What are the characteristics of Japanese tatami mats?

Tatami mats have a history of 1,300 years and are the most suitable for Japanese climate. Tatami mats are somewhat like Chinese mats, except that they are made of a single piece of grass, each surrounded by lace, and are permanent throughout the year. Because it is woven with fresh hay, so strong, breathable and elastic, barefoot on it, feel very comfortable, the good smell of the fragrance, diffuse in the room, not scattered over the years. Tatami mats can be used for a variety of purposes. Because of the softness of tatami mats, young children and the elderly can fall on them without any problem, and it is comfortable to sleep on them for a short period of time, to put a short table on them and use them as a living room, and to put a quilt cover on them and use them as a sleeping room.

Tatami mats are not only made of woven straw, but are also traditionally bound with straw (in recent years, Styrofoam has also been used). Tatami mats are standardized in shape and size, and are piped with brocade or black fabric. In the days when most Japanese people lived in houses with land inside, tatami mats were a luxury item enjoyed by the wealthy. There were different ways of laying the floor, the number of tatami mats, and the arrangement of tatami mats. It is said that if they are placed in a way that is not feng shui, they may bring disaster. Tatami mats must not be arranged in a lattice shape, and no matter how they are arranged, the corners of three or four tatami mats should never be clustered together.

In Japan, the size of a typical room is measured in terms of the number of tatami mats (畳, じょう). Traditionally, storefronts are designed as "five and a half tatami" (8.91 square meters), and tea rooms are often four and a half tatami (7.29 square meters). Because of the taboos mentioned above, it is also common for wabi-sabi to be at least four and a half square meters in size, or else the four corners of the room will be clustered together.

The traditional dimensions of a tatami mat are 90 centimeters wide by 180 centimeters long by 5 centimeters thick, with an area of 1.62 square meters. There are also half-tatami mats that measure 90 centimeters by 90 centimeters. Because the size of a tatami mat is fixed, room dimensions in traditional Japanese architecture are integer multiples of 90 centimeters. It is worth noting that tatami mats in Kyoto and the Kansai region are slightly larger than those in Tokyo and the Kanto region, where tatami mats measure 85 centimeters by 180 centimeters and cover 1.53 square meters.

Tatami mats are closely associated with Japanese Shinto religious rituals and the tea ceremony. Modern Japanese families still have at least one room with tatami-mat flooring in their houses.