The interior of a minka was generally divided into two sections: a floor of compacted earth, called doma (土間?), and a raised floor (generally around 20 inches (50 cm) above the level of the doma) covered in tatami or mushiromats.
The doma was used for most cooking and farming-related tasks, and usually included a clay furnace-like oven called a kamado (竈?), a wooden sink, food barrels, and a large jug to store water from an outside well. A large wooden door called an ōdo would serve as the front entrance to the building.
The raised floor often included a built-in hearth, called an irori (囲炉裏?). However, there was no chimney connecting directly from the hearth to the outside, only a small smoke vent in the roof would sometimes be present. Smoke would rise up into the area of the high and spacious roof; thus, the inhabitants of the home did not breathe in the smoke and soot, but it did blacken the thatch, which would have to be replaced fairly often.
Though there were many various possible arrangements of the rooms within a home, one of the most common, called yomadori (四間取り?), comprised four rooms in the raised floor portion of the house, adjacent to the doma. Although these four rooms could be partitioned, they were more or less communal space, since inhabitants had to pass through one room to get to another. Two of these rooms would be used for communal family activities, including the one with theirori hearth. Sometimes a small oil lamp would be used for light, but due to the cost of oil, more often the hearth would be the only artificial light in the home.
The family would gather around this hearth at mealtime, and sit in a prearranged order determined by social status within the family. The side furthest from thedoma was called the yokoza and was where the head of the household would sit. Another side was for the housewife and other female family members, the third for male family members and guests, and the fourth side of the hearth was occupied by a pile of firewood.
The other rooms served as bedrooms and as space for entertaining guests, and would include a tokonoma, an alcove still commonly found in modern Japanese homes, where flowers, scrolls, or other such things would be displayed. The bath and toilet were often built as separate structures, or as additions outside the main structure of the house but under the eaves of the roof.
kianamaiart
izzy806
discoholicmusic