Why were traditional japanese houses so simple?

The old traditional japanese houses were really simple, with sliding bamboo doors for walls etc. The rooms had maybe a table, something to sit on maybe some flowers and scrolls etc? Has this way of life got anything to do with uncomplicating the mind?





I appreciate your help!Why were traditional japanese houses so simple?
It's important to define what you mean by a traditional Japanese house, since usually, a traditional Japanese house would refer to either a traditional style mansion or a house with historical significance.





You are probably referring to the basic dwellings that Edo period commoners had to contend with. The answer is simple, because by law, commoners weren't allowed to have more than so many rooms or use expensive material for construction.





Now, you might have a slightly different idea of what a traditional Japanese house was from the real thing. Doors were never made of bamboo. There never were any sliding walls unless you were talking about a ninja house. You're right in thinking doors slide open. All doors slide open. Gates swing open. The construction material for these doors are wood. Japanese rooms are partitioned with sliding doors called fusuma. Fusuma are like air walls and can be taken out to make a large hall in a big house. But they're not considered walls but doors.





There probably is no table that you're thinking of, since seating in a Japanese house takes place on the tatami floor. You'd be sitting on a seating mat on the tatami. Which means tables are low, about the height of your coffee table. The modern Japanese family would have a dining table like that, but in traditional times, everyone ate from individual dining trays (not flat trays but raised trays with legs), so there really were no tables. A commoner would not have been allowed to have the kind of room that was suitable for displaying flowers or scrolls.





The notion of zen simplicity is better reflected in architectures such as tea gardens and samurai mansions.





Sliding doors and fusuma work in a Japanese house because all the structural integrity is dependent on pillars and beams. This is in contrast to a western house where all the load bearing is done by thick walls.





There might be some notions of simplicity that's so ingrained in the Japanese mind about architecture that pointing it out would be considered superfluous. Or you might just have an overly romantic view of Japanese architecture. It would help if you could somehow demonstrate what you already know about Japanese architecture.Why were traditional japanese houses so simple?
It depends on how you look at it. The primary reason is that the average peasant farmers of old Japan lived a very harsh life. If you read about what they go through in their daily lives, it is truly a remarkable statement of cruelty and suffering. They had to by necessity and by law build with the resources around them, whereas the samurai lords and aristocrats and noble family lived in some of the most luxurious and even gaudy surroundings imaginable. Strangely, there were some exceptions where a farmer was allow to build on what is considered extravagant, but in rare cases.





During the later part of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the merchant class who were ironically the lowest class even lower than a farmer were able to accumulate great wealth and lived in as luxurious a lifestyle as the lords and nobles.





But a secondary reason for the simplicity is earthquakes. A wooden structure that is flexible is better able to survive it and less likely to maim or kill an occupant if it collapses. A sliding bamboo door is less likely to jam shut and even if it does, it is easily opened with a good kick or push so not to trap the occupant in a potential fire trap. The same for the low wooden table - less like for something to break if it falls or topple during an earthquake.





As for the flowers and scolls, because it's pretty. Given that life is for the most part unpleasant for the peasants, it is only natural that they would want something to brighten their daily lives and as far as I know there were no prosciptions against having flowers or scoll paintings.
The style is influenced by Zen Buddism, so if you study about tea ceremony or Zen, the answer is there.


I don't understand it fully so I could not explain to you...





The temples and houses of rich or Samurai could be like that.





I'm afraid average people did not afford the simple beauty house.


Their house could be messy with livingware or, simple because of poverty. But Japanse like things which is tiny or easy to put aside, because our house is rather small.
The more complex, the less socially stigmatized.


although, we see the reality has been changing day by day because of the recent 400 years of astonishing advancement and discoveries in science, none of us has realized how a state of reality has been passed down by every minute keeping the gap of between the earlier and later. where the earlier and later collides, is where absolute contradictionary identity can be observed. so my answer is that it was NECESSITY that applies to the case; in other words it composed of the fate that was unavoidable, only it happened to be a thing, but not a course of one's life, it hunged on you like a old band-aid....
Not really. Nowadays, they are pretty complex. It's the basic structure. Rich people have automatic machines that can do everything for them and stuff. Lol.





Only a couple of people still have those sliding bamboo doors and stuff. Those are only used for tatami no hea.