A dying Japanese village. Japanese village. What does it look like? Worth a visit

I could sit in one place all month in Japan and remain just as pleased. But I decided: if you are going to travel, then you need to plan everything so that the trip is the most diverse. Therefore, Takayama ended up on my route: firstly, these are mountains, and secondly, these are Gassno's houses. There were a few other places you could go from Takayama, like the famous village of Shirakawago and the world's largest cable car, but the bus routes were refreshingly expensive. Of course, I was aware of Japanese train prices, they are scary, but there are ways to save money, but there are no ways to save money on buses. A round-trip ticket for the route, which lasts only an hour, costs 5,000 yen. for the sake of cable car, or rather, for the sake of the view that opens from it, I would have paid so much plus about so much for tickets to the road itself, but it was closed for the annual technical inspection for exactly the 5 days that I was in Takayama, literally the same day.

Therefore, I had to be content with walking around Takayama itself and the local village of Gassno, or rather the museum, which was made based on its motives, collecting all the old houses on one territory. The name "gassno" comes from the word for hands folded in prayer. Those. in Nepalese, you can say that this is the village of Namaste =) The reasons for choosing this form are not religious, it’s just that in this region of Japan there is a lot of snow in winter.

All of these houses were built during the Edo period, meaning they could be between 400 and 150 years old. Wow! Something, of course, was restored, but it's still hard to believe that a simple tree could stand for so long.

Spring, icicles on the roof.

Each house belonged to a family, and so it is called by name. You can wander inside and visit different rooms.

It's mostly very dark in there, and my camera doesn't have a flash, so there's only one photo.

You can wander among the trees and feel like you are in ancient Japan. I additionally catch flashbacks of Indonesia and Batak houses on Lake Toba. All these mountains I have traveled South-East Asia and collected in my mind a collection of what I like best in each country. And then she came to Japan and found all this here. Even my favorite houses improved for winter! There is also a lake, but it is small.

The pure truth about a lot of snow. Outside mid-April, and still how much!

Thatched roofs.

And again icicles on the roofs.

How beautiful it is here!

The structure of the Japanese village is completely preserved. There is a temple at the very top, and old statues of Buddhas in aprons.

And other religious buildings.

There are vegetable gardens.

Wood shed.

Mill.

And a cast-iron kettle ripens on the coals.

If it were not for the lack of people, museum displays and signs on every corner, one could really imagine that he was in the distant past.

You can take a picture in clothes near the cart, and for free, but it’s probably no longer possible to wander around the village in a suit.

Puppet Museum. These dolls were exhibited at the entrance to houses in which there were children-girls, so that they would grow well and be healthy. The doll was supposed to be not one, but a whole set. Dolls for this museum were donated by local residents.

Sudden retro hi-tech. Something souvenir for tourists.

Today I will completely overwhelm you with beauty, because. right after the village, I climbed to the top of the mountain. Up the neat steps.

Okay, I won't exaggerate. And along the road, littered with snow, I had to make my way, and along the forest path.

But in the most dangerous and difficult places there were steps and railings anyway. This is Japanese concern for others and love for details.

Beautiful. And there is a bench to admire this beauty.

Something like this.

Or without extra objects in the frame.

I could still walk along various small tracks to get to a few more temples, but the snow blockages on the road and the total emptiness caused certain doubts in me. Yes, and my sneakers are already wet, despite all the Japanese concern for the neighbor.

I would love to come back here with good shoes, a bike and plenty of time to wander around and ride a lot. The mountains in Japan are no worse than the Himalayas.

The Japanese village of Nagoro is dying. Of course, it has never been a noisy metropolis, but not so long ago there was a factory there and workers lived with their families. They made a living among amazing beautiful nature. But the factory closed, and the settlement began to empty.

Ayano Tsukimi returned to Nagoro after living in Osaka for a while. When she arrived, the village was already in a sad state. According to the woman, she had nothing to do, so she decided to create a garden. When this venture failed, she made her first scarecrow, reminiscent of her late father.

He was the first of many, many dolls.

To date, she has made over 350 scarecrows. All of them symbolize one of the inhabitants, who died or left. She dresses them up, sews them into suitable facial expressions, and then places them in places that had a special meaning for these people.

Some are relaxing on park benches, and some are sitting in trees, holding guns with which they once hunted. Others fish by the river with rods. Couples sit hand in hand near the houses where they once raised their children.

The buildings of the city are now also inhabited by dolls. The school, closed many years ago, was once filled with students and teachers. Today, at the teacher's table, at the blackboard, covered with lesson materials and assignments, sits a scarecrow.

The dolls are seated at their desks: inanimate children hold pencils, look at open books and do their homework. Someone is standing in the corridor, waiting for class, and the director is watching his wards.

Tsukimi soon noticed that her dolls began to attract interest from the public. People came and took pictures of them - sitting in the fields, tending to plants that no longer grew, or watching the fish swim in the river.

Three years after Tsukimi started making these little people, she made one for herself. She says that she is not afraid to die, and knows that if something happens to her, it is unlikely that she will be taken to the nearest hospital in time. But she still cares about her creations.

Dolls in Nagoro are the result of a whole decade of work. Tsukimi says he will continue to make them despite mixed reactions from visitors. But at the same time, the woman is visited by the thought that someday she will be left alone, surrounded only by scarecrows. Unblinking little men, made in memory of the people who once walked the streets.

It is generally accepted that Japan is the richest country of the winning hi-tech and the whole life of a Japanese consists of cool gadgets, erotic comics and anime cartoons. I had the opportunity to spend a day in a traditional Japanese house in a remote (by local standards) village 50 km from the city of Osaka. Around rice fields, wooded hills, peasant houses and an electric train running every 15 minutes. In such places, life seems to have stopped in the seventies: young people do not want to live in the countryside and move to the city, and the old people are gradually dying. Agriculture has long become unprofitable against the backdrop of a rapidly developing science-intensive industry, a couple of decades will pass and what I will talk about next will turn into the property of history. So, listen and see how ordinary Japanese live in an ordinary village -

The station is located about a kilometer from the house of our friends, where I am on my way. As a child, when my grandfather had a garden near Sverdlovsk, I also stomped from the train to the house as a kid. Unless in the Soviet village they didn’t know what asphalt and sewerage were, but here everything is civilized -

For the most part, solid rural houses -

A small palm-sized venomous monster called a phalanx has been spotted -

Pay attention to the fire hatch -

The house of our Japanese friends and an unexpected telescope at the entrance -

Do you know what these carp flags at the entrance mean? In Japan, there is a holiday, Boys' Day, in honor of which flags are hung in every house where there are boys. The idea is that the carp is strong and knows how to swim against the current, achieving its goal at any cost -

There are traces of a recent earthquake on the wall -

At the entrance, the Japanese take off their shoes. I remember the stupid habit in the same Israel to enter the house from the street without taking off your shoes. And no one cares that there may be children in the house, they crawl on the floor and collect all the dirt and infections on themselves.

The kitchen, she is the living room -

The unit above the tap is just titanium that warms the water. Nearby, on the left, a rice cooker is a must-have gadget in any Japanese home, because rice is the main ingredient in any Japanese meal.

On the fridge is a map of shelters, where to run in case of earthquakes, or floods -

A whole hell of a scheme on how to properly throw away garbage. For example, if you have a pet, some cat and he died - you can't go and bury him in the forest. You must call the sanitary service, which will take the lifeless body and dispose of it to prevent the spread of infections, and it will cost you 3,000 yen (about $ 30), the corresponding picture in the lower right corner is

Schedule, when and what kind of garbage to throw out. For example, you can’t just drag old furniture to the trash can, you have to call the mayor’s office and they will come specially and pick up bulky garbage. Also, not every day you can throw away glass containers, but only 1-2 days a week. Break the rules - you will be fined, and the neighbors will certainly inform you that this gaijin (foreigner) threw the glass containers into the paper trash on the wrong day.

Do you know what that ancient gadget is downstairs?

Living room, here they sit on the floor, as you understand -

The whole house is one common space with sliding doors. If you push everything as far as possible, then you find yourself in one large room. But in the evening the house returns to its original three-room state. Pay attention to the nursery railway -

In winter, the Japanese warm themselves from a kerosene (!) heater. The temperatures in these places drop to zero degrees and one cannot live without heating, and there is no centralized heat supply -

Attic where rabbits live -

By the way, rabbits are not for food at all, they are family favorites here -

Do you know what that plaque is on the wall? Who can guess?

A traditional bathroom and the sad traces of a recent earthquake -

Well, respectively, the restroom -

Storage room with washing machines and dryers

Also, on the street there is again a kerosene water heater for the shower, and the fuel tank is slightly to the right at the bottom -

Little backyard garden

Right next to the house, literally five meters away is the train. But you know what? There is noise, but minimal, in Japan these things are strict. Nevertheless, in the morning I heard a train rushing through my dream. The locals have long been accustomed to and do not worry about this -

An hour later, I take one of these trains and leave for Kansai Airport in Osaka, Taiwan is waiting for me -

Well, lunch on the road and go -

This is what an average Japanese village looks like. Somewhere people live a little richer, somewhere poorer, this is a kind of average level. You probably imagined Japanese life a little differently, but remember the saying "do not confuse tourism with emigration." For example, in the villages there are many empty houses, whose owners have died and they have no heirs. So they stand abandoned for years and decades, no one needs real estate in such places. Here is a neighboring house, whose owners have long been dead -

Old letters in the mailbox

Moss-covered beer bottles

There are a lot of their own problems here, which the Japanese simply do not like to take out of their society, unlike you and me, who are sick of the whole world complaining about our hard life.

p.s. Do you know why I ended up in Korea and Japan? But thanks to these guys.

p.s. 2 Since not all readers have a Livejournal account, I duplicate all my articles about life and travel on social networks, so join:
Twitter

Japan is an amazing country, visiting which a tourist will surely get a lot of unforgettable impressions. Here you can admire picturesque rivers, bamboo forests, rock gardens, unusual temples, etc. Of course, many large modern cities have been built in Japan. But part of the population of this country, like probably any other, lives in villages. Japanese suburban settlements in many cases have retained their unique national flavor and style to this day.

A bit of history

Check in Japanese islands man began in the Paleolithic era. Initially, the inhabitants were engaged in hunting and gathering here and led. The first settlements in Japan arose in the Jomon era - approximately in the 12th millennium BC. In those days, the climate on the islands began to change due to the formed Tsushima warm current. The inhabitants of Japan switched to a settled way of life. In addition to hunting and gathering, the population also began to engage in fishing and animal husbandry.

Today, Japanese villages are often very crowded. But it was not always so. Initially, the number of inhabitants on the islands was very small. However, in the 13th millennium BC. e. people from the Korean Peninsula began to actively migrate here. It was they who brought to Ancient Japan the technologies of rice cultivation and silk weaving, which are actively used today. The population of the islands increased in those days by 3-4 times. And of course, many new settlements arose in ancient Japan. At the same time, the migrant villages were much larger than those of local residents- up to 1.5 thousand people. The main type of housing in those days in Japanese settlements were ordinary dugouts.

From the 4th century In Japan, the process of formation of statehood began. During this period, the culture of the islands was greatly influenced by Korea. In the country then called Nihon, the first capital of Nara was founded. Of course, Korean villages were also actively built in those days. They were located mainly around the capital, as well as in the valley of the Asuka River. Dugouts in the settlements at that time began to be gradually replaced by ordinary houses.

Wars

Later, by the 8th century, the influence of Korea gradually began to fade away and the Japanese rulers turned their eyes to China. At this time, a new capital was built on the islands, in which up to 200 thousand people lived. By this time, the formation of the Japanese nation itself was completed. In the VIII century, the emperors of the country began to gradually conquer the wooded territories of the natives, some of whom still led an almost primitive way of life. In order to strengthen their positions in these regions, the rulers forcibly resettled the inhabitants of the central part of the country here. And of course, new settlements began to appear in these places - villages and fortresses.

ancient way of life

The occupation of the Japanese has always directly depended on their place of residence. So, the inhabitants of the coastal villages were engaged in fishing, evaporation of salt, collecting shellfish. The population of the wooded areas in times of conflict with the natives carried military service. The inhabitants of villages located in the mountains were often engaged in breeding silkworms, making fabrics, and in some cases, the production of gunpowder. In the plains, the settlers most often grew rice. Also in the Japanese villages were engaged in blacksmithing and pottery. Between the settlements of different "specializations" at the intersection of trade routes, among other things, market squares were formed.

The rhythm of life in Japanese villages has almost always been calm and measured. The villagers coexisted in perfect harmony with nature. Initially, the Japanese lived in communities in fairly large settlements. Later, of course, separate, fenced-in estates of the nobility began to appear in the country.

modern village

Outside the city, of course, some Japanese live today. There are also many villages in this country in our time. The rhythm of life in modern suburban settlements in Japan today is mostly calm and measured. Many residents of these settlements, as in ancient times, they grow rice and fish. In the mountain villages, silk is still made today. Quite often, the Japanese in small suburban settlements still live in communities today.

Is it worth visiting

The inhabitants of the villages of the Land of the Rising Sun, judging by the reviews of tourists, are very friendly. They also treat foreigners who come to visit them well. Of course, tourists do not visit deaf Japanese villages very often. But some settlements that have existed since ancient times still arouse the interest of foreigners. In such Japanese villages, among other things, the tourism business is well developed.

Modern suburban settlements in the Land of the Rising Sun look, judging by the reviews of travelers, very beautiful and cozy. In Japanese villages, flower beds are blooming everywhere, spectacular shrubs are growing, and rock gardens are laid out.

How houses were built in the old days

One of the features of Japan, unfortunately, are frequent earthquakes. Therefore, since ancient times, a special technology for building houses has been used in this country. In Japanese villages, exclusively frame residential buildings have always been erected. The walls of such buildings did not carry any load. The strength of the house was given by a frame made of wood, assembled without the use of nails - by fastening with ropes and rods.

The climate in Japan is quite mild. Therefore, the facades of houses in this country were not insulated in ancient times. Moreover, only one wall has always been capital in such buildings. Between the skins, it was stuffed with grass, sawdust, etc. All other walls were just thin wooden sliding doors. They were closed at night and in cold weather. On warm days, such doors were moved apart and the residents of the house got the opportunity to coexist in complete harmony with the surrounding nature.

The floors in ancient Japanese houses in villages were always raised high above ground level. The fact is that the Japanese traditionally sleep not on beds, but simply on special mattresses - futons. On a floor close to the ground, spending the night like this would certainly be cold and damp.

There are several styles of Japanese ancient buildings. However, all houses in this country share the following architectural features:

large cornices, the size of which can reach a meter;

sometimes curved corners of the slopes;

ascetic exterior.

The facades of Japanese houses were almost never decorated with anything. Roofs in such houses were covered with grass and straw.

Modern style

Today, in Japanese villages (this can be clearly seen in the photo), only frame houses are still being built. After all, earthquakes in this country and in our days happen often. Sometimes in the villages in Japan you can also see frame houses built according to the Canadian technology that has become widespread in the world. But most often houses are built here according to local methods developed over the centuries.

The walls of modern Japanese houses, of course, are sheathed with sufficiently strong and reliable materials. But at the same time, spacious bright terraces are always arranged next to such buildings. The cornices of Japanese houses are still long.

The floors in residential buildings in the villages are not raised too high these days. However, they are not equipped on the ground either. When pouring slab foundations, the Japanese provide, among other things, special ribs, the height of which can reach 50 cm. Even today, in village houses, many Japanese still sleep on mattresses.

Communications

More than 80% of the territory of Japan is occupied by mountains. And laying gas pipelines on the islands is often simply impossible. Therefore, in most cases, houses in villages in Japan are not gasified. But of course, Japanese housewives cook in such settlements not at all in ovens. Blue fuel in the villages is obtained from cylinders.

Since the climate in Japan is not too cold, there is no central heating in the houses here. In the cold season, residents of local villages heat the premises with oil or infrared heaters.

The most beautiful Japanese villages

In the Land of the Rising Sun, as already mentioned, several ancient villages worthy of the attention of tourists have been preserved. For example, very often lovers of antiquity visit Japanese villages called Shirakawa and Gokayama. These settlements have existed in Japan for several centuries. In winter, the roads to them are covered with snow, and they find themselves in complete isolation from civilization.

Many of the inhabitants of these villages are engaged in silk weaving and the cultivation of rice and vegetables. But the main part of the income of the Japanese living in these settlements is received from the tourism business. There are cafes, souvenir shops, shops of various specializations. Some residents of these Japanese mountain villages also rent out rooms to tourists.

The settlements of Shirakawa and Gokayama are famous, among other things, for the fact that houses built in the gasse-zukuri style are still preserved here. A feature of these frame buildings are low walls and a very high, usually gable roof, under which there are one or two more floors. The houses in these settlements are covered, as in ancient times, with grass and straw.

Japanese village Mishima: how to move

Japan has one of the few settlements in the world in which new settlers are invited to live for money. The village of Mishima is located on three islands in the southwest of Kyushu and is experiencing a shortage of workers. Mostly pensioners live here. Young people prefer to move to cities.

To revive the local economy, the village community made an ingenious decision to attract new young and hard-working residents. All Japanese citizens, as well as long-term residents of the country, are invited to relocate to Mishima for a fee. For several years, the settlers are promised to receive a large monthly allowance (about 40,000 rubles in domestic currency) and to provide a free cow.

People from other countries, including Russia, can also move to the village. However, foreigners who are not familiar with Japanese culture can only be allowed into the village if the elders of the community deem it possible.

Japanese national house

I was once in the Ethnographic Museum under open sky near Riga, in a picturesque place on the shores of Lake Juglas, Latvian traditional houses, an old mill, barns and other buildings are located. It is very interesting and informative to see, but I have never been to a similar ethnographic village in Russia, I don’t even know if there is one. If there is, then for the sake of completeness, two types of traditional Russian houses should be represented there. The fact is that Russians, as an ethnic group, have developed from two nationalities - North Russian and South Russian, they differ ethnographically, linguistically, genetically - they have a different dialect, folk costume, etc., Russian epics, for example, are the fruit of the memory of the North Russians, and the Russian bath is an invention northern Rus'. Even the dwellings are different, in the southern Russian regions - the estate type, and in the north houses and outbuildings were built under the same roof. The Japanese traditional house bears little resemblance to the Russian one, assembled from logs, in Japan they built frame-type houses, the walls were not load-bearing, but the wooden columns and beams, which were connected without the use of nails, formed the skeleton of the house, they were the load-bearing elements of such a house. But in terms of the type of layout, the Japanese dwelling can be compared with the North Russian one - here, too, the residential part of the house and outbuildings were erected under one roof. I want to talk about the traditional Japanese house.

In the land of the rising sun, the national house was the home of farmers, artisans and merchants, that is, all major castes, excluding samurai, built it in several traditional styles based on geographical and climatic conditions, as well as the lifestyle of local residents. Most of these houses usually fall into one of two main categories - farmhouses and country houses, there are also subclasses of styles, such as houses in fishing villages. Such folk houses have survived to this day, now they are considered historical landmarks. There are open-air museums in Japan, such as Nihon Minka-en in Kawasaki. Houses built in the gassho-zukuri style survive in two villages in central Japan—Shirakawa in Gifu Prefecture and Gokayama in Toyama Prefecture.

Two villages, Shirakawa and Gokayama, the pearls of the Japanese archipelago, in terms of importance for the Japanese, these houses can be compared with Kizhi for Russians. By the way, not everyone knows how a village differs from a village in Russia; for reference, there has always been a church in the village. So, these Japanese historical villages of Shirakawa and Gokayama are located in a remote mountainous region of the island of Honshu, which in winter was cut off from the rest of Japan for a long time. A special school of architecture has developed here - gassho-zukuri. Traditional dwellings in the area are characterized by steep thatched roofs. The main occupation of the locals was silkworm breeding, so the upper floors of the dwellings are skillfully adapted for the needs of silkworms. Gassho-zukuri, probably the most recognizable style, houses featured high, gabled roofs. Such houses are well suited for heavy snowfall and downpour, the steep gabled roof allowed rain and snow to fall directly from it, preventing water from entering through the roof into the house, and to a lesser extent preventing the straw from getting too wet and starting to rot. Villages inscribed on the List world heritage UNESCO as an outstanding example of a traditional way of life, perfectly adapted to the environment and local social and economic conditions. To illustrate the post, photographs with images of houses from the village of Shirakawa were used.

In building these traditional houses, the Japanese used cheap and readily available materials, as farmers could not afford to import expensive materials. Such houses are made entirely of wood, bamboo, clay and various types of grass and straw. The skeletal structure of the house, roof, walls and supports are made of wood. The outer walls were often completed with bamboo and clay, the inner walls were not installed, and consisted of sliding doors, wooden bars and/or paper screens. Grass and straw were used to cover the roofs and for tatami floors. Sometimes clay tiles were used in addition to thatch. Stone was used to strengthen or create the foundation of a house, that is, a type of foundation, but it was not used for the house itself. The house turned out to be a frame house, the walls were not load-bearing, they left holes for windows or doors, that is, shoji paper screens were used, as well as heavier wooden doors.

Further, to describe the Japanese house, I used material from several posts by the LJ user Come in, you will be a guest! , a wonderful blog, who has an account in LiveJournal - I recommend adding it as a friend. So, the method of building such houses is as follows. Such houses do not have a solid strip foundation. At the site of the future home, the soil surface is leveled and compacted tightly. Then stones of a suitable size with a flat and even top surface are driven into the compacted surface. They are driven in in those places where the supporting pillars of the house should be located. Approximately every meter and a half along the entire perimeter and along future walls. Each vertical pillar rests on a stone, like a foundation, although not solid. This design protects the supporting pillars of the house from direct contact with the soil and saves the tree from being constantly damp and rotting.

A frame of supporting pillars and upper beams is installed on the foundation stones, the contour of the future house is obtained. The main frame of the house is erected without the use of nails and other iron fasteners. Logs are interconnected by a complex system of grooves and wooden rivets-clamps. The roof frame is put on top of this frame. It is worn sequentially - with triangular arches attached to each symmetrical pair of supporting pillars along the entire length of the house. Then the roof arches are connected by transverse beams. The beams and log-bearing structures are fastened together with ropes of rice straw and tows of young tree shoots. All fasteners are either made of ropes or in a thrust, in grooves. The finished frame on the sides of the roof is first covered with long mats made of reed or a variety of sasa bamboo, these mats form the inner surface of the roof. On top of these mats, bundles of reeds are tightly bound in layers. Reed bundles are stacked in even rows and attached to the roof with ropes of rice straw. With these ropes, the mats are, as it were, stitched like threads, fastening the bundles to the beams of the frame.

The roof of such houses in cross section is an equilateral triangle, its size strongly depends on the size of the house itself. The larger the house, the higher the roof. Accordingly, the space formed under the roof can be divided into floors. If the house is small, then two floors, in a large house - three floors. Any possible gaps between the walls of the house and the roof are laid with bundles of the same reed. After installing the roof, the house is sheathed with boards from the outside and equipped from the inside. The ends of the roof are also sheathed with boards, in which ventilation windows are then cut through.

Usually the house has two galleries along its entire length. The front (facade) faces the street, and the back - to the mountains or gardens. The ends of the house are usually deaf or with small windows. In modern houses, additional rooms are often attached to the ends under ordinary modern roofs. But there are also sliding doors - direct access to the technical premises of the house from the street, not from the inside. Galleries are usually open or curtained from the sun and immodest glances with mats. The galleries were closed at night, in winter or during a storm with wooden panels in the manner of sliding doors. These panels are stored in a closet at the end of the gallery in their free time from home protection. In modern houses, most often the galleries are closed, especially from the back of the house. Glazed or simply half closed in the manner of a veranda.

From one of the edges of the house, rarely in the middle, there is an entrance to the house, you can, of course, enter from any point in the open gallery, but this is impolite if you do not live in this house. The interior of the house is divided into several rooms. Their number and size depends on the overall size of the house. Usually, the internal layout of the house is laid already at the level of driving in the foundation stones, since these stones determine the position of the structural nodes and corners of the house, both external and internal. All life in the house takes place mainly on the first floor. The second floor is for work and storage, it is used as a workshop for small-scale peasant craft. The third floor, even if it exists, is usually not used, except that all sorts of herbs useful in the household are dried and stored here. The third floor is only a flat lattice. This is a type of technical floor needed to monitor the condition of the roof. The volume of the room under the roof primarily works as a thermostat, keeping the temperature inside the house approximately constant. In summer it is very hot outside, but inside the house it is quite cool and comfortable, not only air conditioning is needed, but even a fan.

Depending on the size of the house and the wealth of the family, the house may have several closets or lounges. But the general layout is about the same. The central room of the house is a hearth, on the one hand - storage and utility rooms, on the other - front, clean rooms for relaxation. Sometimes the genkan hallway is actually combined with the kitchen. At the entrance there is a couple of utility rooms where all sorts of large items that are usually used outside the house are stored. The floors in such utility rooms are densely packed earth or slatted flooring. The floor level in the living rooms is raised above the ground by about 20 cm. One of the main interior spaces of the house on the ground floor is a common room with a hearth. Depending on the size of the house and the number of inhabitants, the hearth may have one or two hearths at different ends of the room. The hearths here are everywhere of the same design - a square hole in the floor, filled with sand and ash from already burned firewood. It has one or two cast-iron coasters for the boiler and kettle. Either mats lie around the hearth, or the room itself is covered with tatami. The hearth room was usually used as a dining and living room for the whole family, but almost never as a bedroom.

There is no ceiling in the dining room as such - a grating that opens a direct exit of smoke through the roof. Above each hearth, on ropes attached to the ceiling beams, hang large wooden shields, slightly larger in size than the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe hearth. Their task is to prevent hot smoke from going straight up, so that the ceiling does not catch fire, and hot air more or less evenly disperses throughout the volume of the house. On top of the shield, you can put something that needs drying - a raincoat or hat. Or whatever items you need. There are no chimneys, the smoke rises from the hearth and, having passed through the entire volume of the house, exits right through the thatched roof. At the same time, everything inside the house and the roof itself are thoroughly smoked and dried from the inside. In these houses, insects and mice do not live in the roofs. And the roof hardly rots even in the rainy season or under the snow. The ceilings in such houses are not solid, but lattice, so that the smoke rises freely. Solid flooring on the floor on the second floor is only along the walls. If the house is large, then in those places where there is no hearth, the flooring is also solid.

On both sides of the central room of the house with a hearth are smaller rooms. Some of them are used as utility rooms, the rest are used as rooms for rest and receiving guests, the floors here are covered with tatami, in one of the rooms of the house there is a tokonoma with beautiful scrolls, bunches of flowers and trinkets. Here they received guests and slept. One of the rooms is used as a dressing room, things necessary for life in the house are stored here, and bedding was cleaned here during the day - futons, pillows, blankets. The dressing room stores all sorts of household items that it is desirable to have at hand every day.

At the end of the gallery-veranda there is a bathroom with a wooden ofuro bath. A detached outbuilding on the outside has a toilet-type toilet, the secondary product falls down into a special bucket, and then is taken out to the fields as fertilizer. On the one hand - the main residential building of the estate, on the other - a small outbuilding. they are connected by a covered walkway. They could keep small calves in the outbuilding, there is no floor in the calf, just trampled earth covered with straw. And the buckets are suspended, on which the calf was lowered with food and taken away the waste products (dung, in common parlance).