What is Tatami / JAPAN in Short

Many times you will have seen in Japanese architecture, especially in traditional Japanese rooms that it has a different type of floor, which is like a bit of woven straw and that in this room you don’t wear shoes. This type of flooring is tatami and it is almost as old as the written history of Japan.

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The use of tatami began to be considered a type of status of wealth , of nobility . At that time, people were improving in their lives, as they had more money, more wealth, they sought to have more rooms with tatami, to the point at which it became a type of competition to see who could fill more tatami rooms in their own house.

The tatami is practically made of three parts: it has a hard core that was originally made of fibers, that is, of very compressive rice straw, but which was changed to different materials since there were areas where it did not feel comfortable. Sunlight turning it into a type of nest of different bugs and humidity. This changed from the simplest that would be compress wood, currently even types of plastic or Styrofoam or more resistant and antibacterial materials. Then there is the covering around it, which is made of very thin rice fibers, and is woven with the help of cotton threads. The third part is practically an ornamental fabric that takes care that the edges are not mistreated and that it looks more pleasant.

The tatami in theory has a standard size , although traditionally in its history there are three sizes: the one that was common in Kyoto, in Nagoya and in Edo (present-day Tokyo). It is a standard of measurement, for example, in Japan when we refer to the size of a room we often refer to the size of a tatami and this could be confusing for some. To have a single standard dimension, the size of the Nagoya tatami is by convention. Although the tatami producers make them to the size that you request, for example, you can measure your room and they will manage to make each one of these of the proper dimensions so that it fits perfectly to the size of your room, this is what tatami are built to the size of the room, not the room to the size of the tatami .

Traditionally, tatami is made by hand, although there are still very few artisans who make tatami by hand because currently most of the tatami are made by machine, even made with different materials, supplanting the traditional rice straw tatami to make it antibacterial. more resistant or maintain its color and texture for longer. For example, the dojo or training place for martial arts such as judo or karate traditionally used tatami mats, however many have changed to ones made of more resistant materials for obvious reasons.

The tatami has a very particular smell when it is new, it is a fresh summer smell and the color is bright green, and as it ages it turns yellow and loses its aroma. In theory you have to change it every 5 to 10 years depending on its use.

The tatami as a traditional part of the Japanese house is a very nice experience if you don’t know it, in the summer it usually feels quite cool and in the winter it is usually relatively warm, although obviously it will never supplant an electric heated mat.