ABSTRACT
The idea that vernacular domestic architecture is the manifestation of something culturally fundamental has been characteristic of discourses on Japanese homes and houses. In most societies houses are considered a physical structure within which socialization, identities and relations are centered, with its form expressing social norms (Després, 1991; Rapoport, 1981). Homes are thus not simply shelters, but the spaces which shape, and are shaped by, social interactions and cultural values (Ozaki and Lewis, 2006). In both western and indigenous discussions of traditional and modern domestic structures, Japanese houses have been identified as ‘unique’ and their inimitability bound up with parallel discourses on the ‘eternal’ Japanese family (Ronald, 2007). Despite the discursive essentialism, the physical spaces of homes, the structure of households within and the organization of neighbourhoods without have undergone considerable transformation. The relationship between Japanese families and the built form of the home is more effectively addressed as a dynamic phenomenon characterized by considerable reactivity to changing social conditions.
