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PLAN GALLERY C
GALLERY C

The Sword Rack at the Door

A full-scale cutaway of an Edo samurai residence, c.1720. A house teaches you its rules before anyone speaks - and the man with the swords obeys them first.

Charles Horton Cooley
ON THE FLOOR
Charles Horton Cooley
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“You learned who you are by watching what other people reflected back at you. The mirror, it turns out, was people all along.”
Edward Soja
ON THE FLOOR
Edward Soja
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“Space is not the stage the story happens on - it is one of the actors. Ask WHERE, and half the mystery answers itself.”
George Herbert Mead
ON THE FLOOR
George Herbert Mead
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“The self is a conversation: the I speaking, the Me listening with everyone else's ears. You rehearse society every time you think.”
The Sword Rack
A lacquered wooden rack at shoulder height beside the entrance. The long sword goes here. The short sword does not.
Straw Sandals
Two pairs on the packed earth, toes pointing back toward the door. Nobody in the house arranged them that way by accident.
The Genkan Step
One worn wooden step, about forty centimetres. Below it, packed earth. Above it, the house.
The Sunken Hearth
A square of raked ash set into the tatami, an iron kettle hanging above it from a pot hook carved as a fish.
The Clay Stove
A low clay block with one or two openings, an iron rice pot seated in the ring, on the earth floor and never on the tatami.
The Alcove
A shallow recess with a raised sill. One hanging scroll. One branch in a bronze vessel. Nothing else.
The Abacus
A wooden frame of beads on the low writing table, beside a stone inkwell.
The Go Board
A thick kaya-wood board, a game half finished, bowls of slate and clam-shell stones beside it.
WH5-091 · The Sword Rack at the Door — Open the drawer
A katana-kake sword rack of dark lacquered wood, two swords resting horizontal, tsuka to the left
WH5-092 · The Sword Rack at the Door — What is this thing?
A pair of straw zori sandals set precisely toes-outward on the wooden edge of a genkan step
WH5-093 · The Sword Rack at the Door — Read the source
An Edo-period house-rules placard, brushed kanji on aged paper, hung beside a doorway
WH5-094 · The Sword Rack at the Door — Map it / time it
A woodblock-print map of an Edo machiya street with each entry threshold and step marked
WH5-095 · The Sword Rack at the Door — Two sources disagree
Two woodblock prints of the same entryway side by side - swords worn at the hip in one, racked at the door in the other
WH5-096 · The Sword Rack at the Door — State the claim
A worn genkan entry step, its stone hollowed smooth by two centuries of stockinged feet
WH5-097 · The Sword Rack at the Door — Take the other side
A samurai in full dress, both swords worn at the hip, standing before an open doorway
WH5-098 · The Sword Rack at the Door — Weigh it
A museum balance display: lacquered sword rack on one side, a pair of straw sandals on the other
WH5-099 · The Sword Rack at the Door — Build the answer
A cutaway architectural model of a machiya entry: street, step, sword rack, tatami edge, alcove in depth
WH5-100 · The Sword Rack at the Door — For the file
A soroban abacus resting on an open household ledger page of brushed ink accounts
WH5-101 · The Sword Rack at the Door — Go and look
A present-day Japanese genkan, shoes set neatly toes-outward below the raised wooden floor
WH5-102 · The Sword Rack at the Door — Now, today
An airport security tray holding a belt, shoes and pocket contents - the modern sword rack
WH5-103 · The Sword Rack at the Door — Teach it back
A child's small straw sandals placed beside adult zori at the edge of the entry step
WH5-104 · The Sword Rack at the Door — The other place
Rows of shoes left at the carved threshold of an Ottoman house entry with slippers waiting inside
WH5-105 · The Sword Rack at the Door — One object, close
A fish-carved jizai-kagi pot hook hanging over a sunken irori hearth, kettle suspended
🎧 A moment to consider
What will you carry out of this room?
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Gallery XCIX · After the Towers
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Gallery CI · The First Light
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Galleries
IFire and the Forest IIThe First Surplus IIIWater and Power IVThe Domesticated Animal VThe First Village VIThe Metal That Mattered VIIThe Grain Empire VIIIRoads and Rivers IXThe Silk Corridor XThe Monsoon Bargain XIWhy Rome Thinned XIIThe Classical City XIIIThe Maize Bargain XIVTerrace and Milpa XVThe City in the Lake XVIThe Classic Maya Question XVIIReading the Sky XVIIIA Hemisphere Without Horses XIXThe Heavy Plough XXThe Black Death XXIThe Caravan World XXIIThe Rice Revolution XXIIIWood and the Wall XXIVThe Little Ice Age XXVThe Columbian Exchange XXVIThe Sugar Island XXVIIThe Silver Mountain XXVIIIThe Wind That Made Empires XXIXFur, Fish and Frontier XXXThe First Global City XXXIThe Walking City XXXIICoal and the Clock XXXIIIGoing Up Rural Businesses XXXIVThe Cooled Room The Gerrymander The Income Pyramid XXXVThe New Mills XXXVIThe Company and the Charter XXXVIIThe Meeting Ground XXXVIIIThe Company Town XXXIXThe Town and the Common XLThe Invisible Arrival XLIThe Consumer Revolution XLIIThe Argument in Print XLIIIWho Was the Revolution For? XLIVThe Machine of Compromise XLVThe Grid Goes West XLVIThe Port City XLVIIThe War Itself XLVIIIThe First Party Fight XLIXRemoval LThe Factory Girls LIThe House Divided LIIReconstruction and Its Undoing LIIIThe Chosen Nation LIVThe Tenement and the Terrace LVThe Immigrant Ledger LVIThe Machine and the Ward LVIIWhy Buildings Rise LVIIIThe Reservation and the Allotment LIXThe Federal Blueprint LXThe Arsenal LXIThe Subsidised Suburb LXIIThe Second Great Migration LXIIIThe Movement in the Street LXIVThe Bomb LXVThe Factory Closes LXVIThe Return Downtown LXVIIThe Sunbelt Bargain LXVIIIThe Worked Continent LXIXThe Hero and the Record LXXThe Reform Photograph LXXIThe Great Upheaval LXXIIThe Cotton Engine LXXIIIThe Corps of Discovery LXXIVThe Republican Experiment LXXVWho Counts? LXXVIThe Canal and the Rail LXXVIIThe Edsel LXXVIIIThe Transcontinental LXXIXThe Crash and the Line LXXXThe Census LXXXIThe Tower Again LXXXIIThe Screen and the Square LXXXIIIThe Literary Digest Poll LXXXIVUrban Renewal LXXXVThe Hardening Line LXXXVIThe Population Bomb LXXXVIINew Coke LXXXVIIIGalloping Gertie LXXXIXThe Question XCThe Index XCIThe Map XCIIThe Poverty Line XCIIIThe Normal XCIVThe Hawthorne Works XCVProhibition XCVIMoving to Opportunity XCVIIThe Obedience Studies XCVIIIThe Minimum Wage Fight XCIXAfter the Towers CThe Sword Rack at the Door ◄ YOU ARE HERE CIThe First Light CIIThe Forge of Stars CIIIThe Rocky Ledger CIVThe Goldilocks Band CVThe Moon's Receipt CVIThe Deep Clock CVIIThe Living Spark CVIIIThe Oxygen Revolution CIXThe Drifting Map CXThe Great Dyings CXIThe Mammal's Wager CXIIThe Grasslands Bargain CXIIIThe Fire Keeper CXIVThe Language Leap CXVThe Painted Cave CXVIThe Long Migration CXVIIThe Dog at the Fire CXVIIIThe Ice Corridor CXIXThe Seed Contract CXXThe Village Ledger CXXIThe Writing Debt CXXIIThe City Threshold CXXIIIThe Metal and the Market CXXIVThe Plague Network CXXVThe Ocean Bridge CXXVIThe Silver Circuit CXXVIIThe Machine Threshold CXXVIIIThe Energy Bonanza CXXIXThe Population Curve CXXXThe Telegraph World CXXXIThe Great Acceleration CXXXIIThe Carbon Ledger CXXXIIIThe Information Threshold CXXXIVThe Genome Drawer CXXXVThe Anthropocene Question CXXXVIThe Next Threshold CXXXVIIThe Town Meeting CXXXVIIIThe Common and the Fence CXXXIXThe Sheriff and the Jury CXLThe School Board CXLIThe Charter CXLIIThe Petition CXLIIIThe Property Line CXLIVThe Ballot Box CXLVThe Ward Machine CXLVIThe Suffrage March CXLVIIThe Poll Tax Receipt CXLVIIIThe Recount CXLIXThe King's Two Bodies CLThe Parliament CLIThe Republic's Blueprint CLIIThe Federation Question CLIIIThe One-Party State CLIVThe Referendum CLVMarbury's Desk CLVIThe Fourteenth Amendment CLVIISeparate and Unequal CLVIIIThe Warren Bench CLIXThe Commerce Clause CLXThe Dissent CLXIThe Zoning Map CLXIIThe Boss's Ledger CLXIIIThe Bond Issue CLXIVThe Police Power CLXVThe Annexation Fight CLXVIThe Renewal Bulldozer CLXVIIThe Treaty Table CLXVIIIThe Embassy CLXIXThe Blockade CLXXThe Alliance CLXXIThe Assembly Floor CLXXIIThe Trade War CLXXIIIThe Question-Mark Tracks Emblematic Films — The Decade Panels The Government Lounge Rogues, Ruffians, and Rascals The Processing Hall — The Dairy Wing The Creamery — The Second Wing The Civil Rights Movement 1945–1975 The American Indian The Gallery of Man The Sobering Rooms The Teaching Ward The Pharmacology Cabinet The Pathology Gallery The Epidemiology Map Room
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