Japan and the Japanese

DWELLING-HOUSES. 899
fhe mode of building in this country is curious and peculiar. Every
house occupies a great extent of ground, and is built in general of
wood and plaster, and white-washed on the outside so as to look ex-
actly like stone. The beams all lie horizontal or stand perpendicular.
Between these beams, which are square and far from flick, bamboos
are interwoven, and the space filled up with clay, sand and lime.
The roofs are covered with tiles of a singular make, very thick and
heavy. The more ordinary houses are covered with chips [shingles],
on which are frequently laid heavy stones to secure them. In the
villages and meaner towns I sometimes saw the sides of the houses,
especially behind, covered with the bark of trees, which was secured
by laths nailed on it to prevent the rain from damaging the wall.
" The whole house makes but one room, which can be divided
according as it may be found necessary, or thought proper, into
many smaller ones. This is done by moving slight partitions, con-
sisting of wooden frames, pasted over with thick painted paper,
which slide with great ease in grooves made in the beams of the
floor and roof for that purpose.
Such rooms were frequently par-
titioned off for us and our retinue, during our journey ; and when
a larger apartment was wanted for a dining-room, or any other
purpose, the partitions were in an instant taken away. One could
not see, indeed, what was done in the next room, but one fre-
quently overheard the conversation that passed there.
" In each room there are two or more windows, which reach from
the ceiling to within two feet of the floor. They consist of light
frames which may be taken out, put in, and slid behind each other,
at pleasure, in two grooves made for this purpose in the beams
above and below them. They are divided by slender rods into
panes of a parallelogrammatic form, sometimes to the number of
forty, and pasted over on the outside with fine white paper, which
is seldom if ever oiled, and admits a great deal of light, but prevents
any one from seeing through it. The roof always projects a
great way beyond the house, and sometimes has an addition which
covers a small projecting gallery that stands before each window.
From this little roof go slanting inwards and downwards, several
quadrangular frames, within which hang blinds made of rushes,
which may be drawn up and let down, and serve not only to hinder
people that ~ass by from looking into the house, but chiefly when it