Tatami

A tatami (畳) is a type of mat used as a flooring material in traditional Japanese-style rooms. Traditionally made using rice straw to form the core, the cores of contemporary tatami are sometimes composed of compressed wood chip boards or polystyrene foam. With a covering of woven soft rush (igusa 藺草) straw, tatami are made in standard sizes, with the length exactly twice the width, an aspect ratio of 2:1. Usually, on the long sides, they have edging (heri 縁) of brocade or plain cloth, although some tatami have no edging.

History

The term tatami is derived from the verb tatamu, meaning to fold or pile. This indicates that the early tatami were thin and could be folded up when not used or piled in layers. Tatami were originally a luxury item for the nobility. During the Heian period, when the shinden-zukuri architectural style of aristocratic residences was consummated, the flooring of shinden-zukuri palatial rooms were mainly wooden, and tatami were only used as seating for the highest aristocrats. In the Kamakura period, there arose the shoin-zukuri architectural style of residence for the samurai and priests who had gained power. This architectural style reached its peak of development in the Muromachi period, when tatami gradually came to be spread over whole rooms, beginning with small rooms. Rooms completely spread with tatami came to be known as zashiki (座敷, lit., room spread out for sitting), and rules concerning seating and etiquette determined the arrangement of the tatami in the rooms. It is said that prior to the mid-16th century, the ruling nobility and samurai slept on tatami or woven mats called goza (茣蓙), while commoners used straw mats or loose straw for bedding.

LOMOcean Design

LOMOcean Design is a naval architecture and yacht design company based in Auckland, New Zealand.

History

LOMOcean Design, previously known as Craig Loomes Design Group ltd., was incorporated in 1993, but has some designs that date back as far as 1986. The company underwent a name change from Craig Loomes Design Group to LOMOcean Design in 2009 as a way of showing the contributions that the other directors and staff have made towards the company. The company designs custom, one off boats, and the boats designed range between 10 meters in length such as the 10 meter Police Strike Craft to vessels as big as 148 meters in length such as the 148m Moonset trimaran super yacht. The boats use advanced composite materials, such as carbon fibre and kevlar, as well as aluminium and other such materials. Worldwide sales include Europe, the Americas, Oceania, South East Asia and the Middle East. The company has become known for designing a range of cutting edge wave-piercing catamarans and trimarans, most notably, Earthrace, and Tûranor PlanetSolar. Other than the wave-piercing designs, LOMOcean has also designed mono hull boats as well as power catamarans. The boats designed by LOMOcean Design are designed with a wide range of purposes in mind, such as fire fighting boats, global circumnavigating boats, pleasure yachts, coastguard boats and research vessels.

Tatami (Japanese armour)

Japanese tatami armour (畳胴具足), or tatami gusoku (Tatami, from Tatamu 畳む, "To fold") and gusoku (meaning armour), was a type of lightweight portable folding Japanese armour worn during the feudal era of Japan by the samurai class and their foot soldiers (ashigaru). The Tatami dō (a foldable cuirass) or the tatami katabira (an armoured jacket) were the main components of a full suit of tatami armour.

Structure

A tatami gusoku (complete suit of folding armor) includes a tatami dō or tatami katabira (jacket) and a tatami kabuto (helmet) chochin kabuto, or tatami zukin (hood) or similar type of head protection along with the other related parts of a full suit of Japanese armour. Collapsible head protection such as hachi gane and other collapsible armor are also tatami armor; a traditional kabuto could also be part of a tatami gusoku.

Tatami armour was lightweight, portable, convenient for transportation, and they were manufactured inexpensively for the ashigaru light infantry. Tatami armours were worn by all samurai classes from the highest class to the lowest class. The higher class samurai wore elaborate armour while the lower class samurai and retainers wore simpler versions.