Futon
A is a traditional Japanese style of bedding. A complete futon set consists of a and a . Both elements of a futon bedding set are pliable enough to be folded and stored away in a large during the day. This allows a room to serve as a bedroom at night, but serve other purposes during the day. Traditionally, futons are used on tatami, a type of mat used as a flooring material. It also provides a softer base than, say, a floor of wood or stone. Futons must be aired regularly to prevent mold from developing, and to keep  the futon free of mites. Throughout Japan, futons can commonly be seen hanging over balconies, airing in the sun. Futon dryers may be used by those unable to hang out their futon. History and materials. Before recycled cotton cloth was widely available in Japan, commoners used , stitched crinkled paper stuffed with fibers from beaten dry straw, cattails, or silk waste, on straw floor mats. Later, futons were made with patchwork recycled cotton, quilted together and filled with bast fiber. Later they were filled with cotton. Wool and synthetics are now also used. Traditional () are generally firmer than western pillows. They  may be filled with beans, buckwheat chaff, bran, or, modernly, plastic beads, all of which mold to the head. Historically, some women used wooden headrests to protect their hairstyles. Dimensions. Futons are traditionally laid on tatami rush mats, which are resilient and can absorb and re-release up to half a liter of moisture each. Tatamis measure 1 by 0.5 ken, just under 1 by 2 meters, the same size as a Western twin bed. A traditional is also about the size of a Western twin bed. , double-bed-sized s were available, but they can be a bit heavy  and awkward to stow. The is usually thick, and rarely as much as thick; they need to dry well, or they will become heavy and mouldy. A is thus about as thick as a Western mattress topper. If more thickness is needed, s are layered. s may be wider than s, and they vary in thickness. Depending on the weather, they may be layered with a warm (), or replaced with a lighter (). The traditional is generally smaller than a western pillow. Western-style futons. In the 1980s, futons became fashionable in North America. The construction method was similar to that  of contemporary Japanese futons: cotton batting, covered in cotton ticking and held in place with hand-sewn tufting (through-thickness stitches). This was also the structure which had been used in the , designed to use excess cotton production by subsidizing materials for people to make their own cotton mattresses. However, Western-style futons, which typically resemble low, wooden sofa beds, differ substantially from their Japanese counterparts. They often have the dimensions of standard western mattresses, and are too thick to fold double and stow easily in a cupboard. They are often set up and stored on a slatted frame, which  avoids having to move them to air regularly, especially in the dry indoor air of a centrally-heated house (most Japanese homes were not traditionally centrally-heated). Futon-like traditional European beds. Traditional European beds resembled Japanese-style futon sets, with thin tick mattresses. These were only sometimes set on a bedframe. The term "bed" did not originally include the bedframe, but only the bedding, the same components included in a Japanese futon set. It was also traditional to air these beds, and duvets are still aired in the window in Europe. In English-speaking cultures, however, airing your bedding  outdoors came to be seen as a foreign practice, with 19th-century housekeeping manuals giving methods of airing beds inside, and disparaging airing them in the window as "German-style".