futon

{{see also|Tanmono}}

Before recycled cotton cloth was widely available in Japan, commoners used {{transliteration|ja|kami busuma}}, stitched crinkled paper stuffed with fibers from beaten dry straw, cattails, or silk waste, on {{transliteration|ja|mushiro}} straw floor mats. Later, futons were made with patchwork recycled cotton, quilted together and filled with bast fiber.{{cite conference |last1=Wada |first1=Yoshiko |title=Boro no Bi : Beauty in Humility—Repaired Cotton Rags of Old Japan |journal=Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings |date=2004-01-01 |url=https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/458/}} Later they were filled with cotton. Wool and synthetics are now also used.

{{transliteration|ja|Yogi}} (よぎ, literally "nightclothes") are kimono-shaped bedclothes. They were used in the 1800s and early 1900s. Rectangular {{transliteration|ja|kakebuton}}s are now widely used. {{transliteration|ja|Kakebuton}}s vary in materials; some are warmer than others. Those with traditional cotton filling feel heavier than those with feather or synthetic fillings.

Traditional {{transliteration|ja|makura}} (まくら) are generally firmer than western pillows. They may be filled with beans, buckwheat chaff, bran,:File:THE FAMILY IN BED. (1910) - illustration - page 137.png or, modernly, plastic beads, all of which mold to the head. Historically, some women used wooden headrests to protect their hairstyles.

File:Sleeping two, Kasuga Gongen Genki (1309).jpg|Sleeping on tatami, with no futon, and clothes used as coverings. Early 14th century

File:Child's Sleeping Mat (boro Shikimono), late 19th century (CH 1108827543).jpg|Child's {{transliteration|ja|shikibuton}}, late 1800s. {{transliteration|ja|Boroboro}} (patchwork) held together with over-all quilting stitching; see {{transliteration|ja|sashiko}}.

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 {{transliteration|ja|yogi}}, 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

Futons are traditionally laid on tatami rush mats, which are resilient and can absorb and re-release up to half a liter of moisture each.{{cite web |title=Traditional Japanese Houses |url=https://www.nippon.com/en/features/jg00082/ |website=nippon.com |access-date=23 January 2022 |language=en |date=23 July 2016}} Tatamis measure 1 by 0.5 ken, just under 1 by 2 meters,See Tatami#Size for details the same size as a Western twin bed. A traditional {{transliteration|ja|shikibuton}} is also about the size of a Western twin bed. {{as of|2010}}, double-bed-sized {{transliteration|ja|shikibuton}}s were available, but they can be a bit heavy and awkward to stow.{{cite web |last1=Hones |first1=Jenny Nakao |title=The Pros and Cons of the Japanese Futon – Asian Lifestyle Design |url=https://asianlifestyledesign.com/2010/08/the-pros-and-cons-of-the-japanese-futon/ |website=Asian Lifestyle Design |date=17 April 2009 |access-date=23 January 2022}}

The {{transliteration|ja|shikibuton}} is usually {{convert|2-3|in|cm||sigfig=1}} thick,{{cite web |title= Shikibutons Explained: Health Benefits, How to Choose, and Everything You Need to Know |url=https://comfortpure.com/blogs/lc/shikibutons-explained-health-benefits-how-to-choose-and-everything-you-need-to-know |date=12 November 2023 |access-date=18 December 2024 }} and rarely as much as {{convert|6|in|cm}} thick; they need to dry well, or they will become heavy and mouldy. A {{transliteration|ja|shikibuton}} is thus about as thick as a Western mattress topper.{{cite web |title=Mattress Topper Types - Materials, Thickness, Density |url=https://www.mattressnut.com/mattress-topper-types/ |website=Mattress Nut |access-date=23 January 2022 |date=9 January 2021}} If more thickness is needed, {{transliteration|ja|shikibuton}}s are layered.

{{transliteration|ja|Kakebuton}}s may be wider than {{transliteration|ja|shikibuton}}s,{{cite web |title=FAQs – Futons From Japan |date=29 November 2019 |url=https://futonsfromjapan.co.uk/faqs/}} and they vary in thickness. Depending on the weather, they may be layered with a warm {{Nihongo||毛布|mōfu}}, or replaced with a lighter {{Nihongo||タオルケット|taoruketto}}.{{cite web |title=Futons- Overview and Brief History of styles |url=https://www.weknowfutons.com/futons/futons-history/ |access-date=23 January 2022 |archive-date=5 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230305072306/https://www.weknowfutons.com/futons/futons-history/ |url-status=dead }}

The traditional {{transliteration|ja|makura}} is usually smaller than a western pillow.

File:布団干し_(528985156).jpg|Futons hung out to air on a balcony

File:Futons ranges.jpg|Futons stored in an {{transliteration|ja|oshiire}}, in a tatami-floored {{transliteration|ja|washitsu}} (traditional Japanese room)

File:Tatami sectional view.jpg|Cross-section of a tatami mat with a hidden extruded-polystyrene core and layers of the traditional {{transliteration|ja|igusa}} (common rush) top and bottom

File:Japanese_Pipe_Pillow.jpg|Pillow filled with tiny sections of plastic tubing

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Image:Futon-america.jpg|Western-style futon, folded into a sofa on a sofabed-futon frame

File:A futon shop in Strasbourg, France.jpg|A shop in France selling westernized futons with frames

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In the mid-1970s, futons became fashionable in North America. 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). 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.{{cite journal |last1=Dean |first1=Virgil W. |last2=Powers |first2=Ramon |title="In No Way a Relief Set Up": The County Cotton Mattress Program in Kansas, 1940–1941 |date=2014 |url=https://www.kshs.org/publicat/history/2014winter_dean.pdf}}{{cite news |title=Make a Mattress With Free Cotton |url=https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=WAF19401228.2.24&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN---------- |access-date= |work=Wallace's Farmer |publisher=Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections |date=28 December 1940}}

However, Western-style futons, which typically resemble low, wooden sofa beds, differ considerably from their Japanese counterparts.{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of modern everyday inventions|last1=Cole|first1=David John|last2=Browning|first2=Eve|last3=Schroeder|first3=Fred E. H.|date=2002|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=0313313458|location=Westport, Conn.|oclc=49627783}} 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,{{cite news |last1=Littman |first1=Karel Joyce |title=FUTON MATTRESSES: WHAT AND WHERE |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/27/garden/futon-mattresses-what-and-where.html |access-date=31 January 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=27 September 1984}} which avoids having to move them to air regularly, especially in the dry indoor air of a centrally-heated houseSee Airing (air circulation) (most Japanese homes were not traditionally centrally-heated{{Cite book|title=Place, time, and being in Japanese architecture|last=Nute|first=Kevin|date=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0419240101|location=London|oclc=53006895}}).

{{see also|Bed base}}

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.Dictionnaire de l'ameublement et de la décoration depuis le XIIIe siècle jusqu'à nos jours, Havard, Henry, 1838-1921{{rp|674–5 vol1}}

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".{{cite web |title=Featherbeds, duvets, eiderdowns, feather ticks - history |url=http://www.oldandinteresting.com/history-feather-beds.aspx |website=www.oldandinteresting.com |date=2006}}

File: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.

File: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.

File:Edmund Dulac - Princess and pea.jpg|The fairytale "The Princess and the Pea" exaggerates the traditional European layering of thin mattresses.

File: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

File:Dubrovnik, varios 23.jpg|Airing a feather duvet in Dubrovnik, 2010

• Bed base, for a comparison with similar beds
• {{transliteration|ja|Boroboroton}}, a spirit-possessed boroboro {{transliteration|ja|futon}}
• Daybed (bed used for other purposes during the day)
• Futon dryer, for airing futons when they can not be placed outside
• Housing in Japan, for cultural context
• {{transliteration|ja|Ken}} (unit on which houses are traditionally built)
• Mattress topper (a type of thin Western mattress, similar to a futon)
• Tick mattress, futon-like European bedding
• {{transliteration|ja|Washitsu}} (the type of rooms in which futons are frequently used)
• {{transliteration|ja|Zabuton}} (sitting futon, a smaller cushion)

{{Commons category|Futons}}

{{Reflist|

{{cite book |last1=Inouye |first1=Jukichi |title=Home Life in Tokyo |orig-date=digitized July 2021|date=1910 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65870 |language=English|chapter=11|quote=In Japanese houses there are, as has been already stated, no rooms exclusively set apart for sleeping. The beds can be laid anywhere on the mats. The bed consists of one or two thickly-wadded mattresses of cotton or silk, usually three feet wide by about six feet long, that is, nearly the size of a mat. These are laid on the mats and over them a large, thickly-wadded cover of the shape of a winter kimono with open sleeves and a quilt, also heavily wadded, of about the same length as the bed but wider. They are both of silk or cotton, figured or striped, with linings of a dark-blue colour. They both have a black velvet band where the sleeper's face touches them. The two are used in winter; but in spring and autumn only one, usually the kimono-like cover, is thrown over the sleeper. In midsummer, even that is too hot, and is replaced by an ordinary lined kimono or a thinly-wadded quilt. The pillow for men is a long round bolster filled with bran; but women, whose coiffure would be deranged by such a pillow, lay their heads on a small bran bolster, two inches or so in diameter, which is wrapped in paper and tied on the top of a wooden support. It is very uncomfortable at first, though most women are used to it. As the bolster soon gets hard, the skin about the ear often becomes red and rough if one sleeps all night on the same side. Though the beds may be spread anywhere, their places are always fixed for the members of the family. The master and mistress sleep in the parlour or some other large room with the youngest children, the mother with the baby in her bed and the father sometimes with the next youngest in his. The rest of the children sleep either in the same room or in another and with some other member of the family, unless they are quite grown up. The sitting-room is usually left unoccupied. The servants sleep in a room next to the kitchen and the house-boy in the porch. It is important to group the sleepers as much as possible; for in summer when mosquitoes are out, nets are hung over the beds by strings attached to the four corners of the room, and to economise these nets the beds are brought together wherever practicable.}}

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{{Bedding}}

{{Japanese architectural elements}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Beds

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Category:Japanese home

Category:Folk art

Category:Mattresses

Category:Portable furniture