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The traditional rural house is not just a technical form or a layout of more or less functional spaces. It is also—and perhaps above all—a story that we carry with us, that we learned long ago from the myths of our culture, embedding its fundamental features deep in our conscience. The house, whether a humble cottage or a castle, features prominently in European folk tales. But has there ever been a systematic study of it, along the lines of Bachelard’s poetic psychoanalysis? The same question can be asked of the house in Japanese folk tales. We embark on such a study here. Under the vast thatched roof, in summer, everything—or almost everything—is opened up, to let a gentle breeze through, which is the only way to stay cool in the suffocating heat of the monsoon. The reader is struck by the discreet recurrence of impossible closure, attested by the multiple episodes of intrusion central to many tales.