

No Windows Nor Regular Doors-Wa1ls
and Floors-The Go Down"
Japanese houses consist often of
only one story, and very seldom of
more than two. They do not, of
course, resemble one another exactly,
any more than English houses do; but
it rnay be said of them generally that
they have no windows in our sense of
the word, and sometimes no regular
doors, but they are always provided
with veranda before the LOWER story,
and, when they have second story,
with balcony.
AS to solidity, it is fact that the
Japanese do not even aim at making
their houses substantial, as English
houses are, or as, even when con-
structed by a Jerry builder" they
profess to be. The outer walls of an
English houses are always intended to
be fixtures, and SO far durable that
when once put up they cannot be
pulled down without sending for
workmen; but among the japanese
two or more of the sides are not per-
manent walls, but are closed with slid
ing screens, which can be set up and
taken down at the pleasure of the in
mates On hot day, or when thorough
ventilation is required, the whole side
of room can be opened to the outer
air.
Of course, people who are not par
ticular about having a permanent
wall between their rooms and the out
side world, do not care to have i'm
movable partitions between one part
of the house and another. Although
In England rooms are occasionally
parted from one another by curtain,
or by folding DOORS yet as general
rule. they are separated by walls,
which, however nimsy their construc-
ton may be, are fixtures, and cannot
be ia ken away and replaced at will.
But In Japan one room is commonly
parted from the next merely by O
screen-a framework of wood covered
with paper, which runs in a shallow
groove on the floor and a deeper
groove on the ceiling, a plan which
gives the inhabitants the power of
adding to or decreasing the number of
their apartments at their pleasure.
Baron Nordenskjold, the famous Arc
tic traveller, has recorded the surprise
with which he woke up one morning
at a japanese inn in quite a small
room, having gone to bed over night
In very large one.
1t has been suggested that the reason
why the japanese do not build their
houses more solidly is that, in land
like theirs of continual earthquakes, it
is not worth while spending q long
time on rearing up building which
may be tumbled down again at any
moment. But it is doubtful whether
this explanation is a true one, for
earthquakes violent enough to destroy
a really strong building do not happen
very often at any one place, and, be-
sides, the japanese do erect durable
houses, which the English call ''go
DOWNS" for the protection of their
property from loss or accident. The
most common accident is by fire, to
which the inflammable japanese
houses fall an easy prey, and by which
largo parts of the towns are continu-
ally being burnt down. On the ap-
prOach of a contlagration the prudent
Japanese, as far as possible, pulls his
house down and takes away not only
its contents, but large parts of itself,
to the go down" which is a building
IIlChly COateu WIFI IRE PROOF clay, very
strong and substantial, but very sell
dom used as home
The floors of japanese rooms are in
variably carpeted with rush mats of
very careful construction, some two or
three inches thick and about six feet
long by three broad AS these mats
are all of one pattern, the size of a
room can be determined by the mum
Der of mats it contains, and it is de-
scribed as a six mat or twelve mat
room, as the case may be. Since the
cOmmonest rooms are either of six OF
of eight mats, and since an eight mat
mat room is only about twelve feet by
twelve in extent, it will be seen that
the rooms of japanese house, like
the japanese house itself, are generally
small. The japanese fireplace is gen
orally a portable brazier, made OF
bronze, porcelain or wood lined with
clay, in which not coal, but charcoal
ashes are burned. Sometimes, how.
ever, there is clay lined hole in the
floor, containing a fire of the same
kind.-Cassell's Family Magazine.