Futon

thumb|upright=1.7|Japanese-style s laid out for sleeping in a [[ryokan (inn). In green, three s per bed; in red, turned-back s. The top two futons in each stack are covered in white fitted sheets, matching the pillowslips.]]

A is a traditional Japanese style of bedding.

A complete futon set consists of a and a . Both elements of a futon bedding set are pliable enough to be folded and stored away in a large during the day. This allows a room to serve as a bedroom at night, but serve other purposes during the day.

Traditionally, futons are used on tatami, a type of mat used as a flooring material. It also provides a softer base than wooden or stone floors. Futons must be aired regularly to prevent mold from developing, and to keep the futon free of mites. Throughout Japan, futons can commonly be seen hanging over balconies, airing in the sun. Futon dryers may be used by those unable to hang out their futon.

History and materials

Before recycled cotton cloth was widely available in Japan, commoners used , stitched crinkled paper stuffed with fibers from beaten dry straw, cattails, or silk waste, on straw floor mats. Later, futons were made with patchwork recycled cotton, quilted together and filled with bast fiber. Later they were filled with cotton. Wool and synthetics are now also used. or, modernly, plastic beads, Tatamis measure 1 by 0.5 ken, just under 1 by 2 meters, the same size as a Western twin bed. A traditional is also about the size of a Western twin bed. , double-bed-sized s were available, but they can be a bit heavy and awkward to stow.

The is usually thick, and rarely as much as thick; they need to dry well, or they will become heavy and mouldy. If more thickness is needed, s are layered. and they vary in thickness. Depending on the weather, they may be layered with a warm , or replaced with a lighter .

The traditional is usually smaller than a western pillow.

However, Western-style futons, which typically resemble low, wooden sofa beds, differ considerably from their Japanese counterparts. 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, which avoids having to move them to air regularly, especially in the dry indoor air of a centrally-heated house (most Japanese homes were not traditionally centrally-heated).

Futon-like traditional European beds

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.

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".

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

</gallery>

History and materials

Futon-like traditional European beds

See also

References