Farmhouses and Interiors

Overview

Combine tiled or thatched roofs, plastered walls and shoji to build farmhouses. Add an irori and low table to carry the same atmosphere from the exterior into everyday living spaces.

Things to enjoy

Choose roofs and walls

Combine regional tile colors or thatch with plaster and earthen walls. Stairs and slabs let you shape the roof.

Furnish a lived-in room

Furnish rooms with shoji windows, bedding, lights and low tables, and screen passageways with sudare.

Gather around the hearth

Hang a hook and pot from a beam with an irori below, bringing building and cooking together in one room.

Key items

Unfired Awaji KawaraClay shaped into pantiles for awaji kawara.
Awaji KawaraFired awaji kawara — a bright silver tile for roofing and namako walls.
Awaji Kawara RoofingRoofing laid in awaji kawara — a bright silver tile that does not burn.
Sanshu Kawara RoofingRoofing laid in sanshu kawara — a smoked near-black tile that does not burn.
Sekishu Kawara RoofingRoofing laid in sekishu kawara — a red-brown tile that does not burn.
Straw ThatchA roof bundle woven from straw.
Reed ThatchA reed bundle for kaya-buki roofs, duller in tone than straw thatch.
QuicklimeWhite lumps burnt from calcite.
Shikkui PlasterWhite plaster, lime worked together with chopped straw.
Shikkui WallA wall finished in white lime plaster — the brightest wall in the village, the face of storehouses and townhouses.
Earthen WallEarth and straw daubed over a bamboo lattice — the ordinary wall of a farmhouse, with the straw showing in its face.
Plastered Wall with NukiA white plastered wall with its nuki tie-beam showing — the shinkabe of the formal rooms.
Earthen Wall with NukiAn earthen wall with its nuki tie-beam showing.
Namako WallFlat tiles set on the diagonal with the joints raised in white plaster.
Squared PostA hinoki post sawn square.
Yakisugi BoardCedar boards charred on the face — the black skin cracks into an alligator hide.
Tataki FloorEarth rammed together with lime and gravel — the floor of a doma.
Tatami MatA fresh green woven-rush surface over a straw bed, bound with cloth along its two long edges.
Ryukyu Tatami MatA half-size mat with no cloth border.
Shoji Window PaneA one-block lattice-and-washi window pane that connects across wall openings.
Shoji ScreenA sliding door of paper over a slender wooden lattice.
Panelled ShojiA shoji with its lower third boarded.
Yukimi Shoji ScreenA shoji glazed along its foot — shut it and you can still watch the snow in the garden.
FusumaA paper-faced sliding door on a timber frame.
Lattice DoorA sliding door of joinery alone, with nothing stretched over it — wind, light and the sense of who is outside all pass.
Sudo Summer ScreenA sliding screen of woven reed for the summer — the wind goes straight through.
Amado Storm ShutterA sliding shutter of solid boards — no paper, no lattice, no light.
Amido Screen DoorA sliding screen of mesh in a metal frame.
Sash DoorA sliding glazed door in a metal sash.
SudareA hanging reed screen bound with string.
Venetian BlindWooden slats strung into a hanging blind — the sudare's grammar carried to an Italian window.
FutonTwo-block floor bedding.
Andon LampA paper lamp on a wooden frame.
Chochin LanternA paper lantern over a bamboo frame.
ChabudaiA low wooden table for a floor-seated room.
Irori HearthA wood-framed hearth of ash and fire.
Jizaikagi SupportA fixed-length support hanging a jizaikagi assembly from a beam or ceiling.
Jizaikagi Pot HookA pot hook with its fish-shaped crossbar, for hanging an irori pot over the fire.
Irori PotA pot with a bail for a jizaikagi.
Board FenceBoards nailed up on end — the fence around a town house or a storehouse.
Earthen FenceEarthen FenceRammed earth.
Kenninji Bamboo FenceSplit bamboo stood shoulder to shoulder and bound with rails — a screen you cannot see through.
Yotsume Bamboo FenceGreen bamboo crossed into open squares — a fence that marks a boundary without hiding what is beyond it.