Traditional Japanese Furniture

Simple forms of cabinets, shelves, tables, and screens are some of Japan’s traditional furniture. These can either be plain and simple or beautifully painted with lacquer.

Basically, Japanese-style rooms are decorated with Japanese furniture, such as tatami mats, fusuma doors, shoji screens, tansu, futon, Japanese paper patterns, Japanese low-tables, and so on.

• Tatami mats cover the floors of Japanese rooms and are used for sitting and sleeping. These mats are made of rice straw and are bordered by elegant cloth. There are three different parts to an authentic tatami mat - the reed or rush cover (tatami omote), the straw core (tatami goto) and the decorative clothe edging (tatami beri). Today, the number of tatami mats usually measures the size of a Japanese room.

• Fusuma doors are sliding doors used to separate rooms from other rooms and hallways inside Japanese homes. They are opaque, lightweight, and are usually covered with a decorative paper. Fusuma doors are made by pasting thick, high quality threaded wall/door papers, called the fusuma papers, on frames.

• Shoji literally means “Interceptor”. Shoji screens, which are made by pasting thin shiji papers on lattices, are sliding panels used as a door or a window in the traditional Japanese house. These screens ease lights which come into the rooms and let soft, diffused light from outside filter in.

• Tansu is the Japanese word for a joined wooden trunk. It is a Japanese cabinet that is highly decorative, but a working furniture. Tansu is a functional solid, yet mobile storage unit. The steps of the tansu are used to reach higher floor spaces, and then pushed aside and used for storage.

• Futons are traditional Japanese beds. A futon set includes shikibuton, kakebuton, and makura. The shikibuton (under futon) is usually stuffed with cotton batting and are wrapped in shikifu (sheets). The kakebuton (comforter) is covered by kakebuton cover. Red beans or buckwheat chaff fills the traditional Japanese pillow (makura). Japanese uses different types of futon depending on the season. Since Japanese futons do not have frames, they are usually stored on the upper shelf in a closet (oshiire) during the day, thus freeing the "bedroom" for other purposes

• The Japanese Kotatsu Table is a traditional Japanese table and the most extensively used furniture in Japanese homes. This is where family and friends gather and is regarded as the emotional center of the home. Kotatsu table is used in both Japanese homes and restaurants.