Minka: The Allure of Japanese Farmhouses and Other Old Dwellings

Table Of Content

• Small Homes For Aging
• Ready to start the experience of a lifetime?
• Wall Street swings after Fed keeps interest rates high, downplays odds of a hike
• Traditional Japanese House Floor Plans (with Drawings)
• Design of the floor plan
• Dip into a thicket of tall grasses to discover a traditional Japanese farmhouse nestled off the beaten track.

A surprising intellectual leap in the design of Japanese homes took place during the 14th century, so powerful that it resonated for the next 600 years. Around the time that European houses were becoming crammed with exotic bric-a-brac, Zen priests were sweeping away even the furniture from their homes. What was left was a simple flexible space that could be used according to the needs of the hour. This is largely why Minka’s are designed with easily replaceable materials and dual-functional housing structures such as sliding walls to optimize the smaller space that they’re working with.

Small Homes For Aging

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Fusuma use heavier paper or sometimes cloth and are opaque, serving as a more distinct barrier. Unlike walls, however, fusuma can easily be removed to rearrange space within the house. The irori, an open, sunken hearth set within a timber floor, was once a standard fixture in Japanese farm houses. The tokonoma alcove is a decorative element characteristic of the reception room of a Japanese-style home. Recessed into one wall of the room and raised slightly above floor level, it is used to display wall hangings and ikebana flower arrangements.

Ready to start the experience of a lifetime?

Powerful posts and beams arch high overhead, supporting soaring roofs and spacious interiors that open to the garden. For some reason or another, ever since I was young, I’ve been drawn like a magnet to the various products of Japanese culture. What those products are have changed throughout time, whether it was films, or food, etc. Shōji are lighter than fusuma, with paper affixed to a wooden lattice.

Wall Street swings after Fed keeps interest rates high, downplays odds of a hike

We love the fact that a Minka can be exquisitely designed, rapidly “printed,” packed into a cargo container, shipped and assembled anywhere– in the world. As you wander between the fronds, the Minka house will come into view. Meaning ‘houses of the people’, ‘minka’ describes the simple homes of country-dwellers common in Japan until the mid-20th century. Unlike sukiya zukuri, most minka started with doma (dirt floor) where you had workshops and a kitchen area. It was where people would take care of the tools they used for work, processed crops and prepared meals.

You might not always find this porch-cum-entryway in this shape, but it’s predominant in traditional Japanese homes. The engawa/entryway is typically unmatted, where one can enjoy the outdoors, sans footwear. After learning about traditional Japanese homes, do you wish Japan still kept them as the common housing style? Maybe you were inspired by these houses and will add components of them in your own home. If you want to learn Japanese to make your life living here easier, Japan Switch offers helpful and affordable Japanese lessons that can set you on the right path to mastering the language. If you're interested in Japanese culture, you probably want to know about traditional Japanese homes.

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Farmhouses that would otherwise be destroyed are being reincarnated as homes, restaurants and galleries. House of the EGAWA family, Nirayama yakusho (government office) (Izunokuni City); part of its construction materials are said to be from medieval times. Oshi-ire can be closets, or the little compartments above closets, used for expensive kimonos, beddings, or out-of-season clothes. These mostly hidden storage compartments are typical in a classic Japanese home.

Design of the floor plan

FROM the heavy stones at the base of their main pillars to the thatch that typically covers their crowns, minka reflect their native landscape. Some rooflines are steeply angled to shed snow, others flare as gently as a skirt in a breeze. Their flexible frames have weathered earthquakes since the 1700s, but urbanization has nearly done them in. The engawa connects the outside to the inside and is the perfect place to situate oneself on a beautiful balmy day. When wandering between the garden and the living room, the engawa is a marriage between the inside and outside.

The roof tiles commonly seen nowadays on traditional-style homes in Japan became common during the latter part of the eighteenth century. Other traditional roofing materials include timber shingles called kokera-buki, and hiwada-buki, shingles made from cypress bark. For floor material, Minka Houses usually uses Tatami, a type of carpet made of straw and covered with a weave of a plant called ‘igusa’ (藺草). Initially, Tatami was only used in the houses of high-caste people, but over time, tatami became more widely used among commoners towards the end of the 17th century.

Dip into a thicket of tall grasses to discover a traditional Japanese farmhouse nestled off the beaten track.

In fact, the first users of MAGIC will be students at the University of Southern Indiana, which is seeking improved housing options for these young people. Anyone familiar with supportive housing for long-term care knows the name Bill Thomas. Dr. Bill Thomas, to be exact, has spent the past quarter-century working to humanize the nursing home experience.

Bushes of the sacred bamboo (Nandina domestica ‘firepower’) are planted around the entrance, believed to dispel bad dreams. A treasured feature of Japanese heritage, many of these farmhouses have been preserved as historic landmarks. Along with Stanley’s minka, two international projects are underway. A small Japanese farmhouse was assembled at Musee de l’Homme in Paris for an exhibit next year.

The modular abode integrates minka architecture, and the design echoes many of the same details found in this traditional style of Japanese housing. There’s also a koi pond, massive shoji screen walls and a floating chashitsu—or tearoom—across its 7,500 square feet. Minka (“people’s house”) are traditional Japanese country houses built with simple materials such as bamboo, earth, and straw. People will usually sit on the floor or on pillows; chairs and tables were not commonly used until the Western influence of the 20th century.

A roku-hisashi is a simple set of eaves cantilevered straight out from the wall, with a flat underside and slightly sloping upper side. The udegi (crossarm) hisashi has a more steeply sloping roof supported by crossarm braces. The relationship between the interior and the garden is very important in traditional Japanese architecture. The gardens are design to be viewed from the low vantage point of a person seated in the room or on a tatami mat.

This is the perfect area to enjoy a cup of tea, listen to birds trilling, and breathe in the fresh air. The engawa is a very special and integral part of a traditional Japanese home. It does not simply serve as a terrace, but the engawa connects the living room to the garden. This porch-like structure is on the outside and functions as both an entryway and a corridor. In western homes, this would translate to either the attic or the basement where we stash random stuff.

Weaving such materials into a solid structural whole was a demonstration of the carpenter’s skill. Some traditional houses have been refurbished to include comforts common in modern homes or converted into ryokan or minshuku lodgings. For visitors to Japan, staying in an old-style accommodation is a good way to experience the traditional charms of the country. The hafu are the triangular end panels or sections, including the gable end wall and barge boards, and any decorative plates on the gable wall surface.

Homeowners may use it to display a hanging scroll or picture, accompanying these with an ikebana flower arrangement, kōro incense burner, or piece of pottery. There are even more features of Japanese traditional houses, 17 Classic features of Japanese Houses. Nowadays, in urban areas like Tokyo, houses have become more modernized but there are still many traditional structures remaining. In this article, you will become familiar with the variety of traditional Japanese houses, what they’re made of, and how you can have one like them yourself. The en-no-shita is a crawl space under the veranda or floor, created to provide ventilation and reduce humidity inside the house.

They prevent people from seeing through, but brighten up rooms by allowing light to pass. In modern Japanese-style houses they are often set in doors between panes of glass. With one variation, known as the “snow-viewing” or yukimi shōji, it is possible to slide up the lower section and look out through the glass. Minka can be small, starting around 1,000 square feet, but they have vast roofs. Their rugged posts and beams hold the load, allowing for flexible layouts inside, with sliding partitions that can carve up the space or throw it open. An earthen-floored entryway and work space lead to a raised living and dining area centered on a sunken hearth.