Six-mat room with tatami flooring and shoji

Tatami (畳 tatami, Tatami^?) (originally meaning "folded and piled") mats are a traditional Japanese flooring. Made of woven straw, and traditionally packed with straw (though nowadays sometimes with styrofoam), tatami are made in individual mats of uniform size and shape, bordered by brocade or plain green cloth. Tatami room with shoji I took this photograph and contribute it to the public domain. ... Tatami room with shoji I took this photograph and contribute it to the public domain. ... Japanese room with sliding shoji doors and tatami flooring In traditional Japanese architecture, a shoji (障子) is a room divider or door consisting of translucent washi over a wooden frame. ... A mat is a generic term for a piece of fabric or flat material, generally placed on a floor or other flat surface, and serving a range of purposes including: providing a regular or flat surface, such as a mouse mat protecting that which is beneath the mat, such as... Bales of straw bundles of rice straw Pile of straw bales, sheltered under a tarpaulin Straw is an agricultural byproduct, the dry stalk of a cereal plant, after the nutrient grain or seed has been removed. ... Styrofoam is a trademark name for extruded polystyrene thermal insulation material, manufactured by Dow Chemical Company. ...

Tatami were originally a luxury item for the wealthy at a time when lower classes had mat-covered dirt floors.^[1] Tatami were gradually popularized and finally reached the homes of commoners towards the end of the 17th century.^[2]

Layout and size

One possible layout of a 4 1/2 mat room

There are various rules concerning the number and layout of tatami mats; an inauspicious layout is said to bring bad fortune. In homes, the mats must not be laid in a grid pattern, and in any layout there is never a point where the corners of three or four mats intersect. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

In Japan, the size of a room is typically measured by the number of tatami mats (-畳 -jō). The traditional dimensions of the mats were fixed at 90 cm by 180 cm (1.62 square meters) by 5 cm (35.5 in by 71 in by 2 in). Half mats, 90 cm by 90 cm (35.5 in by 35.5 in) are also made. Shops were traditionally designed to be 5½ mats (8.91m²), and tea rooms and tea houses are frequently 4½ mats (7.29m²). Because the size is fixed, rooms in traditional Japanese construction measure in multiples of 90 cm. Mats from Kyoto (Kyo-tatami) and other parts of western Japan are slightly larger than those from Tokyo and eastern Japan at 95.5 cm by 191 cm (1.82m²; 37.6 in by 75.2 in). A square metre (US spelling: square meter) is by definition the area enclosed by a square with sides each 1 metre long. ... An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes, ″ - a double prime) is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... Yugao-tei, Kanazawa Hiroshige Uragawa, Mariko, famous tea house, 21st view, The 53 relays of Tolaïdo series In Japanese tradition a tea house (茶室, chashitsu lit. ... Kyoto )   is a city in the central part of the island of HonshÅ«, Japan. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Typical layout of a 4 1/2-mat tea room.

Image File history File links Tearoom_layout. ... Image File history File links Tearoom_layout. ...

Use

Tatami mats are associated with Japanese religious rites and the tea ceremony. Most modern Japanese homes still have at least one tatami room, the washitsu. A woman wearing a kimono performs a tea ceremony outdoors, while seated in seiza position. ... This washitsu has tatami and shoji. ...

Tatami are also used when training Japanese martial arts, such as judo, for protective purposes. Hawaiian State Grappling Championships. ... Judo ), meaning gentle way, is a modern Japanese martial art (gendai budō) and combat sport, that originated in Japan in the late nineteenth century. ...

Tatami "omote", or the outside rush mat layer, wrapped over the rice straw core of the mat, is used in the practice of tameshigiri in Japanese swordsmanship. The tatami omote mats are rolled into cylinders, soaked in water for several days, and then cut in order to test either a newly made sword's sharpness or a swordsman's cutting ability. Tameshigiri is the art of target test cutting. ...

See also

• Tatami room

This washitsu has tatami and shoji. ...

Notes

1. ^ The Yoshino Newsletter. "Floors/Tatami". Yoshino Japanese Antiques. Retrieved on 2007-03-28.
2. ^ Kyoto International Community House Newsletter. 2nd section titled HISTORY OF TATAMI. Kyoto City International Foundation. Retrieved on 2007-03-28.

2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... March 28 is the 87th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (88th in leap years). ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... March 28 is the 87th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (88th in leap years). ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Tatami

Tatami at JAANUS (Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System) Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Wikimedia Commons logo by Reid Beels The Wikimedia Commons (also called Commons or Wikicommons) is a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files. ... Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System or JAANUS is a dictionary of Japanese architecture and art terms compiled by Dr. Mary Neighbour Parent. ...

Men Making Tatami Mats, late 1800s.