Futon

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Japanese-style Template:Transliterations laid out for sleeping in a ryokan (inn). In green, three Template:Transliterations per bed; in red, turned-back Template:Transliterations. The top two futons in each stack are covered in white fitted sheets, matching the pillowslips.

A Template:Nihongo is a traditional Japanese style of bedding.

A complete futon set consists of a Template:Nihongo and a Template:Nihongo.<ref name="loanwords">Template:Cite book</ref> Both elements of a futon bedding set are pliable enough to be folded and stored away in a large Template:Nihongo during the day. This allows a room to serve as a bedroom at night, but serve other purposes during the day.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Traditionally, futons are used on tatami, a type of mat used as a flooring material. It also provides a softer base than wooden or stone floors. Futons must be aired regularly to prevent mold from developing, and to keep the futon free of mites. Throughout Japan, futons can commonly be seen hanging over balconies, airing in the sun.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Futon dryers may be used by those unable to hang out their futon.

History and materialsEdit

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Before recycled cotton cloth was widely available in Japan, commoners used Template:Transliteration, stitched crinkled paper stuffed with fibers from beaten dry straw, cattails, or silk waste, on Template:Transliteration straw floor mats. Later, futons were made with patchwork recycled cotton, quilted together and filled with bast fiber.<ref name=boronobi>Template:Cite conference</ref> Later they were filled with cotton. Wool and synthetics are now also used.<ref name="ALD"/>

Template:Transliteration (よぎ, literally "nightclothes") are kimono-shaped bedclothes. They were used in the 1800s and early 1900s.<ref name="Inouye"/> Rectangular Template:Transliterations are now widely used. Template:Transliterations vary in materials; some are warmer than others. Those with traditional cotton filling feel heavier than those with feather or synthetic fillings.<ref name="ALD"/>

Traditional Template:Transliteration (まくら) are generally firmer than western pillows.<ref name="ALD"/> They may be filled with beans, buckwheat chaff,<ref name="ALD"/><ref name="OBH"/> bran,<ref>File:THE FAMILY IN BED. (1910) - illustration - page 137.png</ref> or, modernly, plastic beads,<ref name="ALD"/><ref name="OBH"/> all of which mold to the head. Historically, some women used wooden headrests to protect their hairstyles.<ref name="Inouye"/>

Sleeping two, Kasuga Gongen Genki (1309).jpg

Sleeping on tatami, with no futon, and clothes used as coverings. Early 14th century
Child's Sleeping Mat (boro Shikimono), late 19th century (CH 1108827543).jpg

Child's Template:Transliteration, late 1800s. Template:Transliteration (patchwork) held together with over-all quilting stitching; see Template:Transliteration.
白綸子地牡丹縞模様夜着-Kimono-shaped Comforter (Yogi) with Peonies and Stripes MET DP317744.jpg

A warm winter Template:Transliteration, front
白綸子地牡丹縞模様夜着-Kimono-shaped Comforter (Yogi) with Peonies and Stripes MET DP317746.jpg

Back. Early 20th century.
THE FAMILY IN BED. (1910) - illustration - page 137.png

Typical Tokyo family sleeping arrangements of 1910

DimensionsEdit

Futons are traditionally laid on tatami rush mats,<ref name="OBH"/> which are resilient and can absorb and re-release up to half a liter of moisture each.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Tatamis measure 1 by 0.5 ken, just under 1 by 2 meters,<ref>See Tatami#Size for details</ref> the same size as a Western twin bed. A traditional Template:Transliteration is also about the size of a Western twin bed. Template:As of, double-bed-sized Template:Transliterations were available, but they can be a bit heavy and awkward to stow.<ref name="ALD">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Template:Transliteration is usually Template:Convert thick,<ref name="SEH">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and rarely as much as Template:Convert thick; they need to dry well, or they will become heavy and mouldy.<ref name="ALD"/> A Template:Transliteration is thus about as thick as a Western mattress topper.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> If more thickness is needed, Template:Transliterations are layered.<ref name="ALD"/>

Template:Transliterations may be wider than Template:Transliterations,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and they vary in thickness. Depending on the weather, they may be layered with a warm Template:Nihongo, or replaced with a lighter Template:Nihongo.<ref name="OBH">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The traditional Template:Transliteration is usually smaller than a western pillow.<ref name="ALD"/>

布団干し (528985156).jpg

Futons hung out to air on a balcony
Futons ranges.jpg

Futons stored in an Template:Transliteration, in a tatami-floored Template:Transliteration (traditional Japanese room)
Tatami sectional view.jpg

Cross-section of a tatami mat with a hidden extruded-polystyrene core and layers of the traditional Template:Transliteration (common rush) top and bottom
Japanese Pipe Pillow.jpg

Pillow filled with tiny sections of plastic tubing

Western-style futonsEdit

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In the mid-1970s, futons became fashionable in North America.<ref name="NYT" /> The construction method was similar to that of contemporary Japanese futons: cotton batting, covered in cotton ticking and held in place with hand-sewn tufting (through-thickness stitches).<ref name="NYT" /> This was also the structure that had been used in the United States' 1940-1941 Cotton Mattress Program, designed to use excess cotton production by subsidizing materials for people to make their own cotton mattresses.<ref name="relief">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="wallace">Template:Cite news</ref>

However, Western-style futons, which typically resemble low, wooden sofa beds, differ considerably from their Japanese counterparts.<ref name="loanwords" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They often have the dimensions of standard western mattresses, and are too thick to fold double and stow easily in a cupboard. They are often set up and stored on a slatted frame,<ref name=NYT>Template:Cite news</ref> which avoids having to move them to air regularly, especially in the dry indoor air of a centrally-heated house<ref>See Airing (air circulation)</ref> (most Japanese homes were not traditionally centrally-heated<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>).

Futon-like traditional European bedsEdit

Template:See also Traditional European beds resembled Japanese-style futon sets, with thin tick mattresses. These were only sometimes set on a bedframe. The term "bed" did not originally include the bedframe, but only the bedding, the same components included in a Japanese futon set.<ref name=Havard>Dictionnaire de l'ameublement et de la décoration depuis le XIIIe siècle jusqu'à nos jours, Havard, Henry, 1838-1921</ref>Template:Rp

It was also traditional to air these beds, and duvets are still aired in the window in Europe. In English-speaking cultures, however, airing bedding outdoors came to be seen as a foreign practice, with 19th-century housekeeping manuals giving methods of airing beds inside, and disparaging airing them in the window as "German-style".<ref name="featherbeds">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Mattress topper atop a boxspring mattress.webp

A mattress topper (white) on a boxspring mattress (grey). Mattress toppers are generally structurally similar to futons, are often made of similar materials, and (in the case of twin-bed toppers) have similar dimensions. Note the tufting.
Wikimania 2014 - Victoria and Albert Museum - The Great Bed of Ware221398.jpg

Museum samples demonstrating a 1590s bed: the bedcords, bedmat, three tick mattresses in dun and striped ticking, and the bedlinen.
Edmund Dulac - Princess and pea.jpg

The fairytale "The Princess and the Pea" exaggerates the traditional European layering of thin mattresses.
Medical Department - Sanitary Service - Sanitation - Beds airing, Camp Funston, Kansas - NARA - 45499067 (cropped to image).jpg

"Beds airing, Camp Funston, Kansas", in 1917 or 1918
Dubrovnik, varios 23.jpg

Airing a feather duvet in Dubrovnik, 2010

ReferencesEdit

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