David Jackson Fellowship Project:
The Kaidan Dansu, a Stairway in Historical Shadow
The cabinetry of Japan known as tansu has within its multiplicity of designs something truly unique: a hybrid that is both staircase and cupboard. It is invariably known as the hakodan, hako kaidan, also the kaidan-dansu, literally box stair and stair chest or step-chest.
Its history has been obscured by myth and anecdote as no other tansu that I know of, both its origins and uses.
The Kaidan Dansu (2.5 mb Adobe Acrobat pdf file) –>
