The Cluttered Japanese Home

[Mulboyne]

Mainichi: Exhibition provides glimpse inside typical Japanese home
A new exhibition in London and an accompanying book are giving people overseas a glimpse inside a typical Japanese home, which the author believes may dispel some Western notions about life in the country. Inge Daniels...wants to give the British public a more rounded view of how ordinary Japanese live and move away from the minimalist images of homes as portrayed in interior design books...One of Daniels' main findings is that Japanese homes...are overwhelmed by the accumulation of items, especially gifts. There is a well-established gift-giving culture in Japan which has accelerated with the rising standard of living since the 1970s, she says. The presents can range from small souvenirs through to larger items such as kimonos, dolls and furniture which are given to people at certain points in their lives. Daniels said that, in the past, people were more able to dispose of unwanted gifts by passing them on to neighbors and other family members close by. But, due to the loosening of these ties and the fact presents are now more durable, householders find themselves hoarding more unwanted and unused items. As a result they have to find new storage solutions or move to bigger homes, which is not always easy...more...

[Samurai_Jerk]

I've never understood the mentality of keeping shit you don't want because it's supposedly a waste to toss it. Packing your house with a bunch of junk you're never going to use is no less wasteful than throwing it away.

Anyway, I like the idea for this book. Japanese houses are total fucking dumps.

[omae mona]

Anyway, I like the idea for this book. Japanese houses are total fucking dumps.

I like the idea, too. But if you click through the link and find the sample photo galleries, it's clear that this guy [EDIT: should be "lady" I think] has just scratched the surface. Those "cluttered" photos look like some of the cleanest, most clutter-free Japanese homes I have seen. I suspect the owners were embarrassed and rushed to do about 20 years of delayed trash removal before they let the photographer inside.

I had a great book of photographs of the insides of actual Japanese apartments, taken by a Japanese guy whose friends let him take snapshots. But I can't find it now (will post again if I can locate it).

My jaw usually drops when I watch one of those "before/after" home renovation TV programs. Typically a family of 3 people needs 4 large moving trucks to remove the crap from the gomi yashiki before they start the work. The place looks a million times better after the construction's finished, but it's 90% because they removed the junk, and only 10% because they tore down all the walls and redid the interior from scratch. I always say they should have saved all the money on architecture and construction; the moving crew actually solves the problem during the first 5 minutes of the program.

[Coligny]

How do you contact those massive junk trash removal companies ? Do they really exist or is it just a made for TV myth ?

Really is in dire need for this...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I had a great book of photographs of the insides of actual Japanese apartments, taken by a Japanese guy whose friends let him take snapshots. But I can't find it now (will post again if I can locate it).

It's not Tokyo Style by Kyoichi Tsuzuki is it? Certainly sounds like it.

[Mulboyne]

It's not Tokyo Style by Kyoichi Tsuzuki is it? Certainly sounds like it.

That's the one I think he does mean. It's also the one I was trying to think of to come up with an image for this story.

OM is right that the images from the Geffrye Museum site and her book are still far too neat. They do show some of the detritus of a middle class Japanese house but it's all arranged perfectly.

[Samurai_Jerk]

That's the one I think he does mean. It's also the one I was trying to think of to come up with an image for this story.

OM is right that the images from the Geffrye Museum site and her book are still far too neat. They do show some of the detritus of a middle class Japanese house but it's all arranged perfectly.

What surprised me when I first came to Japan besides the clutter was how shabby Japanese houses look if they haven't just been built. I guess since they don't build them to last they do minimal maintenance.

[omae mona]

It's not Tokyo Style by Kyoichi Tsuzuki is it? Certainly sounds like it.

That is exactly the one, SDH. And boy am I ticked off that it is not on my bookshelf. I am racking my brain trying to remember which good-for-nothing friend I lent it to. Come to think of it, I haven't seen the book in years, so it's probably in the hands of some FG that was smart enough to leave the country a long time ago...

But anyway, if memory serves it's a fantastic testament to the unique "beauty" of ACTUAL Japanese homes. Highly recommended!

[Greji]

a fantastic testament to the unique "beauty" of ACTUAL Japanese homes.

I don't know for sure about the unique beauty of my place. The old lady cleans house with an end loader...

[BigInJapan]

I guess since they don't build them to last they do minimal maintenance.

I think I would degrade that to "they do no maintenance".
Coming from a DIY background, and growing up in a city where the official slogan was "the city of gardens", it appalls me how little work the average family (father/husband) puts into the upkeep of their house and property in Japan.
It's not just an urban affliction either. After living in Yokohama for some time, I'm in the countryside now, and it's not unusual to see new houses here built by young families who put in gravel and few or no plants so they don't have to maintain a yard. And about the only time you see houses get painted is when they are up for sale (and even then it's usually a case of trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear...).

[james]

i'd like to dedicate this thread to my very own mother-in-law.

[Coligny]

What surprised me when I first came to Japan besides the clutter was how shabby Japanese houses look if they haven't just been built. I guess since they don't build them to last they do minimal maintenance.

This thread helped me to put my finger on one of the most depressing thing for me here. In Paris I've always been surrounded by buildings that were massively oppressing (in a good way) there was few recent buildings from the 70' but most of the youngest around me were built in the 1920 with german money or construction material confiscated after their defeat in WWI. Everything else was build by Baron Haussman under Napoleon... That stuff was clearly telling you that it was here before you and will still be there long before you.
Here... you just try to guess which one will survive the next rain season... the expandabilty of the urban landscape is totally unsettling.

[Coligny]

One example here, entrance of a former common shower-bath in the center of Paris (art deco style):

http://parisecret.20minutes-blogs.fr/archive/2011/06/12/bains-douches-municipaux-reconvertis-en-lieu-d-exposition.html

My former school (up to 10 yo) was also in this style. The building had a life on it's own, impossible to see all the shape or to guess the inner setup from outside. like a mystery box.

This one is also quite a head turner, all floor seems to have a different setup, and the roof a life of its own:

http://parisecret.20minutes-blogs.fr/archive/2011/03/06/jules-lavirotte-met-l-avenue-rapp-a-l-art-nouveau.html

[ChargerCarl]

One example here, entrance of a former common shower-bath in the center of Paris (art deco style):

http://parisecret.20minutes-blogs.fr/archive/2011/06/12/bains-douches-municipaux-reconvertis-en-lieu-d-exposition.html

Do they have one for non-douches?

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

This thread helped me to put my finger on one of the most depressing thing for me here. In Paris I've always been surrounded by buildings that were massively oppressing (in a good way) there was few recent buildings from the 70' but most of the youngest around me were built in the 1920 with german money or construction material confiscated after their defeat in WWI. Everything else was build by Baron Haussman under Napoleon... That stuff was clearly telling you that it was here before you and will still be there long before you.
Here... you just try to guess which one will survive the next rain season... the expandabilty of the urban landscape is totally unsettling.

My most imposing memory of the Parisian landscape was all the dogshit....

[Samurai_Jerk]

This thread helped me to put my finger on one of the most depressing thing for me here. In Paris I've always been surrounded by buildings that were massively oppressing (in a good way) there was few recent buildings from the 70' but most of the youngest around me were built in the 1920 with german money or construction material confiscated after their defeat in WWI. Everything else was build by Baron Haussman under Napoleon... That stuff was clearly telling you that it was here before you and will still be there long before you.
Here... you just try to guess which one will survive the next rain season... the expandabilty of the urban landscape is totally unsettling.

Yeah, the first time I house hunted in Japan I wondered why the real estate ads and agents seemed to concerend about when a building was built and why newer equaled better. Now I totally understand.

[Yokohammer]

Yeah, the first time I house hunted in Japan I wondered why the real estate ads and agents seemed to concerend about when a building was built and why newer equaled better. Now I totally understand.

I wonder if the typhoon, earthquake, tsunami, volcano, mudslide, and other unkind-to-structures seasons that are a feature of this fine country have anything to do with the general "why bother" attitude towards architecture?

[Samurai_Jerk]

I wonder if the typhoon, earthquake, tsunami, volcano, mudslide, and other unkind-to-structures seasons that are a feature of this fine country have anything to do with the general "why bother" attitude towards architecture?

I've heard that excuse from Japanese people before and I'm sure there's some truth to it but the US is the most natural disaster prone country in the world and homes are still built and maintained much better than in Japan. And for all the hurricanes, tornados and floods in the South there are still plenty of beautiful old homes from the 1800s and early 1900s. I've lived in two houses that were built before the Civil War.

I'm sure another more important factor is the Shinto belief in old things having bad juju but I think real reason is that this is a nouveau riche culture.

[Yokohammer]

I've heard that excuse from Japanese people before and I'm sure there's some truth to it but the US is the most natural disaster prone country in the world and homes are still built and maintained much better than in Japan. And for all the hurricanes, tornados and floods in the South there are still plenty of beautiful old homes from the 1800s and early 1900s. I've lived in two houses that were built before the Civil War.

I'm sure another more important factor is the Shinto belief in old things having bad juju but I think real reason is that this is a nouveau riche culture.

You're probably right. I'm sure the immediacy of "impermanence" as a nature-imposed fact of life is part of it, but it doesn't explain the seemingly ubiquitous inability to keep a house in order. Even temporarily.