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context: architecture
Elements of Architecture
There are various standard elements in Japanese architecture, found in almost every building there. Many of these persist into modern times - even postmodern buildings sometimes include some of them.
- Tatami: a reed mat measuring around 6' x 3', used as the unit of size of a room - builders worked to this as a module. This started in the late Heian period, in palaces. It is still used by many estate agents.
- Fusuma: rectangular sliding walls/doors, the frames of wood, often filled with paper.
- Post and beam: the standard construction method for two millenia. This was less simple than this may sound - interlocking beams were strong and flexible so as to resist earth tremors and typhoons, and were joined with dovetailing and so on, not generally using anything like nails.
- Roof brackets: the one curvy, even ornate exception to the rectilinear structures - these could be very complicated (though less so than in China, the source of these).
- Materials: largely natural - wood, straw, paper, sometimes tiles. Metal was very rarely used.