DOMESTIC JAPAN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2008, 18 August 1892, Page 39

DOMESTIC JAPAN.

A Simple and Refined People. Simplicity and refinement are the essential characteristics of life in Japan.

The houses, which are spacious, are constructed without foundations. Light wooden uprights resting on flat Btones support the thatched or tiled roof. The walls, both outside and those which divide the rooms, are formed of latticed panels which slide over one another, or can be removed altogether if desired. These panels are filled with translucent paper. At night the house is closed in with wooden shutters.

The rooms, which are raised about a foot above the ground, are covered with soft padded matting kept spotlessly clean. In the centre of the living room is a shallow square pit lined with metal and filled with charcoal.for the purpose of cooking and warming, or the rooms are warmed with movable metal braziers. There is no furniture present, no chairs, tables, beds, chests of drawers, pictures, or nicknacks. The matted floor serves alike for chairs, table, and bed. To keep it absolutely clean all boots, shoes, and sandals are left on the ground outside. In one cornei of the room is the raised recess or Tokonoma, where a vase containing a branch of a flowering shrub, and a hanging picture or kahemono, is always found. The absence of furniture means the absence of many cares, and as two wooden chopsticks

and small lacquer bowls serve for all the purposes of eating, there is no need for plate glass, knives, forks, spoons, dinner services, and table linen. Thus life is simplified, thongh it loses, at the same time, none of its refinement ; for no people can be more dainty and particular in their food, more neat and beautiful in dress, and more courteous and self-restrained in manner than the Japanese.

From babyhood all are trained to sit on the soles of their feet, and this is with the Japanese the attitude of repose. Kneeling thus on the floor, all work is done, and at night-time the padded quilts or futons are spread on the matting, and with one quilt beneath and another above sleep can be enjoyed as comfortably as in bed.

Before the evening meal is taken it is the invariable custom throughout Japan for every member of the household to take a dip in the family bath, which is heated to a temperature of HOdeg to 120deg, at which heat it is found to be very refreshing. — The Hospital.