Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1914-03-28
ONE STORY Houses
Japanese OomiCiIeS Are Buildings
Without Walls.
Sliding Panels and Windows OF P7Per
Are Used in Dwellings; Fhmsy
Character Of Habitations OF
the Fiowery Kingdom.

The paint pot is virtually banishaI
from Japan. That Is the first thtn-
you notice as you approach the coast.
Ior The first adventurous fishing D5ai
YOU pass ls built, il would seem, Oh
about hall dozen broad. uHpalutea
deal plants So VITA the sdMpans
that cluster round your ship as s'""
4s tine anchor is dropped. tL.y are 90.
nature colored u.ar,rrat.d and NA-
Gefacyd by "a siu-I. .eE eff the aa.-i
brush So slh 81. houses 81 the
FIRST JJpal.s- streets yau enter. they
are veaJuar,I 60 tb. silver gray O..
urlaiute1 pine. Such Coior u5 there
is proceeds from the iurumelaalr
strips OF calico, inscribed "i'h huge
hierogIyphics, which flap pe.pona.cu.
iarly or horizontally before every
house.
House construction becomes very
much clearer when We think of th%
partitions as consisting not of screens.
but OF sliding panels. Nor is j, true
that the Japanese house is not divided
into rooms. Tho tine OF dcuarCauoA
between room and room is definitely
fixed by the grooves Ia which the
panels slide. There Is even a solid
and permanent boundary; for the
panels are only some five feet nine
inches in height, whereas the height
of the room is generally about eight
feet, 50 that from twenty to thirty
inches of fixed partition fill the space
between the panels and the ceiling.
1t is true that when all the panels
are drawn back a whole floor of a
house becomes virtually one large
room, but this is almost as true OF
some English and many American
houses when all the folding or slid
ing doors are open.
Looking now at the Japanese house
at large, one can easily define its
dominant characteristic. 1t is house
without walls; it is a roof raised Oh
wooden uprights over a wooden plat
form some eighteen inches above the
ground, which forms the main, and
in one story houses, the only floor.
The roof and the upper floor or floors
are supported entirely by the beams,
which form the skeleton of the whole
erection. The space which in Euro
pean houses is occupied by walls and
windows is here given over to sliding
panels of a different sort than those
which form the partitions between
rooms. Each house has an outer and
an inner casing. The outer casing
of wooden shutters. called "amado,'
slides away every morning into cup
board boxes so disposed that a dozen
'amado" slip into them with perfect
ease and can be slipped out again
at night with a minimum of exertion.
And what OF the inner casing? 1t
likewise consists of sliding panels
placed some two or three feet behind
the outer casing, which space of two
or three feet forms a sort of veranda
for a lower story, or balcony for an
upper story. But these inner panels,
called SHOT," are entirely different
from the "amado," and are the pecu-
liar characteristic of Japanese archi-
lecture. They consist of light wooden
frames, over the rectangular panes of
which, so TO speak. white paper is
pasted in lieu of glass Translucent,
but not transparent, paper admits
light, while it secures privacy: though
secure" is perhaps hardly the word
for privacy which an inquisitive
baby's fingers can destroy.
The reader may now understand.
perhaps, the tOylike fragility of the
Japanese house. Save it's roof and its
floors, there is scarcely anything solid
or immovable about it. When the
"amado" are slowed away for the day
the walls are literally of white paper,
and, though these paper walls are
seldom quite removed. one panel is
generally slipped behind another. so
that, to all intents and purposes. the
building is wall-less as a bandstand. or
as a dolls house with the front IN
hooked.