Rinn, a traditional machiya residence in Kyoto
“Machiya” was built as a residence.
Its beauty and user friendly were polished and devised in long history.
The charm of”Kyo-Machiya”has been accumulated from the Heian period since the capital was transferred to Kyoto.
We hope that you understand the charm of”Kyo-machiya”
What is “Kyo-Machiya”?
Traditional building of merchant house in Kyoto
Kyo-machiya is a traditional wooden building style seen in the city of Kyoto.
It is a residence that can run both daily life and business in the same building.
In Kyoto city definition, It is said that ” It was built before 1950 in a traditional wooden shaft assembly method”.
However, there are several definitions and there is no unified view.
Eel Bedding
What is the meaning of long and narrow space that hard is hard to live?
Kyo-machiya built in elongated site is called “Eel Bedding”, features are narrow frontage and deep depth. It is said that narrow frontage is the way to reduce the tax which had been decided by the size of the frontage.In Edo period or it tried to increase the number of shops facing the street and make the street crowd. Windows in front of Kyo-machiya have wooden grid and there is a Japanese traditional garden. Normally, main window is decorated with wooden grid and there is a Japanese courtyard in the center. You can see the relationship between our predecessors and residence from function and beauty of each space.
Climate of Kyoto
Summer is muggy, Winter is chilled.
Because Kyoto is a basin,it is famous for being muggy in summer and chilled in winter. “Kyomachiya” with a depth is a space where you can see the ingenuity of taking advantage of its structure and taking in the flow of the wind into the house due to the temperature difference from the hot and humid summer by arranging the garden in the middle. Because of the reason, inevitably, it made a disadvantage that cold wind passes through.
“Machiya” building
The scent of wood and rush that Kyo-machiya have.
The newly built, renovated Kyomachiya has a new tree and tatami fragrance. Especially, “lgusa” of tatami mat raw material has many ingredients which is the same ingredients as herbal medicine and it is said that there are comfort and relaxation effect. The smell of “Hinoki” which is the wall of bathroom also has relaxation effect and it is said that it’s same effect as forest bathing.
The structure of MACHIYA(appearance)
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