Thinking of the inhabited space. Domesticity, spirituality, and rite of the Japanese living space

Abstract

This article is part of the author’s research work on objecthood in Japanese domestic space during the period of Modernization and its significance in contemporary design. This is the most drastic period in the history of Japan, with particularly important consequences on the identity of the domestic space. With the phenomenon of industrialization and its uprooting from the cult to tradition as an implicit consequence of modernization, the new specialized domestic space acquires an entirely functional interpretation. However, there was a time when the house was full of meanings, whose origins lead to the sacred, to the powerful bond of ancient societies with natural forces, understanding the layout of artificially constructed reality as the reflection of cosmic order on human scale. The overlap between inhabited and sacred space in ancient times is directly transferred to domestic environment, not only in a symbolic, but also in a compositional sense. The basic spatial composition of Japanese space is formed by a central nucleus called moya—a descendant of a sacred area where deities were believed to reside—surrounded by a peripheral area called hisashi. This composition, derived from Shinto shrines and later adopted in Buddhist temples, is almost literally translated to domestic space, represented in the text by its three main types. The analyzed models are considered the best preserved until now for being complete examples of the architectural type they represent.