entryway Japanese houses have a distinctly delineated area at ground level near the front door. You wear shoes into the tiled or stone-floored entryway but must change out of them before stepping up to the wooden floor.
hakama In traditional Japanese dress, full-skirted trousers worn over a kimono.
haori A traditional open-front jacket worn over a kimono, often paired with hakama on formal occasions.
kotatsu A low wooden table frame set up in a tatami-matted room and covered by a quilt, upon which a table top rests. Underneath is a heat source, formerly a charcoal brazier but now electric, often built into the table itself. The kotatsu evokes nostalgic memories of the family huddled around it in winter, chatting and sharing hot tea and cold mandarin oranges.
obi A sash worn over a kimono. A somewhat simpler style first popularized in the city of Nagoya around 1918 is known as a Nagoya obi.
shoji (or shōji). A sliding door or window covering made of translucent paper stretched over a wooden grid lattice.
tanzen A winter kimono made with heavy cotton padding.
tatami Except for utilitarian spaces, the floors of most rooms in Japanese homes are covered in densely woven straw mats called ‘tatami’, each mat measuring 1.8 × 0.9 metres (6 × 3 feet) and about 6.3cm (2½in) thick. Room size is designated by the number of mats on the floor. A six-mat room is about 3.6 metres (12 feet) square, for instance, and a more comfortable eight-mat room is about 4.5 × 3.6 metres (15 × 12 feet).
tokonoma In a formal Japanese tatami-matted room, a tokonoma is a decorative alcove or recessed area edged by a pillar, in which a hanging scroll or other artwork is displayed. An honoured guest is always seated before (and facing away from) the tokonoma. A ceremonial space in which memorial tablets, samurai swords or other items of spiritual import are sometimes placed, the area is raised several inches above floor level and can be defiled by anyone thoughtless enough to sit on the raised edge, as old Higgins does in American Hijiki.
yukata A light, unlined cotton kimono, often worn after a bath.