La maison japonaise : standardisation de l'espace habité et harmonie sociale - article ; n°4 ; vol.32, pg 670-701

Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations - Année 1977 - Volume 32 - Numéro 4 - Pages 670-701
The traditional Japanese house is a completely standardized wood structure : height and spaces, divisions and floor mats. This situation dates back to the very origins of this type of habitation which is, in part, of Chinese origin; but it was also perpetuated and propagated by the feudal authorities, independently of whether or not it offered economic or ecological advantages, because it constituted a simple and efficient means of harmonizing a certain type of existence from one end of the archipelago to the other. The noticeable absence of urbanism in Japanese cities, the lack of concern with the exterior is but the other side of this (more or less conscious) policy which -from the end of the Middle Ages up until the last century- concentrated the entire effort of spadal structuring on the living space of each family. In this way, in traditional Japanese society, the house constituted the only truly structuring space and was a permanent reminder for each, of the religious, esthetic, moral and technical values which were the condition of the harmonious functioning of the body social.
32 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.