Buildings

The term Minka might be read as house of the people, and this makes sense from a historical context in Japanese society. The non-samurai classes of merchants, artisans and farmers were put up in these traditional Japanese houses. Since these sorts of class distinctions no longer exist, the term Minka can generally refer to any traditional Japanese home that has a bit of history behind it.

No-ka are technically farm houses. That being said, fishing has always been an important industry in Japan, and Gyoka homes are a variant of No-ka that were built for fishermen. As man farmers could not afford to import expensive materials, no-ka are often made from wood and clay. Grass, straw and bamboo are also common materials. Internal walls were generally made up sliding wooden doors or fusuma screens. Tatami mats covered the floors, and the roofs were made out of either thatch or baked clay tiles. Stone wasn’t usually used for the construction, but it was used to strengthen foundations.

Traditional Japanese architecture is built around the use of wooden columns, and therefore the internal structure is usually not a load bearing design. This is why the interiors of these homes cold be made up of entryways, windows, paper screens and walls that were not fixed in place. There was another interior fixture that fans of Japanese architecture will surely be familiar with, at least in passing.

The irori was a built-in hearth that would be placed somewhere within the raised floor. However, irori hearths don’t actually have a chimney in the way that most fireplaces usually do. Instead, a small smoke vent up in the roof helped to funnel out heat and smoke, so that the inhabitants didn’t have to breath it in. Unfortunately, using this system can cause the thatch to start to go black. Thatch often needed to be replaced because of it. Since oil lamps could be expensive in the days before electric lighting, the hearth was often the sole artificial light source in these homes.

Interestingly, sharing a meal in a traditional Japanese household was a strictly stratified process. The family gathered around the hearth like they would anywhere, but they did so in a particular order. The head of the family sat on one side, and another side was reserved for the lady of the household and female members of the family. The third side was reserved for male members of the household and their guests. The remaining fourth side was used to store firewood.