Vacation in Japan...This traditional washitsu is such a classic beauty~
Wait a second, I think this room is built for harakiri...
Tatami is a type of mat used as a flooring material in Washitsu (traditional Japanese-style rooms). In Kanji character is 「畳」, hiragana is「たたみ」.
Tatami mats were introduced by the Tang Dynasty in the Nara period of Japan. Originally, they were made with leather and silk. Tatami mats in that era were stacked to sit on - the higher the status, the higher the stack. In the Heian period, the size and edge color of tatami mats were determined according to the class of the user. Since the Muromachi period, the use of tatami has changed from being a seat to more like a carpet, which is used to lay the floor. It was not until the Edo period that the size was standardized, though the size maybe a little different according to diferent regions.
According to the number of tatami, the formation to arrange and lay the tatami may differ - the placement depends on Feng Shui (geomancy). Even if you don’t believe in Feng Shui, the tatami laying formation has already become a part of traditional culture. If you don’t want to be misunderstood or accidentally be rude, you'd better pay attention and follow the customs of tatami formation. It'd be unfortunate if the Feng Shui disaster escalated into a man-made conflict.
For example, if there are four and a half tatami mats in a room, with the half mat (the square) placed in the center, and the four mats on the outside surrounding the square are placed anti-clockwise, then that is the "Seppuku space" used for harakiri. Oh...It is possible for chinese readers to roughly guess what is seppuku from the character, but in order for our English reader to understand, let me briefly explain it. ***Please read below with parental guidance if you are underage.*** Seppuku/ harakiri refers to the action we watched from TV drama, where Japanese samurai have committed serious mistakes or were defeated in battle, would be ordered to "voluntarily" or "involuntarily" commit suicide by inserting a knife/sword into their stomachs, pull it horizontally and then have another samurai to cut off the their heads - disembowelment followed by decapitation...Well! But if the tatami mats are arranged clockwise, then you are alright. Moreover, tatami must never be placed in a grid form, meaning the four tatami corners gathered together and formed a cross - that is for mourning halls and funerals. Therefore, the size of a house, especially the ones with Japanese traditional washitsu always try to avoid building with those dimensions. But due to lack of space, houses generally are very small, so it's hard to avoid... well, just don't use tatami mats then. And at least when you travel, you know how to choose a proper room to sleep in.