Futon

Japanese-style Template:Transliterations laid out for sleeping in a ryokan (inn). In green, three Template:Transliterations per bed; in red, turned-back Template:Transliterations. The top two futons in each stack are covered in white fitted sheets, matching the pillowslips.

A Template:Nihongo is a traditional Japanese style of bedding.

A complete futon set consists of a Template:Nihongo and a Template:Nihongo.<ref name="loanwords">Template:Cite book</ref> Both elements of a futon bedding set are pliable enough to be folded and stored away in a large Template:Nihongo during the day. This allows a room to serve as a bedroom at night, but serve other purposes during the day.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Traditionally, futons are used on tatami, a type of mat used as a flooring material. It also provides a softer base than wooden or stone floors. Futons must be aired regularly to prevent mold from developing, and to keep the futon free of mites. Throughout Japan, futons can commonly be seen hanging over balconies, airing in the sun.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Futon dryers may be used by those unable to hang out their futon.

History and materials

Before recycled cotton cloth was widely available in Japan, commoners used Template:Transliteration, stitched crinkled paper stuffed with fibers from beaten dry straw, cattails, or silk waste, on Template:Transliteration straw floor mats. Later, futons were made with patchwork recycled cotton, quilted together and filled with bast fiber.<ref name=boronobi>Template:Cite conference</ref> Later they were filled with cotton. Wool and synthetics are now also used.<ref name="ALD"/>

Template:Transliteration (よぎ, literally "nightclothes") are kimono-shaped bedclothes. They were used in the 1800s and early 1900s.<ref name="Inouye"/> Rectangular Template:Transliterations are now widely used. Template:Transliterations vary in materials; some are warmer than others. Those with traditional cotton filling feel heavier than those with feather or synthetic fillings.<ref name="ALD"/>

Traditional Template:Transliteration (まくら) are generally firmer than western pillows.<ref name="ALD"/> They may be filled with beans, buckwheat chaff,<ref name="ALD"/><ref name="OBH"/> bran,<ref>File:THE FAMILY IN BED. (1910) - illustration - page 137.png</ref> or, modernly, plastic beads,<ref name="ALD"/><ref name="OBH"/> all of which mold to the head. Historically, some women used wooden headrests to protect their hairstyles.<ref name="Inouye"/>

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  Sleeping on tatami, with no futon, and clothes used as coverings. Early 14th century
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  Child's Template:Transliteration, late 1800s. Template:Transliteration (patchwork) held together with over-all quilting stitching; see Template:Transliteration.
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  A warm winter Template:Transliteration, front
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  Back. Early 20th century.
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  Typical Tokyo family sleeping arrangements of 1910

Dimensions

Futons are traditionally laid on tatami rush mats,<ref name="OBH"/> which are resilient and can absorb and re-release up to half a liter of moisture each.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Tatamis measure 1 by 0.5 ken, just under 1 by 2 meters,<ref>See Tatami#Size for details</ref> the same size as a Western twin bed. A traditional Template:Transliteration is also about the size of a Western twin bed. Template:As of, double-bed-sized Template:Transliterations were available, but they can be a bit heavy and awkward to stow.<ref name="ALD">Template:Cite web</ref>

The Template:Transliteration is usually Template:Convert thick,<ref name="SEH">Template:Cite web</ref> and rarely as much as Template:Convert thick; they need to dry well, or they will become heavy and mouldy.<ref name="ALD"/> A Template:Transliteration is thus about as thick as a Western mattress topper.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> If more thickness is needed, Template:Transliterations are layered.<ref name="ALD"/>

Template:Transliterations may be wider than Template:Transliterations,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and they vary in thickness. Depending on the weather, they may be layered with a warm Template:Nihongo, or replaced with a lighter Template:Nihongo.<ref name="OBH">Template:Cite web</ref>

The traditional Template:Transliteration is usually smaller than a western pillow.<ref name="ALD"/>

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  Futons hung out to air on a balcony
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  Futons stored in an Template:Transliteration, in a tatami-floored Template:Transliteration (traditional Japanese room)
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  Cross-section of a tatami mat with a hidden extruded-polystyrene core and layers of the traditional Template:Transliteration (common rush) top and bottom
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  Pillow filled with tiny sections of plastic tubing

Western-style futons

In the mid-1970s, futons became fashionable in North America.<ref name="NYT" /> The construction method was similar to that of contemporary Japanese futons: cotton batting, covered in cotton ticking and held in place with hand-sewn tufting (through-thickness stitches).<ref name="NYT" /> This was also the structure that had been used in the United States' 1940-1941 Cotton Mattress Program, designed to use excess cotton production by subsidizing materials for people to make their own cotton mattresses.<ref name="relief">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="wallace">Template:Cite news</ref>

However, Western-style futons, which typically resemble low, wooden sofa beds, differ considerably from their Japanese counterparts.<ref name="loanwords" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They often have the dimensions of standard western mattresses, and are too thick to fold double and stow easily in a cupboard. They are often set up and stored on a slatted frame,<ref name=NYT>Template:Cite news</ref> which avoids having to move them to air regularly, especially in the dry indoor air of a centrally-heated house<ref>See Airing (air circulation)</ref> (most Japanese homes were not traditionally centrally-heated<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>).

Futon-like traditional European beds

Template:See also Traditional European beds resembled Japanese-style futon sets, with thin tick mattresses. These were only sometimes set on a bedframe. The term "bed" did not originally include the bedframe, but only the bedding, the same components included in a Japanese futon set.<ref name=Havard>Dictionnaire de l'ameublement et de la décoration depuis le XIIIe siècle jusqu'à nos jours, Havard, Henry, 1838-1921</ref>Template:Rp

It was also traditional to air these beds, and duvets are still aired in the window in Europe. In English-speaking cultures, however, airing bedding outdoors came to be seen as a foreign practice, with 19th-century housekeeping manuals giving methods of airing beds inside, and disparaging airing them in the window as "German-style".<ref name="featherbeds">Template:Cite web</ref>

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  A mattress topper (white) on a boxspring mattress (grey). Mattress toppers are generally structurally similar to futons, are often made of similar materials, and (in the case of twin-bed toppers) have similar dimensions. Note the tufting.
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  Museum samples demonstrating a 1590s bed: the bedcords, bedmat, three tick mattresses in dun and striped ticking, and the bedlinen.
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  The fairytale "The Princess and the Pea" exaggerates the traditional European layering of thin mattresses.
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  "Beds airing, Camp Funston, Kansas", in 1917 or 1918
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  Airing a feather duvet in Dubrovnik, 2010

See also

• Bed base
• Template:Transliteration — spirit-possessed boroboro Template:Transliteration
• Daybed — bed used for other purposes during the day
• Futon dryer — for airing futons when they can not be placed outside
• Housing in Japan
• Template:Transliteration — unit on which houses are traditionally built
• Mattress topper —type of thin Western mattress, similar to a futon
• Murphy bed — bed that folds up into the wall
• Tick mattress — futon-like European bedding
• Template:Transliteration (the type of rooms in which futons are frequently used)
• Template:Transliteration — sitting futon, a smaller cushion