Machiya
Machiya are traditional wooden townhouses found throughout
Japan and typified in the historical capital of
Kyoto.
Machiya (townhouses) and
nouka (farm dwellings) constitute the two categories of Japanese
vernacular architecture known as
minka (folk dwellings). Machiya originated as early as the
Heian period and continued to develop through to the
Edo period and even into the
Meiji period. Machiya housed urban
merchants and
craftsmen, a class collectively referred to as
chounin (townspeople). The
etymology of the word
machiya(
ç"ºå®¶or
ç"ºå±‹) reveals its two parts:
machi(
ç"º) meaning "town", and
ya(
家or
屋) meaning "house"(
家) or "shop"(
屋) depending on the
kanji used to express it; either one is equally acceptable.
The city of
Kyoto was originally laid out in a gridlike pattern, modeled after the Chinese
Tang dynasty capital
Chang'an. The typical Kyoto machiya within that grid was a long wooden home with narrow street frontage, stretching deep into the city block and often containing one or more small courtyard
gardens or
tsuboniwa. The front of the building served as the retail or shop space, generally having sliding or folding shutters that opened to facilitate the display of goods and wares. Internally the machiya would be split between the
kyoshitsubu, divided rooms with raised timber floors and
tatami mats, and the
doma or
toriniwa, an unfloored service space that contained the
kitchen and also served as the passage to the rear of the plot, where storehouses known as
kura would be found. The plot width was an index of wealth, and typical machiya plots were only 5.4 to 6 meters wide, but about 20 meters deep, leading to the nickname
unagi no nedoko, or eel's beds.
*
Living in Machiya*
Traditional Kyoto architecture*
Sugimoto Residence -- A Kyoto Machiya*
Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System: Machiya*
JNTO site -- Kyoto Machiya
