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Baseball: ex-big leaguer Matsui

Hideki Matsui, former slugger who played for the New York Yankees and Japan's Yomiuri Giants, poses for a photo at the Giants' minor league ballpark in Inagi, western Tokyo, on May 7, 2025, in front of worn tatami mats he used to practice swinging on at the club's dormitory as a young player.

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Kumamoto thrilled by possible use of tatami in Olympics

KUMAMOTO, Japan - Female workers plant rush seedlings by hand in a field in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, in November 2013.

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Kumamoto thrilled by possible use of tatami in Olympics

KUMAMOTO, Japan - Rush farmer Minoru Tabuchi works planting seedlings in a field in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture in November 2013.

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Kumamoto thrilled by possible use of tatami in Olympics

KUMAMOTO, Japan - Female workers plant rush seedlings by hand in a field in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, in November 2013.

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Rush plant grower seeks new market beyond 'tatami' mats

KANAZAWA, Japan - Takashi Miyamoto, the only "igusa" rush farmer in Komatsu, Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, displays bundles of the long grass straw for weaving "tatami" mats on Nov. 6, 2014. Miyamoto and other local businesses are exploring new markets to spur demand for igusa amid dwindling tatami consumption.

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Rush plant farmer seeks new market beyond 'tatami' mats

KANAZAWA, Japan - Takashi Miyamoto (R), the only "igusa" rush grower in Komatsu, Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, checks the quality of the long grass straw as it is woven into surface covers for "tatami" mats on Nov. 6, 2014.

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Tehran's Japanese spa owner in private 'tatami' room

TEHRAN, Iran - Akhavan Hossein (R), owner of the recently opened Japanese-style spa "Hana" (flower) in Tehran, sits at a table with a staff member in a private "tatami" mat room in the spa's restaurant on Dec. 14, 2013.

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Followers clean Higashi-Honganji Temple for new year

KYOTO, Japan - Followers of the Higashi-Honganji Temple in Kyoto beat the dust out of the tatami mats in the temple with bamboo sticks and huge paper fans on Dec. 20, 2009, a traditional year-end ritual in preparation for the new year.

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Followers clean Higashi-Honganji Temple for new year

KYOTO, Japan - Followers of the Higashi-Honganji Temple in Kyoto beat the dust out of the tatami mats in the temple with bamboo sticks and huge paper fans on Dec. 20, 2009, a traditional year-end ritual in preparation for the new year.

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Chilean opens Easter Island's 1st Japanese-style restaurant

EASTER ISLAND, Chile - Francisco Xavier sits in a tatami room at his restaurant Izakaya Kotaro on Easter Island, Chile, on Oct. 14, 2009.

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Aggressive efforts to restore tatami under way

YAMAGATA, Japan - Koichi Kambe, chairman of the Japan Tatami Industry Promotion Association in Kyoto, shows off a tatami-made tie, bag, hat and other products that are part of an attempt to revitalize the tatami industry.

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Tamami mats for Olympic judo events to be shipped to Athens

TOKYO, Japan - A worker packs Japanese tatami mats in Tokyo on April 30 to be shipped for use in this summer's Athens Olympic judo events.

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Japan to provide 150 judo uniforms to Iraq

TOKYO, Japan - Olympic judo gold medalist Yasuhiro Yamashita (L) and Japanese Senior Vice Foreign Minister Masatoshi Abe (C) hand Sameir al-Mousoy, head of Iraq's judo association, a judo uniform and a list of judo equipment Japan will donate to Iraq, at the Foreign Ministry on March 3. The equipment includes 150 judo uniforms and about 200 tatami judo mats.

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(4)Blair holds talks with Koizumi

HAKONE, Japan - British Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) is in talks with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in a tatami matted hotel room in Hakone, southwest of Tokyo, on July 19. (Pool photo)

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TokyoNow: Japan in tourism campaign, targets 10 mil. in 2010

TOKYO, Japan - Japanese-style inn Sawa-no-ya in Tokyo's Taito Ward with only 12 tatami mats rooms is popular for non-Japanese tourists, who want to stay at less expensive hotels during their sight-seeing trip to Japan. Tourists from Australia are taking breakfast.

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Japan, China resume talks in Beijing over farm products

BEIJING, China - Japan (R side) and China resume senior working-level talks Nov. 1 in Beijing aimed at settling disputes over Japan's import curbs on stone leeks, shiitake mushrooms and rushes used in tatami mats mainly from China, and China's retaliatory measures.

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Typhoon leaves flooding, chaos in its wake

NACHIKATSUURA, Japan - People lay tatami mats, soaked by the heavy rains of Typhoon Pabuk, out to dry in Nachikatsuura in Wakayama Prefecture on Aug. 22.

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Ministers reach basic accord on farm import curb

TOKYO, Japan - Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yoshio Yatsu heads for a meeting in the Diet on March 30 with Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma to discuss problems resulting from surging imports from China of stone leeks, ''shiitake'' mushrooms and rushes used in ''tatami'' mats. They reached a basic agreement to impose a temporary emergency import curb on these products.

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Tokyo Olympics: media coverage

Photo journalists sit on legless chairs meant for use in tatami rooms at Aomi Urban Sports Park in Tokyo, the venue of Tokyo Olympics 3x3 basketball, on July 24, 2021, to cover the sport.

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Japan, China resume talks in Beijing over farm products

BEIJING, China - Japan (R side) and China resume senior working-level talks Nov. 1 in Beijing aimed at settling disputes over Japan's import curbs on stone leeks, shiitake mushrooms and rushes used in tatami mats mainly from China, and China's retaliatory measures.

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A Japanese Koto player

A Japanese Koto player. A Koto is a type of Zither with 13 strings, played by plucking the strings with ivory plectrums attached to the fingers. Date: 1932

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Year-end cleaning at Kyoto temple

People wearing coverall aprons and masks beat tatami mats with springy bamboo sticks during a "Susuharai" end of year cleanup event at Higashi-Honganji, a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, western Japan, on Dec. 20, 2015, with a big fan blowing away the dust that accumulated over the past year. The traditional event has been conducted for more than 500 years. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Kyoto Pref., Kansai Electric sign nuclear safety accord

(From L) Makoto Yagi, president of Kansai Electric Power Co., Keiji Yamada, governor of Kyoto Prefecture, and Ryozo Tatami, mayor of Maizuru in Kyoto Prefecture, pose for a photo after signing a trilateral nuclear safety accord at the Kyoto prefectural government offices on Feb. 27, 2015. The accord gives the two local governments more say over the utility's operation of nuclear reactors in nearby Fukui Prefecture and greater access to related information. The city of Maizuru is located less than 5 kilometers away from the Takahama nuclear plant in Fukui. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Japanese sightseeing train

Photo taken in November 2012 shows East Japan Railway Co.'s popular sightseeing train Utage, equipped with Japanese-style rooms with tatami mats, running in Annaka, Gunma Prefecture, central Japan. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Women playing go,japanese chess

Two women sitting in a room facing each other playing Go (Japanese checkers). In the garden to the rear is a drooping cherry tree and a lantern. The porch is covered with tatami mats. Location unknown.==Date:unknown, Place:Tokyo, Photo:Ogawa Kazumasa, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number9‐45‐0]

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The detached garden of Shugaku-in Temple

Shokintei of Katsura Rikyu Imperial Villa looking across the pond from the bridge. Shokintei was constructed as one of a series of additions to the villa started in 1641. Kobori Enshu was in charge of work on this second addition under orders from Prince Toshitada. Built in irimoya style with a thatched roof, the building has one 11 tatami mat room called Ichino-ma (First Room) and one six and a half tatami room called Tsugino-ma (Second Room). The garden and pine grove stretches away to the rear.==Date:unknown, Place:Kyoto, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number96‐106‐0]

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A geiko playing the shamisen

The kimono looks shabby for a geisha at a flower viewing banquet. It is unnatural to place a flower pot directly on the tatami mat of the guest room. The flowers in the pot and vase suggest spring.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number96‐18‐0]

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An antique shop

A clerk holding an abacus in an antique shop haggles with a customer with his hand over a brazier. Sets of armour, Buddhist utensils, scrolls and coloured porcelain pots are visible on the tatami mats.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number90‐16‐0]

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Women enjoying the cool evening

Books (perhaps story books or Noh song books) lie on the tatami and on the knees of a woman with a marumage hairstyle. The woman lying on the tatami seems to have just come out of the bath. A fire vase and ash blower are seen on a tobacco tray. The reed screen and fan exude a feeling of summer.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number89‐8‐0]

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The honden,Taiyuin Shrine,Nikko

This is the hall of worship at Taiyuin, the mausoleum of the third shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu. Taiyuin consists of a worship hall, middle room ( ainoma ), and main hall. The worship hall is a 64 tatami-mat space. Pictures of 140 dragons grace the ceiling, reportedly the work of the famous Kano School. The ainoma, where the shogun sat at the time of religious ceremonies, is visible on the right.==Date:unknown, Place:Nikko, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number87‐23‐0]

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A guest room after a party is over

A guest room is shown after a party. All the guests are gone. The three women in kimono may be the head of the restaurant and two waitresses. The zabuton cushions used by the guests are scattered about. Sake bottles, large and small plates, and tobacco trays are also visible on the tatami. All three women wear the wide sashes popular since the later years of the Meiji Period.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number83‐8‐0]

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Shamisen practice

Women pose in kimono. They have a vacant expression on their faces, perhaps because of the superstition that photographs steal the soul. The woman in front is playing a shamisen lute, while the woman on the right is reading a book. A set of tea cups are on the tatami, and a bamboo basket on the pillar. The setting was likely planned by the photographer.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number79‐35‐0]

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A No-song exercise

A man is reading a Noh song book on a considerably worn out tatami mat. The man on the right is sitting straight and holding a folding fan. Chanting Noh songs was a sign of cultural and intellectual attainment.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:R. Stillfried, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number78‐68‐0]

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A woman looking at a picture book

A long box heater, copper medicine can and a tea set are visible. A shamisen lute and photograph books are scattered about on the tatami mats. The young woman is wearing a dark chirimen crepe coat and her hair is wrapped in a red cloth. She still has tucked-in kimono shoulders (to be let out when she gets taller) and a baby face.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:R. Stillfried, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number77‐34‐0]

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Massage

A drawer is visible next to a summer partition, and an offering has been placed on a household altar. The old woman lying on the tatami mat is receiving a massage, apparently in a living room. Massage was a common profession for the visually impaired.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:R. Stillfried, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number76‐24‐0]

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Priests facing each other

This is one of the photographs in the 1876 album by Stillfried. It shows two Buddhist priests in official attire. The tatami mats and fusuma doors suggest that this was taken in a temple. Early Meiji Period.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:R. Stillfried, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number76‐23‐0]

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The Karamon Gate and the haiden (sanctuary),Toshogu Shrine,Nikko

These structures are the Karamon Gate and the Hall of Worship at Taiyuin, the tomb of the third shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu. Taiyuin is Iemitsu's posthumous name conferred by Emperor Gokomyo. The gate is three meters tall and 1.8 meters wide. Although the smallest, it is the most delicate and elegant gate at Taiyuin. The Hall of Worship is 64 tatami mats in area.==Date:unknown, Place:Nikko, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number71‐34‐0]

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A woman holding a doll

This must have been taken inside because the woman is standing on tatami mats. A skillful hand has added colouring to the photograph. The woman's lips are also lightly coloured, making her facial expression clear.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number69‐30‐0]

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Spinning

A woman with a hair cover in anesan-kaburi style is spinning thread on a spinning wheel. The shoji screens suggest that it is a workshop. A mat is spread on the tatami floor, but the seams are not visible.==Date:Middle Meiji (1883-1897), Place:unknown, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number61‐17‐0]

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Women enjoying the cool evening

Books (perhaps story books or Noh song books) lie on the tatami and on the knees of a woman with a marumage hairstyle. The woman lying on the tatami seems to have just come out of the bath. A fire vase and ash blower are seen on a tobacco tray. The reed screen and fan exude a feeling of summer.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number49‐11‐0]

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A woman writing a letter

A woman sits in front of paper-covered lamp stand to write a letter on a scroll with a brush. A scroll painting hangs in the back and a box to place brushes and sumi is on the tatami mats.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:Kusakabe Kinbei, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number40‐38‐0]

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Relaxing girls

The girl has her elbow on the tatami mat and reads a book with her face near it. The girl in the centre leans on the girl reading the book and looks at the camera. The girl to the right watches the two girls and takes some food from a big plate with her chopsticks.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:Ogawa Kazumasa, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number25‐45‐0]

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Girls of a mercantile family

Three girls sit in a living room. The left girl holds a fan with both hands on her knees. The centre girl has her fan on the tatami mat, and holds her knees with both hands. The right girl is reading a book on the table.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:Ogawa Kazumasa, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number25‐8‐0]

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Girls of a mercantile family

Three girls sit in the living room. The left girl holds a fan with both hands on her knees. The centre girl has her fan on the tatami mat, and holds her knees with both hands. The right girl is reading a book on the table.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:Ogawa Kazumasa, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number25‐6‐0]

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Tea ceremony

Probably a scene of tea ceremony practice. The master serves tea to a priest and two young women in furisode (long-sleeve kimono). On the tatami, there is the tea kettle, tea spoon, tea container, sweets to go with the tea and tea cups.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number18‐19‐0]

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A woman writing a letter

A woman sits in front of a lantern writing a letter on a scroll with a brush, and another woman watches her through the open paper door. On the tatami mat are a big tray with a writing tool box, tea pot and tea cup.A big plate with sweets, a brazier and gekkin lute stands by the sliding doors.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number16‐12‐0]

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Women reading books

Two women sit facing each other with a table between them. The woman on the left reads a book, while the other looks at the book from the other side. On the tatami mat is a tobacco tray and a tray with a tea pot and cups, and on the table are books, tea pots and an ashtray.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number12‐27‐0]

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Landlady carrying dishes

A woman with her back to the camera carries a large dish of food on a tray. A scroll hangs in the alcove in the rear, together with a bonsai pot and hand drum. On the tatami mats are shimedaiko (a tunable drum with the skin attached to the tuner with cords) and a brazier with a kettle on it. A pot and cups placed on a tray can also be seen.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:Ogawa Kazumasa, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number6‐47‐0]

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Cotton-spinning

Two women loom cotton on a spinning wheel. The woman to the right has her sleeves tied with a string and wears a scarf over her head. She is spinning a wheel with her right hand and pulling the thread with her left hand. The cotton is placed on the tatami. A scroll hangs in the alcove to the rear.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:Ogawa Kazumasa, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number6‐49‐0]

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A scene of a meal

A dramatized photo of a Japanese meal with five girls. Each are posed to drink sake with a choshi (sake bottle) and sakazuki (cup), to serve rice from the rice pail and to eat the rice and food with chop-sticks. Individual meal stands are placed on the tatami, and a pot is placed on the brazier.==Date:unknown, Place:unknown, Photo:Ogawa Kazumasa, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number6‐48‐0]