Inside the Japanese house, Kaidan tansu traditional furniture

The little space available in the average Japanese traditional house and the Japanese appetite for simplicity and elegance lead to several ingenious solutions. An interesting and beautiful example is this cabinet that serves at the same time as staircase, photographed in the Former Hosokawa Residence (Gyobutei), in Kumamoto.
Called kaidan tansu ("staircase chest") it was a piece of furniture popular in merchant and farmer houses at the end of the Edo period.