http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0110629f1.html

London exhibition provides view inside typical Japanese residence

By WILLIAM HOLLINGWORTH
Kyodo
LONDON — An exhibition in London and an accompanying book are giving people a glimpse inside a typical Japanese home, which the author believes may dispel some Western notions.

Inge Daniels, an anthropologist at Oxford University, has studied 30 families in the Kansai region and is presenting her findings to visitors at the Geffrye Museum in London via the recreation of a modern family home in "At Home in Japan."

She wants to give the British public a more rounded view of how ordinary Japanese live and move away from the minimalist images of homes as portrayed in interior design books, for example.

"I got frustrated by the stereotype of exotic Japan in the West, which has been internalized by some people in Japan," Daniels said. When I first visited Japan in 1992 I tried looking for these exotic homes and realized they were not typical."

Explaining the reasoning behind her research, she said, "I wanted to learn about similarities between homes in the West and Japan and also differences, but I didn't want to make this an exercise in voyeurism, either..................