Japanese Village

The last Saturday the Walkers were here we took a trip to a museum featuring Japanese houses. This model village is on the northern end of Osaka near the World Fair site and was probably originally created in the 1970s when they hosted the World fair.

To make things interesting, I forgot the map to the grounds but remembered the name of the train stop that we had to go to. At the station we asked the ticket agent for directions to the village and he was able to direct us to it with another map. The walk to the village took us through a tree lined pedestrian mall to a park, through the park to a garden area over a slight hill and into a valley. The village was on the far side of the valley. The village was nestled into a wooded area with its own pond.

The village recreates houses from different areas of Japan. In fact they have moved many of the houses from around Japan to this park. The traditional architecture of Japan reflects the materials that they have on hand and uses wood and straw as its primary building material. Some of the buildings are covered in mud. Stone is used for foundations of some of the more permanent structures, but even the temples and castles are built primarily of wood. Inside the buildings the Japanese ability to use wood is obvious, even in their modern buildings. The Japanese use a lot of dovetail and mortis and tennon joints. The structural beams are usually rough hewn timbers which maintain the curves of the tree as well as the roundness of the trunk.

Many of the floors are dirt and the poorer houses combined spaces for animals as well as living spaces for the people. In richer residences the houses raised platforms for living spaces. The most extravegent living areas were floored with tatami mats. All of Japan defines its square footage in terms of tatami mats. Tatami mats are of uniform dimension, and are softer than other floor spaces.

In the center of many floors many of the houses had a fire pit cut into the floor without any form of a chimney. Above the fire pit they have a woven screen meant to prevent sparks from carrying up into the thatch roof. On top of the screen they stored many of the tools used for stoking the fire and cooking.

The thing that I liked best, was the thatching of the roofs. The thatch is usually about 15 inches thick. Once the thatch is laid and tied to the roof timbers it is cut. The way they trim back the thatch gives the roof an almost velvet appearance. Unfortunately thatching a roof is an art that could soon be lost. There are fewer and fewer people with the knowledge and skill to thatch a roof. Fortunately this museum is a living museum and they have people who are active in learning how to maintain the buildings and the traditional construction methods.