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Articles / Re: Real World Influences

« on: April 24, 2006, 12:32:08 am »

Was reading up on some Japanese architecture for a project, and came across a web page that detailed some of the history of it.

As most are aware, the floors in tradtional houses were raised off the ground. This building convention was not always the case, as the people of the Jomon period (30,000B.C -300B.C.) were pit dwellers. They dug rectangular holes in the ground and covered them by leaning logs against posts and ridge poles. The dirt floors were covered with straw. Toward the end of the subsequent Yayoi period (ca. 300A.D.) raised floors began to be built to house grain. The benefits of raised floors in the granaries was not wasted on the nobility who began living in such structures.

From that time on, the ruling classes always lived in structures elevated from the ground. The lower classes remained living on mat covered dirt floors for many centuries to come. The predominant flooring for the nobility was wooden planks. Their elevation from the ground raised the inhabitants from the dampness and provided ventilated relief from the hot humid summers. Raised flooring dictated a floor living style that did not require furniture designed to raise the inhabitants from the dampness. Seating was at floor level. From the Kofun period to the Heian period seating was usually on round, thick straw woven mats called warouda. The ranking of court nobility dedictated that different levels had to be developed. This was done through tatami type mats.

Not sure if this was the best place for this, but I found it interesting.  Reading it instantly reminded me of our favorite overzealous kingdom.