A Look at Japanese Homes in Anime Series

When you are watching anime, you may find yourself lulled by the many different points of similarity between Japanese lifestyles and Western lifestyles, but then you may be suddenly surprised by something that just doesn’t match. Traditional Japanese homes play a large part in some anime and if you have ever been confused about what you are seeing, don’t worry, you are not alone! Take a look at some aspects of the Japanese home that might appear from time to time in the anime that you enjoy.

When you are looking at a traditional Japanese home, you may realize that some parts of the home are divided through the use of sliding paper screens. These room dividers, known as shoji, are made of sheets of washi paper over wooden screens and they are designed to slide open or to fold back. One great example of shoji seen in anime can be found in Fruits Basket. Kyo and Yuki’s fights often lead to the screens in Shigure’s house being torn up or abused and the main character, Tohru, occasionally finds herself needing to patch them.

If you are watching an anime that is taking place during the winter months, you may also notice the family members using a low wooden table that seems to have blanket coming from the edges to meet the floor. This is a kotatsu, a low table that has space for a blanket to be threaded underneath the table’s surface. With a heater underneath to provide warmth and the table area to work on, kotatsu units are quite popular and cozy places to study, read or just hang out. Konata from Lucky Star and her father often make use of a kotatsu to keep warm during the winter.

Another aspect of a traditional anime home that you might see is the presence of a shrine or shrine to specific deceased person. Shinto is one of the dominant religions in Japan, and the shrines are one indication of this tradition. For instance, in the very early Dragonball anime, you will be meet a young Goku who has a shrine to his deceased grandfather in his home, though where a normal picture of the deceased would be, Goku has substituted a dragonball. The death of Tohru’s mother influences her a great deal, and though she has no formal shrine, she carries a picture of her mother and treats it in much the same way. In a flashback, it is revealed that she and her mother kept up a family shrine for Tohru’s deceased father as well, though her mother inadvertently destroyed it in an overly-exuberant game of watermelon smashing.

The traditional Japanese home plays an important background part in many anime. Keep an eye out for some aspects of the traditional Japanese home that appear in the anime that you watch; you’ll find that it might tell you a lot about the family that lives or plays there.