Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(40) Farm house with characteristic roof shapes.
One ofthe consequences ofthe Japanese preoccupation with cleanliness andthe avoid-
ance of pollution was that the ground floor of a house was clearly divided into areas in
which the outside footwear could be worn, and those into which one did not go without
taking them off. (It was, incidentally, the grossest insult to strike anyone with a sandal or
clog.) The beaten-earth floor at an entrance or where rough work was done would be con-
sidered an extension of the ground or street outside the house, and stepping up on to the
wooden floor of the living-room would mean stepping out of whatever footwear was being
worn, and stepping down meant thrusting the feet again into the waiting sandals or geta.
Very often this earth floor would go right through the house from front to back, with the
space on the right taken up with a store, or, in colder regions, there might be a stable in-
stead, open to the rest of the house, so that the horse could be looked after without braving
the winter weather, and the animal could share whatever heat there was available with the
family. The quarters at the back of the house might be reached along the same earth floor,
andcouldincludeotherstoresfortoolsandequipment,andascullerywithplacesforwash-
ing vegetables, the water being brought into a wooden trough, perhaps by a bamboo pipe
fromaconvenientstream,perhapscarriedinbuckets.Theremightalsobeastoveforcook-
ing the grain that made up the meal, though this was not necessarily in the back. In such a
house,totheleftoftheearthenpassageway,wasthefireplace,whichwastrulythefocusof
