Bedroom - Shinshitsu

A room in a house for sleeping. In shinden-zukuri houses of the Heian period it was called a nurigome or yon-otodo, in medieval shuden-zukuri houses it was called a nandō or sleeping place, in hojō houses of the Zen sect it was called minzō, in early modern shoin-zukuri houses it was called gonema or gokyusoku, in farmhouses it was called a nandō, and since the Meiji period it has been called nema, shinjuku or bunkōdō, but when a private room, such as a child's room, is used for studying, playing, and also as a place to sleep, it is usually not called a bedroom.

Looking at the history of bedrooms in Japanese homes, pit dwellings were the sleeping places in prehistoric times. In the early Jomon period, the primary function of pit dwellings is thought to have been for sleeping. Even though they are the same pit dwellings, some that were discovered from the Yayoi period onwards were equipped with hearths, in which cooking and meals were done, and they were not just for sleeping. Very few of the haniwa houses excavated from burial mounds have been built in such a way that their functions can be seen, so it is difficult to guess how they were used, but one haniwa house excavated from the Misono Ruins (Shiga Prefecture) has a bed-like platform on one side of the second floor, and it is presumed that this was used as a place to sleep.

The state of the bedroom as used for ceremonies and other occasions is conveyed in the Yukiden and Sukiden halls, which are temporarily set up as the center of the ceremonial hall for the Daijoe ceremony, which is held in the first autumn after the Emperor's accession to the throne.The room is surrounded by a grass wall at the back of the plan consisting of a hall and a room, and can only be entered through a door between the hall and the room.In this closed room, which can only be entered through a door between the hall and the room, tatami mats are stacked on top of each other to serve as a bed for the god, with a pillow on top of that and sandals at the feet.

In the Heian period, in the shinden-zukuri style of houses, the areas called night palaces or nurigomes in the main palaces, the shinden and tainoya, were bedrooms, as the name suggests. In the shinden and tainoya, the nurigomes were built at one end of the main building, which was the center of the building. The main building usually had two beam-to-column spaces and five or seven bays, so the nurigomes were almost square rooms with two beam-to-column spaces and two bays in the bay. The room's name and the floor plan in the records show that it was surrounded by walls on all four sides and had only one door. Inside the nurigomes was a sleeping facility called a chodai. In the latter half of the Heian period, as the place of living shifted to the north eaves and north magno eaves, the nurigomes also moved to the north eaves, and in the Middle Ages, the nurigomes of the main building disappeared. It is also confirmed that the nurigomes were bedrooms from descriptions in narrative literature.

Medieval shuden-zukuri houses were not necessarily surrounded by walls like shinden-zukuri houses, but the storerooms used as bedrooms show a stronger sense of closure than other rooms. The storeroom depicted in the Muromachi period picture scroll "Bokie Kotoba" has sturdy walls made of many small pillars with thick boards attached horizontally to the outside, and a secret entrance with a sturdy sliding door of the same structure as the wall. Other medieval picture scrolls also depict bedrooms, and although they are not as formidable as the example in "Bokie Kotoba," they do have the distinctive features of a slightly raised entrance threshold, a lower-than-usual lintel, and a small sliding door. Remains of a bedroom with this type of structure can be found in the guest hall of Kanchi-in, a sub-temple of Toji Temple.

In the early modern period, the medieval storeroom style changed into a chodai-gamae (a structure with a porch) for facing rooms, and continued to exist. However, the chodai-gamae only retained a vestige of a medieval bedroom, and the inside was a waiting room for facing rooms, as seen in the chodai-gamae of the great hall of Nijo Castle, and was not a bedroom. In the guest hall of Kangakuin, a sub-temple of Onjo-ji Temple, which was built around the same time as the Kanchiin guest hall, a bedroom was set up next to the living room, but it was surrounded by sliding doors like the other rooms. The rings and nails for hanging a mosquito net were attached to the pillars, indicating that it was a bedroom. However, in the Kangakuin guest hall, the bedroom is in the center of the building and is surrounded by other rooms, so it feels more closed off than the other rooms. In contrast, the bedroom in the Ozama (Shiroshoin) of Nijo Castle is the main room, the upper room, and is not closed off. A similar trend can be seen in the Nakashoin study of Katsura Imperial Villa, where a loop for a mosquito net is installed in the next room.

On the other hand, in private homes, even in the early modern period, bedrooms were closed storerooms surrounded by walls, and this situation continued into the Meiji period.

Even today, it is common for people to sleep on futons laid on tatami mats in Japanese homes. A bedroom is provided for the couple, but for children, the children's room is usually used as a bedroom in addition to studying and playing.

In modern times, Western influence led to a shift to Western styles, beds came into use for sleeping, and rooms tended to have wooden floors, but this trend only intensified after Japan's defeat in the war. When beds are used, bedrooms or children's rooms tend to be larger than in the Japanese style, since they cannot be put away when not in use like futons.

It was probably around the 18th century that bedrooms began to be clearly separated as sleeping quarters in European homes. Paintings show that private rooms prior to that time not only contained a bed, but also a tub for bathing, and it was common for people to dine together in the same room, suggesting that all the various aspects of a person's daily life were shared in one room.

[Hirai Sei]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

住宅において睡眠をとるための部屋。平安時代の寝殿造の住宅では塗籠(ぬりごめ)あるいは夜御殿(よんのおとど)、中世の主殿造では納戸(なんど)あるいは寝所、禅宗方丈(ほうじょう)では眠蔵(みんぞう)、近世の書院造では御寝間あるいは御休息、農家では納戸、そして明治以後は寝間(ねま)・寝室・ベッドルームなどの呼び名があるが、子供室のように個人の居室が勉強・遊びなどに使われるとともに寝る場所ともなる場合には、とくに寝室とはよばないのが普通である。

　日本の住宅の寝室を歴史的にみると、先史時代に寝る場所となったのは竪穴(たてあな)住居である。縄文時代の早い時期には、竪穴住居の機能の第一が寝ることにあったと考えられる。同じ竪穴住居でも、弥生(やよい)時代以降のものには竈(かま)を備えるものも発見されていて、炊事・食事などがその中で行われ、寝るためだけのものではなかった。古墳から出土した埴輪(はにわ)屋では、中の機能がわかる程度につくられたものがほとんどないので、使い方まで推測することは困難であるが、美園遺跡（滋賀県）出土の埴輪屋の2階の片側にベッド状の台があり、その部分が寝るための場所であったと推定される。

　儀式等の形式として寝室の状態を伝えているのは、天皇が即位して最初の秋に行われる大嘗会(だいじょうえ)に仮設される式場の中心になる悠基殿(ゆきでん)・主基殿(すきでん)で、堂と室からなる平面のうち奥の草壁で囲まれ、堂との間に設けられた扉からしか入ることのできない閉鎖的な室には、神の寝床として畳が重ねられ、その上に枕(まくら)が、足元には沓(くつ)がそろえられている。

　平安時代の寝殿造の住宅では、主要な御殿である寝殿や対屋(たいのや)にあった夜御殿あるいは塗籠とよばれる部分が、その名が示すように寝室であった。寝殿や対屋では、中心となる母屋(もや)の一端に塗籠がつくられ、母屋は通常梁間柱間(はりまはしらま)二つ、桁行(けたゆき)五あるいは七つの規模であるところから、塗籠は梁間柱間二つ、桁行も柱間二つのほぼ正方形の部屋であった。この部屋は名称あるいは記録のなかに描かれている平面図からみても、壁で四方が囲まれていて1か所にだけ扉があった。この塗籠の中には、寝るための施設である調台が置かれていた。平安時代の後半には生活の場が北庇(きたびさし)や北孫庇に移っていくために塗籠も北庇に移り、中世になると母屋の塗籠が消えていく。塗籠は、物語文学にみられる描写からも、寝室であったことが確かめられる。

　中世の主殿造の住宅では、寝殿造の塗籠ほどに周囲が壁で囲まれていたとは限らないが、寝室である納戸は他の部屋より強い閉鎖性を示している。室町時代の絵巻物である『慕帰絵詞(ぼきえことば)』に描かれた納戸は、小柱をたくさん並べその外側に厚い板を横に貼(は)った頑丈な壁をつくり、1か所に壁と同じ構造の頑丈な引き戸を備えた潜(くぐ)り口を設けている。ほかにも中世の絵巻には寝室のようすを描いているものがあり、『慕帰絵詞』の例ほど厳重ではないが、入口の敷居をわずかにあげ、鴨居(かもい)を通常より低めにして、小さな引き戸を用いるという特徴を備えるようになる。このような構造の寝室の遺構は、東寺(とうじ)の子院である観智院(かんちいん)の客殿にある。

　近世に入ると、中世の納戸の形式は対面の場の帳台構(ちょうだいがまえ)に変化して存続する。しかし、帳台構は中世の寝室の名残(なごり)をとどめているだけで、その中は二条城の大広間などの帳台構にみられるように対面の場合の控え室で、寝室ではなかった。先の観智院客殿と同じころ建った園城寺(おんじょうじ)の子院勧学院の客殿では、居間の隣に寝室を設けているが、周囲は他の部屋と同様に襖(ふすま)である。蚊帳(かや)を吊(つ)るための環(かん)や釘(くぎ)が柱につけられていて、寝室であることがわかる。しかし、勧学院客殿では寝室は建物の中心部にあって周りが部屋で囲まれているので、他の部屋に比べると閉鎖的な感じを受ける。これに対して二条城の御座間（白書院）の寝室は主室である上段の間で、閉鎖的ではない。同様の傾向は桂(かつら)離宮の中書院でもみられ、ここでは次の間に蚊帳のための環がつけられている。

　一方民家では、近世になっても寝室は壁で囲まれた閉鎖的な納戸で、その状態が明治に入っても続いていた。

　現在においても、日本の住宅では畳の上にふとんを敷いて寝るのが普通である。夫婦のためには寝室が用意されるが、子供の場合には子供部屋が勉強や遊びなどの日常生活が行われるなかで寝室としても使われるのが普通である。

　近代になって欧米の影響によって洋風化が進み、寝るのにベッドが用いられるようになり、部屋も板敷きになる傾向が認められるが、この傾向が強くなるのは敗戦後のことである。ベッドを使う場合には、ふとんのように使わないときにしまうことができないので、寝室あるいは子供部屋が和式の場合に比べて広くなる。

　ヨーロッパの住宅で寝室としてのベッドルームが明確に独立してとられるようになるのは18世紀ごろのことであろう。それ以前の個人の居室のようすは、絵画によれば、ベッドが置かれるだけでなく、湯に入る桶(おけ)があり、さらに同じ部屋の中で会食する光景がしばしばみられ、さまざまな個人の生活のすべてが一つの部屋を共用していたと考えられる。

［平井　聖］

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