ABSTRACT
There is neither table nor chair in a strictly Japanese-style house. As Japanese sit upon the floor, which is composed of thick mats made of tightly pressed rice straw covered with fine rush matting, they find their rooms very tidy and simple. There is, moreover, no bright-coloured paper covering the walls, which are made of earth. Hence, those who have been accustomed to the bright-coloured Western rooms may feel as if they were in an unfurnished room rather than being able to appreciate its simplicity and neatness. Moreover, unlike Westerners, Japanese do not, as a rule, decorate their rooms with sculptures in a corner, vases upon shelves, or pictures upon the walls: their rooms may appear very much as if they had been deserted for a long time by their master. Why do they not decorate their rooms like Westerners, you will ask? The reply is, because there is always a tokonoma, or alcove, in the best room of every Japanese house, where a picture scroll and some flowers in a vase are displayed. If the walls were covered with bright-coloured paper, these flowers and the picture would attract no attention from the eye. The tokonoma is no other than the point of focus of the room, at which the attention of all eyes in the room is to be directed. To do
away with wall paper, to dispense with all other decorations in the room, or, in other words, to eliminate all distracting colours and designs from the room, is to give spirit and animation to the quiet, simple and yet refined Japanese flower arrangement in the tokonoma.
