tatami
2
7.9
- noun
- /təˈtɑːmi/
- A porcelain tea set sat on fresh tatami mats.
- tatami mat
- tatami room
Examples
-
Junpei opened the door and stepped out of his slippers into a tatami room.
Fiction book (1998) -
We took our places on the tatami floor, and my mother served tea and bean pastries.
Fiction book (1990) -
Except for here and the other tatami room, all the floors were dirt.
Fiction book (1990) -
The maid looked down silently at the tatami floor.
Fiction book (2001) -
Opposite the kitchen was a tiny four-mat tatami room with a window.
Fiction book (1990) -
Seated cross-legged on the tatami, he posed his arms atop each knee before delivering the punch line.
Fiction book (1990) -
His mother scurried across the tatami mats with her meager belongings into Reiko and the girls' room.
Fiction book (1996) -
Small tools are spread on the tatami: a razor knife, a sprue cutter, curls of emery paper.
Fiction book (2000) -
We took our places on the tatami floor, and my mother served tea and bean pastries.
-
One of my most transcendent overnights was spent on a tatami mat in a Buddhist monastery near Osaka, Japan.
Surface Forms
Etymology
Tatami comes from the Japanese verb tatamu, which means 'to fold'. Long ago these straw mats were made to be folded or piled, so tatami now means the traditional floor 'mat' used in Japanese rooms.