By the waning years of the Ashikaga era, the _shoin _design had influenced virtually every aspect of Japanese architecture, bringing into being almost all the qualities of what is now thought of as the traditional Japanese house. The movable floor mats were replaced by wall-to-wall _tatami_, woven straw mats bound with a dark fabric band at either end and standardized to a size of approximately three by six feet. Soon rooms were being defined in terms of the number of _tatami _required for the floor--and modular architecture had been invented. Sliding, but removable paper partitions called _fusuma_ became the standard room dividers, and the _tokonoma_ became less a religious shrine than a secular display case where vertical monochrome scrolls and flower arrangements were put on view. Oddly enough, one of the few Chinese innovations the Japanese persistently chose to ignore was the chair. As a result, a Japanese residence has always maintained an entry vestibule where footwear is removed, something unnecessary for the Chinese, who had no reason to consider the floor a couch and could keep their shoes on. One important side effect of this choice is that eye level in the Japanese room--that is, the level from which the room, its art, and its appointments are viewed--has remained significantly lower than in houses with furniture, a characteristic that influences the placement of art as well as the layout of the accompanying garden. The culminating style of Japanese architecture was the sukiya house, essentially a free-hand rendering of the formal _samurai shoin_. The _sukiya_ style reflected a number of aesthetic and architectural ideas embodied in the Zen-inspired Japanese teahouse, and it allowed for considerable experimentation with materials and design. Less powerful and more delicate than the _shoin_, it was in many ways the ultimate extension of Zen austerity, even to the point where walls were often left unplastered. The _shoin_ had been the house of warriors; the _sukiya _was a style for the common man and as such has contributed significantly to the overall tradition of Japanese architecture. _Shoin_ and _sukiya _houses, heirs to the legacy of Zen monks and later Zen aesthetes, are the reference point for what is now understood to be the traditional Japanese dwelling.