Tatami mats have won us over for many and varied reasons. Among the most practical and functional of these is their excellent thermal insulation. Anyone who has them at home will know the pleasure of walking barefoot and lying on them in spring and summer, feeling the wicker directly against their skin. It’s much cooler, more pleasant and more natural than taking a nap whilst sweating on the fabric or leather upholstery of the sofa…
During the winter months, keeping our homes warm and cosy often takes time and money, so covering the floors with rugs and tatami mats is an ideal way to insulate against the cold and retain heat. That’s right, combining rugs and tatami mats to cover a reading room, a living room or a bedroom is a solution that works and looks really interesting. Whether ethnic, classic or sophisticated, the natural, simple beauty of tatami mats fits in perfectly.
Tatami mats and ethnic fabrics: a personal touch
Tatami and contemporary interior design
The washitsu It is a traditional Japanese-style room, that is to say, a room with a tatami-mat floor and sliding doors shoji and often a tokonoma, a sort of raised area, like a small platform on top of the tatami, featuring decorative objects, ikebana flower arrangements or decorative furniture for display. Although admiring the beauty of these spaces leaves us in awe, nowadays, in many Japanese homes, tatami coexists with flooring made of more modern materials and a more contemporary interior design. Following the rules of the washitsu Following it to the letter may prove impractical and, perhaps, even less interesting than adapting it to our own lives, our influences and our style.
Western interior design is by no means at odds with elements of the washitsu in its purest form. The boldness in the combinations of materials and elements brings personality, harmony and life to spaces. For example, the contrast between materials considered “colder” – such as glass or metal – and the natural, warm aesthetic and simple beauty of the mat’s surface and the lines of the tatami. There is nothing quite as interesting and original as daring to incorporate traditional elements of Japanese interior design and seeing how they coexist and are redefined alongside our Western décor and furniture.
The tatami: a piece of Japanese history
The history of the tatami is a long one and has run parallel to Japan’s social, political and economic development for some 1,200 or 1,300 years – which is no small matter.
Broadly speaking, its etymological origin is usually traced back to the verb “tatamu”, which roughly translates as “to stack and fold”. This concept may refer to the fact that, originally, the tatami was a less rigid mat that could be folded and rolled up.
In the distant Heian period, the last of Japan’s classical era (795–1185), tatami were an almost exclusive luxury upon which the privileged and the imperial court would rest and sit. They did not yet cover entire rooms, but rather covered them only partially. During the periods that followed, the use and presence of tatami evolved. Their layout changed and they took on great symbolic significance in Japanese interior design, such as their essential role in the Tea Ceremony, or the status conferred upon their owner by the fabric used for the edging. However, it was not until the Edo period (1603–1868) that they gained greater prominence, and by the middle of that period their use had become widespread amongst the general population, although in some rural areas this did not happen until the Meiji period (1868–1912). It seems that by that time it was already one of the most prized possessions in households, whose rooms were measured (and are sometimes still measured today) in tatami mats. Furthermore, the manufacture of tatami and the cultivation of the materials used in their production were organised into guilds and trade unions of great social significance, which highlights the importance of the tatami as a piece of Japanese history.
