Minka is a traditional Japanese village house. Japanese houses: technology, style and interior Traditional Japanese rural dwelling description

Only in your own home you can feel relatively safe, take a break from the pressure of the outside world and be alone with your family. What is a traditional Japanese house? In traditional Japan, the architecture and style of the house depended on the position of their owner - wealthy samurai used the best materials to build their homes and attracted the most skilled carpenters to work. The house of such a samurai was usually surrounded by a wall with gates, the size and decoration of which corresponded to the position of the owner of the house in the samurai hierarchy. At the base, the house had a rectangle and was one-story (nowadays, traditional houses are still being made two-story). The entire structure was raised on piles (by 60-70 cm), which protected it from dampness and mold, as well as from small earthquakes. The main characters in the design are the supporting pillars, which were dug into the ground or placed on stone "pillows". The second fiddle in the construction of the Japanese house is the roof - it is much larger than the roofs built in the West, and is designed to protect the house from the scorching sun and heavy rain or snow. The walls facing the street are fixed and motionless, while the walls facing the courtyard were made sliding. External sliding walls - amado- were made of solid wooden plates and were removed for good in the warm season. There were (and still are) one more partition separating the living quarters from the veranda, - shoji. The original veranda engawa) was made so that the guard (and subsequently all the inhabitants of the house), bypassing the territory, did not disturb the peace of the house and did not damage the beauty of the garden, which is an integral part of the Japanese house. When shoji and amado are removed or moved apart, the interior of the house forms a single whole with the surrounding nature. The frame and lattice of the shozdi are made of wood, and the upper part on the outside is pasted over with rice paper that transmits light. The division into rooms occurs with the help of internal sliding walls - fusuma, whose upper part was pasted over on both sides with opaque rice paper, whose surface was often decorated with a pattern. For practical reasons, at the bottom of the frames, the paper is fixed with bamboo strips. When entering the house, they must take off their shoes, which can be left on a special stone at the entrance. It is now allowed to walk on the wooden floor of the veranda or rooms in slippers, but at the entrance to the territory lined with tatami, slippers must also be removed. Tatami are mats made of pressed rice straw, sheathed with grass mats and fastened along the edges with a special dense fabric (most often black). Tatami are always made in a rectangular shape, which makes them a convenient unit for measuring the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe room. The size of the tatami differs in different areas of Japan, in particular, in Tokyo, the tatami standard is the following: 1.76x0.88 m. In a traditional Japanese house, according to the wabi principle, there is very little furniture, and it is important not to confuse the bushi house, which is ascetic in itself, with a truly traditional Japanese house. In the best houses, the living room had a built-in writing board, shelves for displaying books, and tokonoma(niche) - the aesthetic center of the whole house, where a scroll could hang ( gamemono) with sayings or a pattern, stand a bouquet of flowers or a valuable piece of art. Scrolls can change depending on the time of year or at the request of the owners. During the holidays, appropriate attributes and decorations are placed in the tokonoma, however, recently, most often they put a TV in a niche ...

Everyday items (including bedding) are put away in built-in wardrobes, and the Japanese sit, rest and sleep on the floor. In the Edo era, chests on wheels became especially popular, where various valuables and other property were put. The wheels served as a guarantee for the rapid evacuation of everything needed from the burning house, which, by the way, during its destruction could not inflict particularly serious damage to anyone due to its relatively low weight. One and the same room could be used both as a bedroom and as an office - just spread out a futon or bring in a table for writing. In addition to these tables with drawers, where you could store everything you need, the so-called serving tables, which were varnished, were popular. Moreover, all the furniture in traditional houses was exceptionally light, so as not to leave marks on the soft tatami mats. Separately, it is worth mentioning the materials used for the construction and design of such a house: - wood for shoji and fusuma is not varnished, but acquires its luster and golden or brown color from time and contact with human hands, which remarkably corresponds to the sabi principle. - the stone is not polished to a shine, and metal products are usually covered with a patina that no one is going to clean off, because. The Japanese are attracted by the traces of time left on certain things, this is where they see a special charm. In this way, the houses of samurai of all levels were equipped, of course, adjusted for rank and position in society - as the income and prestige of the samurai decreased, the houses became smaller, and the decoration and decor became simpler. The houses of commoners differed significantly from the dwellings of warriors: merchants and artisans had a shop in front of the house, behind which there were living quarters for the family and workers. Most of these houses were simple and unadorned buildings, the interior arrangement of which was extremely modest. At the end of the Meiji Restoration, most families sat and slept right on the wooden floor, spreading sacks stuffed with straw for softness. Later, the townspeople began to imitate the rich samurai and use tatami for this purpose. Also, in many cities, multi-story buildings were banned, but some nevertheless managed to circumvent this ban. In particular, in Kanazawa, the authorities regulated the height of the roof of the facade of the houses of artisans and merchants, it should not exceed one and a half floors. Indeed, for many the roof of the facade was at this height, but then gradually rose and formed a full-fledged second floor.

Poor artisans and day laborers, for the most part, lived in nagayah("long houses"), which were designed for several families. The front door of each compartment opened onto a narrow dirt-floored kitchen. It housed a clay oven, a place for firewood, and wooden pegs for pots and jugs were driven into the walls. A person or a whole family lived and sometimes even worked in a single room measuring three by three meters.

The inhabitants of such premises suffered from stuffiness in summer, and in winter they froze, trying to warm themselves with the warmth of the hearth on which food was cooked. Naturally, in such dwellings there was no running water and all residents had to use a common well and a latrine located in the yard.

The dwellings of the peasants differed significantly in size and design, but they also had common features, in particular, the premises for living and premises for work were divided. The workrooms with dirt floors were used by the family for agricultural work and for keeping domestic animals.

There was also a clay oven and a sewer for cleaning after cooking. In the poorest houses, earthen floors lined with bags of straw were also on the residential half, which was separated from the working area by low partitions. Wealthy peasants completed the construction of additional rooms, the floors of which were wooden, and along the walls there were hearths for cooking and heating the premises in winter. It can even be assumed that the houses of the village elite did not differ much in decoration and the number of rooms from the houses of wealthy merchants and samurai.

In Japan, in principle, there was no stone architecture (only the walls and plinths of buildings were built of stone) and the palace differed from the poor man's hut "only" in area and number of rooms, as well as in the quality and richness of decoration. And the Japanese traditional house continues to live today - in rural areas such buildings predominate, but in megacities such waste is unacceptable and millions of Japanese are forced to huddle in houses that occupy such an area that a Russian person would take away except for a garage.

Minka (minka; literally "house(s) of people") is a traditional Japanese house.

In the context of the division of Japanese society into classes, minka were the dwellings of Japanese peasants, artisans and merchants, i.e. non-samurai parts of the population. But since then, the class division of society has disappeared, so the word "minka" can be used to refer to any traditional Japanese houses of the appropriate age.

Minka come in a wide range of styles and sizes, which is largely due to the geographical and climatic conditions, as well as the lifestyle of the inhabitants of the house. But in principle, minka can be divided into two types: village houses (noka; nōka, 農家) and city houses (machiya; machiya, 町屋). In the case of village houses, a subclass of fishermen's houses can also be distinguished, which are called gyoka (gyoka, 漁家).

In general, the preserved minka are regarded as historical monuments, many of them are objects of protection for local municipalities or the national government. Of particular note are the so-called "gassho-zukuri" (gasshō-zukuri, 合掌造り), which are preserved in two villages in central Japan - Shirakawa (Gifu Prefecture) and Gokayama (Toyama Prefecture).

Together, these buildings have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The peculiarity of these houses is their roofs, which converge at an angle of 60 degrees, like hands folded in prayer. Actually, this is reflected in their name - “gassho-zukuri” can be translated as “folded hands”.

Central to the construction of the mink was the use of cheap and readily available building materials. Peasants could not afford to import something very expensive or use something that is hard to find in their home village. So almost all nokas are made exclusively from wood, bamboo, clay and various types of grass and straw.

The "skeleton" of the house, roofs, walls and supports are made of wood. Bamboo and clay were often used in the manufacture of the outer walls, while the inner walls were not erected and sliding partitions or fusuma screens were used instead.

Grass and straw were also used to make roofing, mushiro mats, and tatami mats. Sometimes the roof, in addition to straw, was covered with baked clay tiles. Stone was often used to create or strengthen the foundation of a house, but stone was never used in the construction of the house itself.

As with other forms of traditional Japanese architecture, the wooden piers supported the bulk of the structure so that "windows" could be placed in any part of the house. The piers formed the "skeleton" of the house, connecting to the crossbeams in an intricate structure without the use of nails, and the "holes" in the walls of the house were made using shoji and heavier wooden doors.

Gassho-zukuri are arguably the most recognizable Japanese houses, as well as the tallest, due to their prominent roofs. High roofs made it possible to do without a chimney and arrange extensive storage facilities, and also - in the first place - to protect the house from moisture. Thanks to the design of the roof, snow or rain immediately rolled down without stopping, thanks to which the roof was practically “waterproof”, and the straw covering it almost did not rot.

There are three main styles of roofs that share a number of similarities with the roofs of houses in other styles of Japanese architecture. Most machias have gabled gabled roofs called "kiridzuma" (kirizuma, 切妻), covered with shingles or tiles. In contrast, most noka were either thatched (yosemune; yosemune, 寄せ棟) and had four-sided pitched roofs, or their roofs were made with numerous gables and covered with shingles and thatch (irimoya; irimoya, 入母屋).

Special caps were installed on the roof ridge and at the junctions of various sections. The tile or shingles that covered the roofs often served as the only artistic decoration of houses, plus the ridges of the roofs were decorated with ornaments.

The interior decoration of the mink was usually divided into two sections. In the first of them, an earthen floor was left, this area was called “houses” (doma, 土間), and in the second floor, they raised it 50 cm above the level of the house and covered it with tatami or mushiro. The houses were used for cooking and other agricultural needs. It usually contained a clay kamado oven (kamado, 竈), a wooden washbasin, barrels for food and jugs for water.

The large wooden door ōdo (ōdo) served as the main entrance to the building. A built-in irori hearth (irori, 囲炉裏) was often constructed in the raised floor, but no chimney was built to connect the hearth to the outside. Only sometimes a small ventilation window was made in the roof. The smoke went up, under the roof, so that the inhabitants did not breathe it and soot, but nevertheless the smoke stained the straw, which had to be changed often.

Although there are many different ways of arranging rooms within a house, one of the most popular was the yomadori (四間取り) method, which allocated four rooms to a "white" house. Separate from each other, they were only in name, since the inhabitants had to go through one or another room to get to another. Two of them were used for the daily life of the family, including the room in which the irori was kept. Sometimes a small oil lamp was used for lighting, but due to the cost of fuel, the hearth was often the only way to light the house at night.

During meals, the whole family gathered in a room with a hearth, and each family member had his own place, corresponding to his social status within the family. On the side farthest from the house sat the head of the family. On the other side sat the hostess and all the women of the family, the third side was for male family members and guests, and the fourth was occupied by a pile of firewood.

Other rooms served as bedrooms and a guest room. In the reception room in the niche of the tokonoma, as a rule, a scroll with sayings or paintings was placed, or an ikebana was placed. Such niches can still be found in modern Japanese houses, especially those that have rooms designed in the traditional Japanese style.

The toilet and bath were often built as separate structures from the rest of the house, or as part of the main structure of the house, but located under the roof eaves.

Matiya were traditional city houses in Japan and typical of the historical capital of Kyoto. Matiya appeared in the Heian era and continued to develop until the Edo era and even into the Meiji period.

Matiya was inhabited by urban merchants and craftsmen who together made up a class called chōnin (chōnin; "citizens"). The word "matiya" can be written in two ways: 町家 or 町屋. Here "machi" (町) means "city" and "ya" means "home" (家) or "shop" (屋). Either way, both spellings are correct.

Matia differed from their rural counterparts. The main house (omoya; omoya, 母屋) was located in front of the storage rooms (kura; kura, 倉) or stood alone (zashiki; zashiki, 座敷).

The houses, as a rule, were elongated and ran from the front of the house to the warehouse located in the back, and three or four rooms adjoined it. The room closest to the street was used for doing business or as a shop and was called mise (mise, 店). The middle room was used for entertaining the guests, while the last room, which was closest to the garden in the courtyard and contained the tokonoma, was used by the hosts. Unlike the nok, the matia often had a separate room where the family slept. The second floor of the house was used to store things that the family used more regularly than those stored in the backyard in the warehouse.

For a small Japanese home exam, you just need to answer simple questions correctly :)

Take the right item and put it in the room!

It should be understood that the Japanese house today and yesterday are in many ways different things. In our world, new traditions, materials, and technologies are everywhere in place of old traditions, the homeland of the Samurai is no exception. Architecture keeps up with the times and changes, in megacities it is more noticeable, in rural areas it is not so obvious.

🈚 In urban housing, you can find much more similarity with traditional design in the interior, which cannot be said about the appearance.

🈵Attention! Despite the fact that the Japanese style of housing construction was largely influenced by Chinese architecture, it has a number of important features - simplicity, good lighting and an asymmetrical layout!

🈯 Minimalism is the main component of Japanese life and interior design.

How a traditional house is arranged in Japan

The classic housing of Japanese commoners is called Minka. Artisans, fishermen, merchants lived in such buildings, in other words, all those segments of the population that did not belong to the samurai and the nobility.

Minka can be divided into several types:

• matiya: where the townspeople lived;
• noka: peasants lived;
• gyoka: fishermen's buildings;
• gassho-zukuri: mink in remote mountainous areas with steep and massive thatched roofs, silkworm hut.

🈚 Roof Matia - tiles or tiles. Roof Nok - straw or shingles.

🈯 Although Minka, in the classical sense of the word, means medieval buildings, but today this term is applied to any residential building in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Key Features

There are practically no chimneys. This is due to the raised piles of the floor and the high roof.

Increasingly, traditional Japanese houses are built with several floors, although previously only one level was used.

In general, the history of architecture has developed with a combination of climate, relief and other features. For example, high temperature and humidity influenced the fact that the Japanese dwelling was made as open, ventilated and bright as possible.
And the danger of earthquakes and tsunamis prompted the use of piles in the design. They softened the shocks. They also tried to lighten the roof as much as possible so that when the house was destroyed, it could not cause critical physical damage to the owners.

Japanese style implies a reverent attitude towards purity and harmony. After all, initially the room was a project for a person living on the floor. And for such a philosophy, the absence of dirt and chaos is extremely important. It is not for nothing that such things as special slippers before the restroom and bath or exclusively white socks have become customary.

🈚 To be fair, we note that keeping clean in Japanese square meters is easier than in our apartments. This is due to the minimal presence of furniture - the main place where dust accumulates.

Separately, it is necessary to highlight the Japanese garden

Image: Garden

Harmony with the surrounding world and nature is deeply rooted in the philosophy of this oriental people. And this could not but affect their daily life, including the design of their home.

The Japanese surrounded their homes with wonderful and characteristic gardens only for them. Travelers were amazed by the beautiful and harmonious combination of natural components and man-made products: bridges, ponds, lanterns wrapped in transparent paper, figurines and much more.

But, perhaps, Sakura is the most common element in the Japanese garden. This is not just a plant, it is a real symbol of all eras, dynasties and empires.

🈚 By removing all Fusuma or Shoji, the Japanese turns the house into a kind of "arbor" in his own garden, thereby satisfying the innate need to reflect on the meaning of life. This partly explains the absence of classical windows and doors in our understanding.

🈯By the way, many European and American specialists in landscape garden design take the Japanese style of decorating the local area as the basis for their projects.

Device diagram

So, to summarize, the layout of a traditional Japanese dwelling will consist of the following places:

• outer fence;
• kindergarten;
• tea house (more often among the nobility);
• outbuildings (barn or storage place for tools and tools);
• veranda (engawa);
• main entrance (odo);
• entrance hall Genkan;
• kitchen;
• toilet;
• bathroom or Japanese bath ofuro;
• rooms (washitsu).

🈯 The central part of the house may consist of several wasitsu. If a large meeting of guests is planned, then all partitions are removed, it turns out one large hall!

🈵Important! The Japanese often measure rooms not by square meters, but by the number of tatami mats. The standard mat is 90 cm wide and twice as long.

In general, tatami is an important element of Japanese culture. Their number and location can determine the nature of the wasitsu. For example, it could be a bedroom. In this case, a Japanese Futon mattress is placed on the mats and a standard sleeping place is obtained for a resident of the area, the ancestor of Sumo wrestling.

Tea House or Chashitsu

Important and wealthy families had a tea house on the territory. The first such structures appeared in the 15th century AD. From the name it follows that these places were intended for the tea ceremony and in general had the main properties and signs of culture - minimalism, asceticism, spaciousness and illumination.

🈯 A pond or a lake around is a classic of the genre!

At the same time, there are a number of features:

• Low entry requiring the person to kneel. The main message of this idea is that, regardless of status, everyone should bend down to enter this "temple of tea drinking and spiritual pleasure." The second point is that people with weapons were not allowed here, such a door prevented the samurai from entering Tyashitsu with weapons.
• Opposite the entrance, a place was arranged in which certain attributes were concentrated. These were either traditional calligraphic drawings and texts that were the subject of discussion, or relaxing objects like ikebana or incense-wasting sticks and censers.

🈚Tea houses in Japan promote meditation and tranquility, or vice versa - they are conducive to philosophical conversations.

Pattern: Tea house in Japan

Ryokan Hotels

These hotels can also be classified as traditional Japanese houses. For tourists and travelers, this is a kind of temple of traditional Japanese culture. All rooms are furnished in a manner consistent with Mink's hut.

Here you can plunge into the Japanese identity. Sleep on tatami mattresses. Spend time in o-furo. See the traditional kimonos worn by the staff. Taste with the help of Japanese hashi sticks the national cuisine rich in seafood and vegetables.

Modern Japanese style house

As mentioned at the beginning, modern Japanese housing has changed a lot, especially on the outside, but the interior design of almost any native of the Land of the Rising Sun contains a touch of national traditions.

In the current realities, when the cost per square meter and interior elements is growing, the Japanese style with its minimalist approach to furnishing is becoming the most practical. And the free layout of their home gives people the opportunity to realize their design fantasies and ideas.

Buildings in urban and rural areas should be considered separately.

City. The appearance of ancient and modern Japanese cities has changed dramatically. In place of the wooden Matia, buildings came, erected using materials such as brick, concrete, iron, bitumen.

In the central parts of the policies, business skyscrapers rise, where the basis of a strong and stable economy is being forged. World famous corporations are located here.

Most of the townspeople live in apartments located in high-rise buildings. As a rule, these are five to seven storey buildings. One-room apartments predominate. The area of ​​the rooms does not exceed 10 square meters.

The layout of such housing simply surprises with its rationalism when using such a limited area. When you enter, you will see this view:

• Small narrow corridor.
• On one side of the corridor is a combined bathroom.
• On the other side there is a built-in wardrobe and a kitchen.
• Next is a small room.
• Miniature balcony with drying stick.

Everything is space saving. This is a kitchen built into the closet, and placing plants on the walls, and a miniature bathroom. Well, the tradition of sitting on the floor, and, consequently, the lack of chairs and armchairs.

Entrance to the apartment

Kitchen in the closet

But some Western influences can also be distinguished, for example, the presence of a European bed or a console under the TV.

Wealthier people buy so-called family apartments (60-90 m2) or private houses on the outskirts.

🈵 In Japanese homes, central heating is practically not practiced, instead gas, electric, infrared and even kerosene heaters are used.

Countryside. Houses outside the city are less subject to modern trends. Although many of them today are modeled after Western society using know-how materials, it is still possible to draw an analogy with the traditional Minko.

Everyone decides for himself to what extent his housing should correspond to classical Japanese culture and style.

Let's single out some of the most common common features that are inherent in houses in the outback now:

• The minimum amount of furniture. Ignoring chairs and armchairs.
• Elevation of the floor half a meter above the ground.
• Free layout provided by movable screens (Fusuma or Shoji).
• High roof.

The more prosperous the peasant, the more he uses the achievements of modern science. The poor people in the countryside still make straw roofs, sleep on futons, and keep warm at the kotatsu.

Frame buildings

Whatever the global trends in architecture are, the Japanese build only frame houses. This technology is simply necessary for them to survive in an earthquake zone.

The frame house is incredibly resistant to tremors, as if it absorbs and extinguishes them. Frame structures are known that have survived a large number of earthquakes over a thousand years and practically did not suffer.

This technology has some advantages! They are relatively easy to restore when destroyed. These structures are lightweight, and when collapsed, they are not likely to cause severe fatal damage.

There are three types of frame houses:

1. Wooden. These are traditional Japanese Minka, tea houses, temples;
2. Reinforced concrete. Modern skyscrapers.
3. Unusual futuristic buildings. Frame technology allows you to build bizarre structures of unusual shapes and their combinations.

Frame unusual structure

Dome houses - the most modern Japanese technologies in the field of architecture and construction

They have an unusual design in the form of a hemisphere. It looks like alien terrestrial settlements of the future.

The most unique thing is the material. In fact, this is a housing made of reinforced foam! He endows these buildings with such useful and necessary properties for the climate of Japan as strength and high thermal insulation. You can also avoid spending on the frame and foundation, which decently reduces the cost of its cost.

In Europe, they are actively beginning to introduce this technology in the production of seasonal suburban housing.

At the end of the video on the topic:

The East, as they say, is a delicate matter. Western civilization is experiencing a fascination with Japan, its culture, super-new technologies and the spirit striving for harmony with nature. The Japanese style is very popular in the interior, perhaps just because the traditional Japanese house is so different from our usual dwellings.
For example, we all know that any building starts with a solid foundation, then the walls are built, and finally the roof. This is not the case in a Japanese home. He does not have a stone foundation, as if he is striving to heaven, to the spiritual sphere, and does not burden himself with excessive material possessions. Its basis is wooden columns and a roof.

The real reasons for this design are obvious and consistent with natural conditions: hot summers and an abundance of winter rains, possible earthquakes. The ocean moderates Japan's climate, so there is no need to keep warm in winter. The roof serves as protection from the scorching sun, and the simplicity of construction makes it easy to restore it after an earthquake. In some places, the art of building buildings without nails has survived, by cutting grooves in wood that fit perfectly to each other. The walls of a Japanese dwelling are just partitions between load-bearing columns. As a rule, one of the walls is permanent, the others are movable panels that act as doors, windows and walls. There are no usual glass windows in frames!
Instead of external walls, you will see shoji - panels of thin slats of wood or bamboo, fastened together like a lattice. The gaps in the panel were covered with a sheet of rice paper, sometimes sheathed with wood. Almost like a house of cards! Thin walls are fixed in grooves and move aside, like doors in wardrobes. In hot weather, shoji can be removed altogether, providing air access in the saving shade of the roof.
The inner walls are wooden frames covered with thick paper on both sides. They create rooms, and if necessary, they are removed altogether. Also, the rooms are separated by curtains or screens. This ease allows the inhabitants of the house to change the layout according to their needs.
How do spouses retire, you might ask? In fact, there is not even a common bed for husband and wife in the dwelling. The connection of bodies and souls is sacred, therefore it takes place in a special building in the depths of the Japanese garden, in the most secluded and picturesque place.
The floor of a traditional dwelling is a wooden flooring raised above the ground at a height of at least half a meter. The tree balances the temperature difference, the flooring provides a little ventilation, besides, the wooden structure is safer in an earthquake than stone heaps.
It is unusual for a European to be in a "paper" house. This is not a house that is a "fortress". For the Japanese, protection from the outside world is not as important as harmony in the soul and unity with the spiritual component of nature. What if nature is stronger anyway? It will take a lot of work to repair the stone structure after every earthquake. Wouldn't it be better to be light as a feather and be able to bend down to the ground during the rampage of the elements that uproot the oak trees? Probably, the Japanese understand the volatility of material values ​​and their ability to collapse, so their housing and life are rather ascetic.

A traditional Japanese house looks very unusual from a European point of view. And, both outside and inside. Everything here is very strict and, at the same time, elegant and bright. Wood and paper are the main materials used in traditional construction in Japan. The floors are covered with tatami, instead of doors between the rooms of the house there are sliding partitions - fusuma. The interior of a Japanese house involves decorative decorations such as wall panels, traditional Japanese colored lanterns and picturesque flower arrangements placed in niches and on tables.

Japanese traditional house has an unusual name. It sounds like a mink. In translation, this word means "house of people." Today, in the Land of the Rising Sun, such a structure can only be found in rural areas.

Types of Japanese houses

In ancient times, the word "minka" was used to refer to the peasant dwellings of the Land of the Rising Sun. The same houses belonged to merchants and artisans, that is, to that part of the population that was not samurai. However, today there is no class division of society, and the word "minka" is applied to any traditional Japanese houses that are of an appropriate age. Such dwellings, located in areas with different climatic and geographical conditions, have a fairly wide range of sizes and styles.

But be that as it may, all minks are divided into two types. The first of them is also referred to as noka. The second type of mink is city houses (matiya). There is also a subclass of noka - a Japanese fishing house. What is the name of such a dwelling? These are the village houses of the gyoka.

mink device

Traditional Japanese houses are very distinctive structures. In general, they are a canopy standing over empty space. The roof of the mink rests on a frame made of rafters.

Japanese houses in our understanding have neither windows nor doors. Each room has three walls, which are light doors that can be pulled out of the grooves. They can always be moved or removed. These walls play the role of windows. The owners cover them with white, cigarette-like rice paper and call them shoji.

A characteristic feature of Japanese houses are their roofs. They look like the hands of a praying person and converge at an angle of sixty degrees. The external association that mink roofs evoke is reflected in their name. It sounds like "gassho-zukuri", which means "folded hands".

Traditional Japanese houses that have survived to this day are historical monuments. Some of them are protected by the national government or local municipalities. Some of the buildings are included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Materials of the main structures

The peasants could not afford the construction of an expensive dwelling. They used those materials that were the most accessible and cheap. Minka was built from bamboo and wood, clay and straw. Various types of herbs were also used.

Wood, as a rule, was used to make the "skeleton" of the house and the roof. Bamboo and clay were taken for the outer walls. The internal ones were replaced by sliding partitions or screens. At the device of a roof straw and grasses were used. Sometimes, tiles made of fired clay were laid on top of these natural materials.

The stone served to strengthen or create a foundation. However, during the construction of the house itself, this material was not used.

Minka is a Japanese house, the architecture of which is traditional for the Land of the Rising Sun. The supports in it form the "skeleton" of the structure and are ingeniously, without the use of nails, connected to the transverse beams. Holes in the walls of the house are shoji, or heavy wooden doors.

Roof device

Gassho-zukuri have the tallest and most recognizable Japanese houses. And this feature is given to them by their amazing roofs. Their height allowed residents to do without a chimney. In addition, it assumed the arrangement of extensive storage facilities in the attic.

The high roof of the Japanese house reliably protected the mink from rain. Rain and snow, not stale, immediately rolled down. This design feature did not allow moisture to enter the room and rot the straw from which the roof was made.

Mink roofs are classified into different types. In matia, for example, they are usually pointed, gable, covered with tiles or shingles. The roofs of most Nok village houses differed from them. They, as a rule, were covered with straw and had a slope on four sides. On and also in those places where the various sections were joined, special caps were installed.

The interior of the home

Minka, as a rule, consisted of two sections. In one of them was This area was called home. In the second section, the floor was raised above the level of the dwelling by half a meter.

Food was prepared in the first room. Barrels for food, a wooden washbasin and jugs for water were placed here.

In a room with a raised floor there was a built-in hearth. The smoke from the fire built in it went under the roof and did not interfere with the inhabitants of the house at all.

What impression does a Japanese house make on European tourists? The reviews of those who first got inside the mink speak of the surprise that the complete absence of furniture caused them. Only exposed wooden details of the structure of the dwelling open to the eyes of visitors. There are support posts and rafters, planed ceiling boards and slatted shoji that gently scatter sunlight across a completely empty floor covered with straw mats. There are no decorations on the walls either. The only exception is a niche in which a picture or a scroll with a poem is placed, under which there is a vase with a bouquet of flowers.

For a European person who enters a Japanese house, it seems that this is not a dwelling, but just a decoration for some kind of theatrical performance. Here you have to forget about the existing stereotypes and understand that a home is not a fortress, but something that allows you to feel harmony with nature and your inner world.

age-old tradition

For the inhabitants of the East, tea drinking plays an important role in social and spiritual life. In Japan, this tradition is a strictly scheduled ritual. It is attended by a person who brews and then pours tea (master), as well as guests drinking this amazing drink. This ritual originated in the Middle Ages. However, even today it is part of Japanese culture.

tea house

For the tea ceremony, the Japanese used separate facilities. Honored guests were received in the tea house. The main principle of this building was simplicity and naturalness. This made it possible to carry out the ceremony of drinking a fragrant drink, moving away from all earthly temptations.

What are the design features of Japanese tea houses? They consist of a single room, which can only be entered through a low and narrow passage. To enter the house, visitors have to bow strongly. This has a certain meaning. After all, all people had to bow low before the start of the ceremony, even those who had a high social position. In addition, the low entrance did not allow in the old days to enter the tea house with weapons. The samurai had to leave it in front of the door. It also made the person focus on the ceremony as much as possible.

The architecture of the tea house included a large number of windows (from six to eight), which had different shapes and sizes. The high location of the openings indicated their main purpose - to let in sunlight. Guests could admire the surrounding nature only if the hosts opened the frames. However, as a rule, during the ritual of tea drinking, the windows were closed.

Tea house interior

The room for the traditional ceremony had nothing superfluous. Its walls were finished with gray clay, which, reflecting sunlight, created a feeling of being in the shade and tranquility. The floor was certainly covered with tatami. The most important part of the house was a niche (tokonoma) made in the wall. A censer with incense was placed in it, as well as flowers. There was also a scroll with sayings, which were selected by the master for each specific case. There were no other decorations in the tea house. In the very center of the room, a bronze hearth was arranged, on which a fragrant drink was prepared.

For lovers of tea ceremonies

If desired, do-it-yourself Japanese houses can be erected in summer cottages. For unhurried ceremonies, a gazebo made in the style of the architecture of the Land of the Rising Sun is also suitable. The main thing to consider in this case is the impossibility of using some traditional oriental materials in our climate. This applies in particular to partitions. Oiled paper cannot be used for them.

It is advisable to make a Japanese-style house from wood, taking natural stone, fiberglass and gratings for decoration. Blinds made of bamboo will be appropriate here. This material in the culture of Japan symbolizes success, rapid growth, vitality and good luck.

When making a gazebo or a house, you should not use a wide range of colors. The structure must be in harmony with nature and merge with it. Not far from the entrance, it is desirable to plant a mountain pine. A real decoration of the building will be the water surface, a stone lantern, a bamboo fence and a rock garden. Without this landscape, it is difficult to imagine a Japanese-style tea ceremony. The simplicity and unpretentiousness of the environment will create true peace. It will allow you to forget about earthly temptations and give you the highest sense of beauty. And this will help a person to approach the comprehension of reality from new, philosophical positions.