Tatami
Template:Short description Template:About
Template:Nihongo are soft mats used as flooring material in traditional Japanese-style rooms. They are made in standard sizes, twice as long as wide, about Template:Convert, depending on the region. In martial arts, tatami are used for training in a dojo and for competition.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Tatami are covered with a weft-faced weave of Template:Nihongo on a warp of hemp or weaker cotton. There are four warps per weft shed, two at each end (or sometimes two per shed, one at each end, to reduce cost). The Template:Transliteration (core) is traditionally made from sewn-together rice straw, but contemporary tatami sometimes have compressed wood chip boards or extruded polystyrene foam in their cores instead or as well. The long sides are usually Template:Nihongo with brocade or plain cloth, although some tatami have no edging.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="igusa">Template:Cite web</ref>
They have also traditionally been used for tameshigiri, the Japanese art of target test cutting.<ref>Sesko, Markus (2014). Tameshigiri, p. 196</ref>
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Machine-sewing of tatami -
Cross-section of a modern tatami with an extruded polystyrene foam core -
Making tatami mats, late 19th century. -
Close-up of mat surface and edging
History
The term tatami is derived from the verb Template:Nihongo, meaning 'to fold' or 'to pile'. This indicates that the early tatami were thin and could be folded up when not used or piled in layers.<ref name="KoandaTatami">Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, entry for "tatami".</ref>
Tatami were originally a luxury item for the nobility. The lower classes had mat-covered earthen floors.<ref name="tatamiluxury">Template:Cite web</ref> During the Heian period, when the shinden-zukuri architectural style of aristocratic residences was consummated, the flooring of shinden-zukuri palatial rooms was mainly wooden, and tatami were used as seating only for the highest aristocrats.<ref name="Sato Osamu 1994"/>
In the Kamakura period, there arose the shoin-zukuri architectural style of residence for the samurai and priests who had gained power. This architectural style reached its peak of development in the Muromachi period, when tatami gradually came to be spread over whole rooms, beginning with small rooms. Floors completely covered with tatami came to be known as Template:Nihongo, Template:Lit., and rules concerning seating and etiquette determined the arrangement of the tatami in the rooms.<ref name="Sato Osamu 1994"/>
Before the mid-16th century, the ruling nobility and samurai slept on tatami or woven mats called Template:Nihongo, while commoners used straw mats or loose straw for bedding.<ref>Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, entry for "bedding"</ref> Tatami were gradually popularized and reached the homes of commoners toward the end of the 17th century.<ref name="tatamicommoners">Template:Cite web</ref>
Houses built in Japan today often have few or no tatami-floored rooms. Having just one such room is common. Rooms having tatami flooring and other such traditional architectural features are referred to as nihonma or washitsu, "Japanese-style rooms".
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Green tatami in a museum model of the Saikū palace in ~the 9th century -
Courtiers making music, circa 1150-1200 -
As a dais, ~13th century -
An almost-completely-covered floor in an illustration drawn in 1296 -
Tatami being used as sleeping mats, 1309 (see futon)
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Size
Tatami can be categorized by their size, correlated to their place of origin:
- Template:Nihongo tatami: Template:Cvt, originated from Kyoto
- Template:Nihongo tatami: Template:Cvt, also called Template:Nihongo tatami, originated from Nagoya
- Template:Nihongo tatami: Template:Cvt, also called Template:Nihongo tatami, originated from Tokyo
In terms of traditional Japanese length units, a tatami is 1 by 0.5Template:Nbspken, or equivalently 6 by 3Template:Nbspshaku. The length of these units varies regionally, which led different regions to develop separate tatami size conventions. One shaku is approximately the same length as one foot in the British-American measurement system. As for thickness, Template:Cvt is average for Template:Nihongo tatami, while Template:Cvt is the norm for Template:Nihongo tatami.<ref name="Sato Osamu 1994">Sato Osamu, "A History of Tatami," in Chanoyu Quarterly no. 77 (1994).</ref>
A half mat is called a Template:Nihongo, and a mat of three-quarter length is called a Template:Nihongo (Template:Lang or Template:Lang), which is used in Template:Nihongo.<ref name="KoandaTatami"/>
In Japan, the size of a room is usually measured in relation to the size of Template:Nihongo, about Template:Cvt for a standard Nagoya-size tatami. Alternatively, in terms of traditional Japanese area units, room area (and especially house floor area) is measured in terms of tsubo, where one tsubo is the area of two tatami mats (forming a square); formally 1 by 1Template:Nbspken or about Template:Cvt.
Some common room sizes in the Nagoya region are:
- Template:FracTemplate:Nbspmats = 9Template:Nbspshaku × 9Template:Nbspshaku ≈ Template:Cvt
- 6Template:Nbspmats = 12Template:Nbspshaku × 9Template:Nbspshaku ≈ Template:Cvt
- 8Template:Nbspmats = 12Template:Nbspshaku × 12Template:Nbspshaku ≈ Template:Cvt
Shops were traditionally designed to be Template:FracTemplate:Nbspmats, and Japanese tea rooms are frequently Template:FracTemplate:Nbspmats.Template:Citation needed
Another format is the Template:Nihongo tatami, originating from the Ryūkyū Islands, which are square and can have various measurements.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Nihongo tatami do not have borders, and have become popular in modern times for their simplicity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Layout
There are rules concerning the number of tatami mats and their layout in a room. Template:Anchor In the Edo period, Template:Nihongo and Template:Nihongo tatami arrangements were distinctly differentiated, with tatami rearranged depending on the occasion. In modern practice, the "auspicious" layout is normally used. In this arrangement, the junctions of the tatami form a "T" shape; in the "inauspicious" arrangement, the tatami are in a grid pattern wherein the junctions form a "+" shape.<ref name="Sato Osamu 1994"/> An auspicious tiling often requires the use of Template:Frac mats to tile a room.<ref name="tilings">Template:Cite conference</ref> It is NP-complete to determine whether a large room has an auspicious arrangement using only full mats.<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref>
An inauspicious layout was used to avoid bad fortune at inauspicious events such as funerals. Now it is widely associated with bad luck and itself avoided.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
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Some auspicious layouts from the early 1800s (Edo Period) -
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Typical layout of a Template:Frac mat tea room in the cold season, when the hearth built into the floor is in use. The room has a tokonoma and mizuya dōko -
Room with tatami flooring in an inauspicious layout and paper doors (shōji) -
An auspicious layout -
"T" shape -
Ryūkyū tatami are square shaped without borders
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