{"id":579,"date":"2022-09-06T13:17:10","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T10:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ideologist.ru.com\/?p=579"},"modified":"2026-10-07T17:21:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T14:21:23","slug":"yaponskaya-mebel-istoriya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ideologist.ru\/en\/projects\/magazine\/yaponskaya-mebel-istoriya\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Furniture: Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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Japanese room. Photo by Halfrain<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The traditional Japanese house had already taken shape by the Heian period (9th-12th centuries AD). It consisted of a straw or tiled roof, a wooden frame, and a floor, with the space inside the building divided by shoji or fusuma partitions, which were sheets of rice paper stretched over wooden frames. The floors in the rooms were covered with tatami\u2014woven mats made from grass\u2014and the inhabitants of the house would often sit or lie directly on them. This way of life resulted in a very small amount of furniture in living spaces and a lack of strictly assigned functions for each room. If a low table was placed in a room for eating, it became a dining room, and if the table was removed and a futon mattress laid out, it became a bedroom.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Fusuma. Photo by Takashi Tomooka<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Shoji. Photo by Hideyuki Kamon<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

There are few types of traditional Japanese furniture, mainly consisting of chests of drawers, small cabinets, and shelves for storing various items. The Japanese chest (tansu), unlike its European counterparts, was low and squat, with many drawers. The chests varied depending on what they were meant to store\u2014chests for clothes, tea and tableware, calligraphy supplies, medicine, books, and so on. Most often, tansu were made from dark woods and adorned with inlays from other types of wood, mother-of-pearl, ornate metal handles, and corner fittings. Chests for tableware, known as mizuya, had doors made of wooden slats, which ensured ventilation and prevented rodents from entering the chest.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Tabletop chest “Peonies and Butterflies,” Kasugai Gallery<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Wooden chest “Fans,” Kasugai Gallery<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

During the Edo period (17th-19th centuries), frequent city fires led to the spread of nagamochi\u2014wooden chests on wheels. These were used to store money, documents, clothing, and other vital items, and the wheels allowed owners to quickly roll the chest out of a building, saving at least part of their belongings. Dining and writing tables were designed for use while sitting on tatami. The legs of the tables were short, and the tables themselves were mobile enough to be quickly placed in the center of the room or by the light and then just as easily moved to the wall or another room. Dining tables could be round or rectangular, while writing tables were only rectangular, with one or more drawers for storing writing supplies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Writing desk. Photo by Kaori Hirama<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Kotatsu is the only source of heating in traditional Japanese homes. As early as the Muromachi period (14th-16th centuries), floors were designed with a recess where hot coals were placed. A table was set over this recess and covered with a thick blanket to retain the heat. In winter, the whole family would gather around the kotatsu, covering themselves with the blanket to keep warm from the coals. In the 20th century, electric kotatsu appeared, with the heating element built into the table frame. Even today, kotatsu remains a beloved item in many Japanese homes, and modern manufacturers compete in creating diverse table designs, improving energy efficiency, and using advanced materials for the blankets.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Modern Kotatsu. Photo by Navamin<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In addition to shoji and fusuma, traditional Japanese interiors also featured two types of screens\u2014tsuitate and byobu. Tsuitate referred to a one-panel screen, either rectangular or square, while byobu consisted of multiple panels that could be folded. Byobu were usually made of a wooden frame covered with silk or thick rice paper. These screens were often painted with scenes from Japanese or Chinese literature, landscapes, or calligraphic inscriptions, turning them from mere interior decorations into works of art.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Pair of folding screens “Tigers,” Kasugai Gallery<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

After the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and the opening of Japan\u2019s borders, foreign culture and an entirely different lifestyle entered the country, bringing with them new furniture like high tables, chairs, wardrobes, and beds. The Japanese appreciated the comfort of chairs with backs, but many found sitting on high chairs uncomfortable, leading to the creation of zaisu\u2014chairs that resembled regular European ones but without legs. Even today, zaisu can be found in rooms with traditional Japanese interiors, in upscale Japanese restaurants, and in ryokan inns.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Zaisu chair. Photo by Antique Yamamoto<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Sources:\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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  • http:\/\/www.zjrcjlw.com\/info\/history.html<\/li>\r\n
  • https:\/\/www.wakagu.co.jp\/html\/page22.html<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The traditional Japanese house had already taken shape by the Heian period (9th-12th centuries AD). It consisted of a straw or tiled roof, a wooden frame, and a floor, with the space inside the building divided by shoji or fusuma partitions, which were sheets of rice paper stretched over wooden frames. The floors in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","category-yaponskaya-estetika"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideologist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideologist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideologist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideologist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideologist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/ideologist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4000,"href":"https:\/\/ideologist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions\/4000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideologist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideologist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideologist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideologist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}