What is Japanese culture?

When I think about what is Japanese culture, I think of the boundaries between inside and out, specifically, between the home and outdoors.

Taking off shoes is one of the most symbolic Japanese practices. Entrance halls (Japanese: 玄関 Genkan) are made one step lower than other floors in houses so that people can take off their shoes. Because of this, Japanese people often invite their guests saying "Please come UP" (Japanese: お上がりください Oagarikudasai), while western people say "Please come IN."

Shigeru Uchida, the Japanese interior designer, who has been engaged in designing popular buildings in Japan, mentions about the origin of this culture. "Although there is widely the same custom of people taking off their shoes in Asia, Japan's case is relatively different from that of the others. Generally, it came from raised-floor houses in the monsoon regions, in order to combat the humid seasonal winds and floods. However, Japanese people rather made it a mental part of living which clearly separates housing and the outside because they have been considering that the ground was unclean since the ancient times." (Uchida, S. Interia to Nihonjin, 2000, Shobunsha)

Among spaces called Genkan, a dirt floor (Japanese: 土間 Doma) also has been very popular with Japanese traditional houses for a long time. Although nowadays it is only used as a comparatively large entrance hall, people in the past used to take off their shoes, cook meals and mend fishing tackle or farming tools. Hiroshi Minami says, "Doma was formerly a border zone to remove stains, wash their feet and to meet guests for a short moment. It is understandable that it was necessary because of heavy rainfall and tatami-floored rooms." (Minami, H. Nihonjin no Seikatsubunka Jiten, 1983, Keisoshobo)

In addition to the above, during the Nara period, natural hedges (Japanese: 生け垣 Ikegaki) were purposefully planted to create a physical boundary to private land. Also, thresholds (Japanese: 敷居 Shikii) of Shoin-zukuri in the late Muromachi period and Agarikamachi (上がり框), a piece of wood at front edge of Genkan, were all used to create boundary lines in traditional Japanese architecture.

Modern Japanese homes have incorporated a lot of the features and design ideas present in historical architecture. The idea of a Genkan, the raised step, along with a partitioned section of concrete all have roots that go back hundreds if not thousands of years, and while modern cramped 5m/sq apartments don't have the same grandeur as the mansions and estates of feudal Japan, the idea of separation and boundaries remains in its design.

References

Uchida, S. 2000, Interia to Nihonjin (Japanese) [Interiors and Japanese People], Shobunsha, Tokyo, Japan

Minami, H. 1983, Nihonjin no Seikatsubunka Jiten (Japanese) [Encyclopedia of Japanese Lifestyles], Keisoshobo, Tokyo, Japan