[Translation from Japanese to English ] Since houses in Japan were designed to evade the heat and humidity in summer ...

Original text

日本の家屋は冬の寒さよりも夏の蒸暑さを回避するように設計されていたので断熱性、気密性に乏しかった。よってヨーロッパと異なり、日本では囲炉裏、こたつ、火鉢などを使った局所暖房が多かった。囲炉裏は暖房、炊事、採光の機能を同時に果たした。囲炉裏の燃料は薪が中心だったが、それが不足する地域では藁、籾殻、流木などが使われたり、泥炭や木炭が用いられる地域もあった。都市部では住宅が狭く、燃料調達が困難だった為、囲炉裏は用いられずコタツや火鉢（燃料は木炭や炭団）が使用された。

Translation / English

Since houses in Japan were designed to evade the heat and humidity in summer rather than the coldness in winter, they were poor at adiathermancy and airtightness. Thus unlike Europe, in Japan there are a lot of partial heaters such as irori fireplace, kotatsu table heater and brazier. Irori played a role of a heater, an oven and a light altogether. The fuel of irori was mainly bundles of wood, and in some places where such things were scarce, people used straws, chaffs, and driftwoods, or even peat and charcoal. In urban area, the houses were narrow and it was hard to obtain sufficient amount of fuel, so kotatsu and brazier were used instead (fuel was charcoal and cut ash) instead of irori.

hiro-byn- about 10 years ago
ありがとうございます。irori fireplaceと日本名と英語の意味を併置するのはいいアイディアだと思います。

Translation / English

Since Japanese houses were designed to reduce the heat and humidity of summer rather than to ward off the winter chills, they didn't have good adiabaticity and airtightness. In contrast to Europe, Japanese people used small heating devices, such as Irori, Kotatsu, Hibachi and so forth. Irori was used for cooking and lighting as well as heater. The main fuel for Irori was firewood, but in the regions which have lack of firewood, straw, chaff and driftwood were used. In some regions people used peat and charcoal. In urban settings houses were small, and it was difficult to get fuels, so instead of irori, people used Kotatsu and Hibachi (fuels were charcoal).

hiro-byn- about 10 years ago
ありがとうございました。

Translation / English

Houses in Japan used to be designed to prevent heat and humidity during summer rather than to prevent cold air during winter, and lacked in insulation and air circulation. Unlike in Europe, partial heating such as fireplaces, foot warmers and braziers was very common in Japan. Fireplaces were used for cooking and light as well as heat. The fuel for fireplaces was mainly wood. Straws, rice hulls, driftwood, peats and charcoals were used as well in areas where there was not enough wood. In urban areas, foot warmers and braziers (whose fuel was charcoals and charcoal briquettes) were used instead of fireplaces, because the houses were smaller and getting the fuel supply was difficult.

hiro-byn- about 10 years ago
ありがとうございました。