The tatami room
Rooms of 4½, 6 and 8 mats laid by the rule that four corners must never meet, on the ken grid, with shōji, fusuma and tokonoma.
The rules it illustrates
Plan on a grid of one ken. Set out the posts of a house on a square grid of one ken (six shaku, about 1.82 m) and size rooms, doors, screens and mats to fit the grid.
Kyoto mats and Edo mats. In the Kyoto system (kyō-ma) fix the mat (6.3 × 3.15 shaku, about 1.91 × 0.955 m) and set the posts outside it; in the Edo system (edo-ma) fix the post grid at 6 shaku and cut the mats to fit between the posts, making them smaller.
Never let four corners of mats meet. Lay the mats of a room so that their joints form T-junctions: no point where the corners of four mats meet, and no continuous seam running straight across the room.
The alcove fixes the order of the room. Place the tokonoma, a shallow raised alcove for a hanging scroll and flowers, in the wall opposite or beside the entrance, with staggered shelves beside it; the place of honour is the seat in front of it.
Where it appears in the book
In the styles Japanese.
In the chapters China, Japan and Korea.