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that it is owing to the liability of Japan to earthquakes that its people have never desired or made an effort to build other than wooden houses or to make these of any but of the most flimsy description.
The general poverty of the people and their extremely simple habits may account for the simplicity of their dwellings, and as their habits become more refined and luxurious it is very probable that the internal comforts of their houses will also improve. Six hundred years ago the dwellings of the English were constructed in the roughest manner of wood and clay. The inmates ate and slept in one room and privacy was perfectly unknown. In the beginning of the 15th century the houses began to be divided into rooms and private appartments. Shortly afterwards glass windows and chimneys were introduced, and stone buildings were erected the ruins of some of which are in existence at the present day. Gradually improvements were one by one effected, until the modern English residence was produced.
At present in Japanese houses there is a want of privacy, for although there are apartments, they are separated from one another by paper partitions which accomplish their purpose only in name. There are no healthy or safe means of artificially heating the houses, and chimneys have never been adopted. There is an entire absence of glazing, and the light finds its way into the houses through the paper windows. These paper windows generally compose a great part of the walls of the houses,—and as they are very slightly made and do not shut closely up the houses are extremely cold and unhealthy in winter. During six months of the year in the greater part of Japan the weather is such as to require properly shut-up houses with good fires, and although during the other six months considerable heat prevails, it cannot be said that the style of building is at all suitable for the climate of the country.
The construction of the houses is of an extremely fragile and temporary nature. The structures consist of wooden uprights resting generally on rough, round stones.
