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 Tatami
mats are the traditional
Japanese flooring. Made of woven
straw, and traditionally packed with straw (though nowadays sometimes
with styrofoam), tatami are made in individual mats of uniform size and
shape, bordered by brocade or plain black cloth.
Tatami were originally a luxury item for the wealthy at a time when
most people had floors made of dirt.
There are various rules concerning the number and layout of tatami
mats; an inauspicious layout can bring bad fortune. The mats must not be
laid in a grid pattern, and in any layout there is never a point where the
corners of three or four mats intersect.
In Japan, the size of a room is typically measured by the number of
tatami or -jo. Shops were traditionally designed to be 5 1/2
mats, and
tea rooms and
tea houses are frequently 4 1/2 mats. The traditional dimensions of
the mats was fixed at 35.5 inches by 71 inches by 2 inches. Half mats,
35.5 inches by 35.5 inches are also made. Because the size was fixed,
rooms in traditional Japanese contruction are make built have a length and
width that is a multiple of 35.5 inches. It should be noted that mats from
Kyoto and western Japan are slightly larger than those from
Edo (Tokyo) and eastern Japan (33.5 inches by 70.5 inches).
Tatami mats are associated with Japanese religious rites and the
tea ceremony. Most modern Japanese homes still have at least one
tatami room.
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