Japanese Architecture and Culture

Today in class we watched a documentary on a very formal and old style traditional Japanese house. One part of the house I liked is how the walls are movable. I liked this aspect of the house because it helps change the feel of the house and allows you to add or remove rooms. I thing it would be cool to be able to do that in a regular house because you would be able to make your house have larger rooms and add more space if you had a party or having family over. The only downfall to this design of removable walls is that  it means you have to have doors that slide to open because with traditional doors you just cant move them, the have to be stable and stay in one spot.

Something that I found confusing while watching the documentary is how the people knelt before the opened and closed every door. I am sure that a lot of people didn't know why they knelt so I am going to talk about why they kneel in this paragraph. What I have found out by reading articles is that they kneel before the open a door for multiple reasons. The first reason is out of respect. In one article I read it said that you could easily make an entrance where you slam open the sliding door and walk in standing up and get the attention of everyone, but that is obviously disrespectful. Another reason that also ties into respect is that one does not need to remind everyone in the house of their social status. By remaining quiet and respectfully kneeling and opening the door you are not making a big scene out of yourself.