JAPANESE ROOMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 953, 25 April 1889, Page 32

JAPANESE ROOMS.

Japanese houses are always made of wood, usually of one storey, and unpainted ; their picturesque roofs alone save them from becoming monotonous ; , in the houses of the rich there is a second storey, regarded as the guest chamber, and the best rooms are in the back of the house. The interior is not only simple in construction, but the ceilings are so low you can easily, touch them. Mr Morse says, that there is an absence of all paint, .yarnish, oil, or filling, which too often defaces our rooms at home. The Japanese are never guilty of the 'ridiculous absurdity of covering a good grained wood surface with paint, and then with brush and comb trying to imitate Nature by scratching in a series of lines. ' The. workman avails himself of all ourious marks in the wood he is using — even the effect' of some fungoid growth which marks a bamobo curiously— and his watchful delicate eye never misses a point in finishing a room.

THE EMPTINESS OP JAPANESE ROOMS

at first somewhat startles a foreigner ; the second impression made relates to the perfect harmony of the tinted walls with the wood finish. Comfortable mats cover the floor ; no bedsteads can be discovered— the beds consist of wadded comforters placed on soft mats. Small receptacles containing charcoal supply the little heat the Japanese require ; the lady who wishes to warm her feet sits on them, she does not put her toes on the fender! Shoes are expected to be taken off before the house is entered, and the stranger who neglects this custom gives great offence. Hand-shaking is unknown, but bows of great "profundity" are fashion-able-in short, the "abject grovel" with which

MX GBOSSMITH AS KO-KO has made us all so familiar is the appropriate salutation. Food is served in lacquer or porcelain dishes, and placed on the flqor in front of the kneeling family. The room dedicated to ceremonial tea parties is "severely simple," and the performance itself grotesque. Our rooms appear mere curiosity shops, stuffy to the last degree; "such a maze of vases, pictures, _ plaques, bronzes, with shelves, brackets, cabinet, and tables loaded with bric-a-brac, would drive the Japanese frantic." Mr Morse, in " Japanese Homes and their Surroundings," declares that our walls are hung with large fish plates, which were intended to hold food ; and heavy bronzes, which in A JAPANSB BOOM

are made to rest solidly on the floor, and to hold plum or cherry branches, with their wealth of blossoms, are perched by us in perilous positions above doors, &c. We destroy our artist's best effort by placing his picture against some glaring fresco or hideous wall-paper ; and, not content with the accumulated misery of the room, we have mirrors which flash back at us the contents of the room reversed. The Japanese, on the other hand, put their pottery and BRIO-A-BEAO

treasures carefully away, to be unpacked for the admiration of appreciative friends. The colours of a Japanese room are most striking. Between the kake-mono (hanging picture) and the brocades with which it is mounted, ar. d the quiet and subdued colour of the tokonoma (recess) in which it is placed, there is always the, most refined harmony, and a background for delicious and healthy contrasts of colour. The very atmosphere is restful.— The Queen.