page_title: Minka
section_title: Farmhouse interior
hierarchical_section_title: Minka / Farmhouse interior
caption_attribution_description: This photograph shows the hearth in a traditional Japanese house.
context_page_description: Minka are vernacular houses constructed in any one of several traditional Japanese building styles.
  In the context of the four divisions of society, Minka were the dwellings of farmers, artisans, and merchants. This connotation no longer exists in the modern Japanese language, and any traditional Japanese-style residence of appropriate age could be referred to as Minka.
  Minka are characterized by their basic structure, their roof structure, and their roof shape. Minka developed through history with distinctive styles emerging in the Edo period.
context_section_description: The deep eaves of the farmhouse roof helped to protect the interior from driving rain. They stop the sun from entering the interior during the summer, and they allow the low rays of sun to warm the house during the winter. Often there is a timber-floored veranda (engawa (縁側 or 掾側)) around the house under the eaves and protected on the outside by storm shutters. In areas where there is heavy snow there may be a lowered earth-floored area outside the veranda further protected by shutters which helps to stop snow from blowing inside.
  The interior of a minka was generally divided into two sections: a floor of compacted earth, called a doma (土間) (the precursor to a Genkan) and a raised floor (generally around 20 inches (50 cm) above the level of the doma), called a hiroma (広間), and, in larger, richer houses, an area or set of rooms covered in tatami or mushiro mats, called a zashiki (座敷). Large farmhouses sometimes had a raised, timber-floored internal veranda (hiroshiki (広敷)) that separated the doma and the tatami areas. In older houses, like the 17th century Yoshimura house, this separating zone was up to 2.5 m wide and servants apparently slept there.
  The raised floor often included a built-in hearth, called an irori (囲炉裏). Above the ash-filled hearth would hang a kettle suspended from the ceiling by an adjustable hearth hook made of wood, metal and bamboo. This jizai kagi (自在鈎) could be raised or lowered depending on the amount of heat required and was often shaped into decorative fish or blade shapes. There was no chimney in the farmhouse and the smoke from the irori would rise through the roof drying the reeds and deterring insects. The irori was the centre of communication for the house where the family gathered to chat and eat, and it was a cozy place around which to sleep.
  Though there were many possible arrangements of the rooms in a home, one of the most common, called yomadori (四間取り), comprised four rooms in the raised floor portion of the house, adjacent to the doma. The arrangement and size of these rooms was made more flexible with the use of sliding fusuma and shōji partitions.
  The social status of the owner of house governed the conventions of their social relationships in the house. For example, the lowliest ranked people would sit on the earth floor whilst those above them would sit on the hiroshiki and those above them on the tatami floored inner rooms. Honoured guests would sit next with their back to the tokonoma (床の間). The requirements for social etiquette extended to the family and there were particular seating positions (yokoza (横座)) positioned around the hearth.
caption: Irori (囲炉裏)
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