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narrow passageway within the grounds of a large residence.First used to describe the pathway leading to the teahouse, itapparently came to be called roji. Sen-no-Rikyu defined roji as“the outside path in the mundane world”, in other words, aboundary separating the world of cha-no-yu (tea ceremony) fromthe world of the mundane. At some ryokans there areteahouses in the gardens, allowing you to appreciate thestructural beauty of the roji which is evocative of wabi-sabi (seewabi-sabi ).

This refers to the very low stone washbasinfor washing one's hands (also known astearaibachi and ch‐ozubachi) in a chaniwa (tea garden). The nametsukubai derives from the practice in tea ceremony of bendingoneself so low, almost crawling on the ground, to wash one'shands and rinse one's mouth. There is a wooden ladle (hishaku)for scooping up the water inside, but you must not touch itdirectly with your lips. The tsukubai is often located close to theteahouse or in the garden of a Japanese ryokan.

Two pieces of supporting wood are attached to each of thewooden boards to produce these traditional Japanese clogs foroutdoor use. Each clog board has three holes through whichthe cloth thong called hanao is threaded, and you wear the getaeither in bare feet or wearing tabi socks, with your feet firmlyfixed by grasping the hanao between your big toe and yoursecond toe. The z‐ori and setta are of similar design, but z‐ori aremade by weaving plant fibers such as straw, rushes andbamboo sheaths, whereas the setta, apparently conceived bySen-no-Rikyu, originally had tatami-omotecoverings on the top with animal skin fixedon the sole with iron nails. Today, z‐ori andsetta are made of all kinds of materials.Such footwear is provided at Japaneseryokans for when you take a short walk orstroll in the garden in your yukata.

These Japanese socks are designed in the shape of your feet,to be worn with wafuku - traditional Japanese clothing such askimono. The big toe is separated from the other toes, so thatyou can wear geta, z‐ori or setta (see geta). They open at theseam above the heel where there is a row of metal hooks forfastening the tabi.

Japanese-style umbrellas, to be usedwhen wearing kimono, are made by

covering a bamboo framework with greased washi (traditionalJapanese paper). There are many types of wagasa such asbangasa and janome-gasa. The large-sized bangasa is for thecommon people. The word janome-gasa derives from the roundring resembling the eye of a large snake when the umbrella isopened up, and is slender and graceful compared with thebangasa. Some ryokans place these Japanese style umbrellasready for use by the guests on rainy days.

A traditional style of Japanese architec-ture, this is an alcove with a slightly raisedfloor built in one of the walls of the tatami-mat room (zashiki). The front wall isdecorated with shoga (or kake-jiku, hang-ing scrolls), and an ornamental article or aflower vase is placed on the floor of thealcove. Although modern standardsspecify a width of 1 ken (about 1.8 meters) and depth of a ken(about 0.9 meter), it used to be wider and not so deep. You willfind toko-no-ma in the majority of Japanese-style zashiki rooms,and the kake-jiku and flowers conveying the season form a fineinterior decoration.

Mounted shoga (works and paintings of calligraphy) which canbe hung on the wall. The kake-jiku was first devised for thepreservation of shoga. The hanging scrolls are changed inaccordance with the season or traditional events, and arestored rolled-up.

A ranma, installed between the upper part of a wall or a partitionand the ceiling, is a transom for allowing daylight to stream in,for ventilation, and also for interior decoration, and comes inlatticework or openwork. It is interesting to observe the motifssymbolic of the traditional Japanese architectural style usedsince the Heian Period. A ranma is often used so as not to cutoff the adjoining room or the outside light. It plays an importantrole in the tatami-mat rooms of Japanese ryokans, and comes ina wide variety of styles such as osa-ranma (transom with closelyspaced vertical bars), take-no-fushi ranma (transom having poststhat are carved with knuckles resembling bamboo joints), ita-ranma (transom having thin boa-rds with openwork designs), sh‐oji-ranma (small sliding window-typetransom covered with Japanesepaper), ch‐okoku- ranma (sculptu-red transom), and so on.

Tsukubai

Geta (traditional wooden clogs)

Wagasa

Kake-jiku (hanging scrolls)

Ranma (transom)

Tabi

Toko-no-ma (Alcove)