Effects of Floor Plan Openness on Eating Behaviors

A repeated-measures study, conducted with 57 college students in a research kitchen-dining area, examined effects of floor plan openness on eating behaviors. Openness was manipulated via folding screens placed in an open plan kitchen-dining area to simulate separate, enclosed kitchen and dining spaces. Effects of the open floor plan, characterized by greater visibility and convenience of food access when compared with the closed floor plan, on three eating behaviors were examined during a buffet-style meal. Eating behaviors included number of serving trips to the buffet, amount served, and amount consumed. Regression analyses indicated that openness significantly, directly influenced the number of serving trips. Food serving trips and amount served also serially mediated the relation between floor plan openness and amount consumed, suggesting that floor plan openness may indirectly affect consumption. Results have implications for floor plan design and creating healthier interior eating environments.

Depictions of the Journey to the Heavenly Realm in Early Modern Catholic and Japanese Buddhist Iconography

This article works to identify an intersection of the Catholic and Buddhist pictorial traditions with regard to the symbolism of the journey to the spiritual world. In both Christian and Buddhist traditions, the river/ ocean is a popular symbol that designates the border between this world and the other world. A work of western-inspired Japanese folding screens known as Yōjin Sōgakuzu (Europeans Playing Music) is an outstanding example that makes use of the symbolism of the river to allude to one’s pilgrimage to the other world in the guise of a secular waterfront scene. The folding screens were painted in the seventeenth century by Japanese artists who were affiliated with the art studio founded by the Jesuits. An investigation of European sources of the painting will show how the painters modified the famous Catholic iconography of “The Ship of the Church” to match the taste of the Japanese patrons of the time. Further, comparisons with other Japanese paintings that similarly deal with the theme of the river will show that such secular scenes of waterfront leisure could demonstrate to the Japanese audience the life in the world beyond, as well as a journey to that world they anticipated.