As covered back at the start of this series, the very earliest dwellings in the Japanese archaeological record had earthen floors (doza-yuka, 土座床). Somewhat later, the raised timber floor (taka-yuka, 高床) appeared, but this latter type never completely supplanted the former; the two co-existed, both as broadly separate streams and literally side-by-side, up until the 20th century, and even today the sunken entry area (genkan, 玄関) of Japanese homes is a vestigial reminder of the earthen-floored doma (土間) utility spaces that were once ubiquitous in minka, even those whose main living areas were raised-floor.
Before we go on, it is important to distinguish the doma from the subject of this post: doza-yuka-sumai (土座床住まい), or ‘earthen-floor living’, where not only utility and work activities but also seated social activities such as eating take place on the doza. The do 土 of doza means earth, and za 座 means ‘sit’ or ‘seat’.
It is reasonable to assume that the ‘modern’ doza-yuka is the direct ancestor of the ancient pit dwellings (tate-ana jūkyo 竪穴住居) of the Jо̄mon era. Broadly speaking, the traditional territory of the doza-yuka up until modern times stretched from the mountainous northern parts of the Kinki/Kansai region (the area of western Honshū encompassing the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyо̄to, О̄saka, Hyо̄go, and Shiga, and generally taken to include Mie, Fukui, Tokushima, and Tottori prefectures), through the Hokuriku region (the coastal prefectures of north western Honshū, i.e. Fukui, Toyama, Ishikawa, and Niigata), the northern parts of the old Shinshū Province (modern-day Nagano prefecture), to the Tо̄hoku region of northern Honshū, consisting of Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata prefectures.
The fact that ‘earthen-floor living’ spread so widely and survived so long, despite obvious shortcomings such as dampness and proximity to vermin, is testament to its chief advantage: it is very effective against the bitterly cold winters experienced by all of the regions listed above. Of course, the inhabitants of earthen-floor dwellings did not sit or sleep directly on the bare earth. In both doza-yuka and taka-yuka dwellings, there is a clear, material differentiation between the doma utility area, with its bare earth floor where people would generally only stand in the course of cooking or other work, and the ‘living’ area, for eating, socialising and sleeping. Whereas in the taka-yuka dwelling this differentiation is marked by the ‘step up’ from the doma onto the timber board or bamboo covered floor of the living area, in the earthen-floored dwelling, with all areas at the same level, the boundary was often delineated with a timber sill, and the living area was differentiated from the doma by putting down layers of woven straw or reed mats called mushiro (莚), on which people could sit. On such a floor there are no drafts from below, and the mushiro are warm, soft, and pleasant underfoot. It was said that they were also very comfortable to sleep on, especially for children and the elderly, and there were many examples of minka where even after other living areas of the dwelling had been ‘upgraded’ to taka-yuka, the bedrooms remained as doza-yuka.
Image showing an earthen-floored doma in the foreground, in the midground the doza-yuka living area, spread with mushiro mats and separated from the doma by a timber sill, and in the background a taka-yuka raised-floor area separated from the doza-yuka by sliding partitions.
The same minka, here showing the doma with its posts set directly on foundation stones.
The persistence of doza-yuka might also be attributable in part to legal constraints: taka-yuka were often subject to the kind of sumptuary laws that were widespread in feudal Japan until they were lifted after the Meiji Restoration. In the Tо̄hoku region, for example, the use of board-laid floors was limited to the the formal room (zashiki, 座敷) of the village ‘officer’ or head-man’s house.