You can still find houses built this way in rural areas. But traditional Japanese architecture is well-suited to the environment.Ī traditionally built Japanese house is called a minka. What about the windows on the outside of a Japanese house? Surely paper is no good against the elements, right? Right. They are well-suited to the mainland Japanese climate because they help reduce the effects of humidity in summer. Paper screens provide some privacy while allowing light to pass. Fusuma (decorative paper partitions) are the ‘moving walls’ of the house. Traditional Japanese houses are typically multi-use spaces, with furniture tidied away and replaced. When Europeans borrowed the idea for these screens, they made them more like the Chinese ones - heavy and without portability. The Japanese made the screens portable with sophisticated paper hinges and also turned decorated screens into a Japanese artform. They were imported to Japan between the 7th and 8th centuries and became popular in the Kamakura period (1123-1333).Īside from the well-known fusuma and shoji of Japanese architecture, there’s also the byobu (a folding screen which literally means ‘protection from the wind’), the tsuitate (a single panel entrance screen), a tobusuma (a wooden sliding screen) and the sugido (a cedar board). The oldest recorded evidence of folding screens in China dates back to 300 BCE. used as a wardrobe sliding door) and shoji (a fairly modern term referring to translucent paper doors and partitions) though the tradition comes from China. Japan is well-known for its fusuma (sliding doors made of paper or cloth e.g. Glass is made of silica and plant ash, which often needed to be gathered from far away locations.īut let’s take a moment to consider ‘windows’ from other parts of the world, notably in ancient China, Korea and Japan, where paper was used as window material. Glass technology made stronger and clearer glass. As for Europe, there was a significant increase in glazing in both domestic and civic structures from the beginning of the late Renaissance, with increasing preference for clear over coloured glass. The Romans were using glass for windows around 100AD. Sheet glass used as window panes are older than you might guess. Artwork depicting women looking out of windows is especially common in this part of the world. The first windows - as we know them today (as views to the outside world) - were invented in the ancient Middle East. We know from the etymology (word history) of the English word window that the first gaps in the walls of houses of Northern Europe were for wind and smoke. Le Corbusier, Swiss-French pioneer of modern architectureĬorbusier also said that the entire history of architecture can be seen as a struggle for larger windows. The history of architecture is also the history of windows. Can you see patterns? WINDOWS IN ANCIENT CULTURE AND MYTHOLOGY These summaries are from Baughman’s Type and Motif Index of the Folktales of England and North America by Ernest Warren Baughman, 1966. Read through these story summaries and you’ll get a good idea of how coats have been used throughout history. Alfred Broge (Danish painter) 1870 – 1955 Two women in conversation by a window 1914 WINDOWS IN FOLKTALES They quite often function as a visual motif to show the audience what a character wants. Windows can be important to a plot but are also symbolic. Many stories feature windows, whether it’s children gazing from windows, opponents framed by windows, yellow squares of light offering the solace of civilisation. The sun rises above the horizon, filling the world with light. The window itself became equated with the horizon. Egyptian palaces had a window in which the Pharoah showed himself. ![]() We can even find mention of windows in ancient mythology. ![]() Window symbolism is as old as architecture itself.
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