Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/663

Rh other object. The companion bay has shelves and a low closet. Other rooms also may have recesses to accommodate a case of drawers or shelves. Where closets and cupboards occur, they are finished with sliding screens instead of swinging-doors. In tea-houses of two stories the stairs, which often ascend from the vicinity of the kitchen, have beneath them a closet, and this is usually closed by a swinging-door.

In city houses the kitchen is at one side or corner of the house, generally in an L, covered with a pent-roof. This apartment is often toward the street, its yard separated from other areas by a high fence. In the country the kitchen is nearly always under the main roof. In the city few out-buildings, such as sheds and barns, are seen. Accompanying



the houses of the better class are solid, thick-walled, one or two storied, fire-proof buildings called kura, in which the goods and chattels are stored away at the time of a conflagration. These buildings, which are known to the foreigners as "godowns," have one or two small windows and one door, closed by thick and ponderous shutters. Such a building usually stands isolated from the dwelling, though often in juxtaposition; and sometimes, though rarely, it is used as a domicile.

In the gardens of the better classes summer-houses and shelters of rustic appearance and diminutive proportions are often seen. Rustic arbors are also to be seen in the larger gardens. Specially constructed houses of quaint design and small size are not uncommon; in these