About This Site
My name is Nick Coutts and I'm the author of this site. The majority of the work you see was done as a part of my undergraduate thesis. I lived in Kyoto for two years, and fell in love with its traditional architecture. Since graduation, I have not stopped my research, and am about 75% finished with writing a proper book on the subject. The final text of my book currently resembles very little of what I have written on this site and goes in-depth into the machiya's origins, evolution, construction and culture. The highlight of the work, of which only very basic photographs are currently on display here, are case studies detailing the individual history of six machiya in Kyoto I have visited and whose owners I have gotten to know. Feel free to contact me at 
for any questions or comments.
Here is a portion of the introduction to my thesis to hopefully explain a few of my decisions made during the writing process:
Researching kyomachiya proved difficult, as there are few English-language works dedicated to the topic save for a Ph.D thesis on the subject. My Japanese is limited to conversation, rather than writing, thus the bulk of this work came from visiting machiya, speaking with their owners, and discussing the subject with experts from the Kyoto Machiya Craftsmen's Group. The Craftsmen's Group is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the Kyoto machiya. Its members include workmen who specialize in machiya, machiya owners and perspective owners, an information center, and those who wish to buy and sell machiya. I found machiya owners to be generally eager to show their homes, and the time I spent talking with them was both enlightening and enjoyable.
I performed a small portion of translation from Japanese from the superb, though Japanese-language only Kyoto Machiya Craftsmen's Group's web site. It has been supplemented with information I learned in a number of conversations with workmen restoring machiya and from attending several "cram schools" given by the Craftsmen's Group.
Additionally, I worked part-time for a member of the Kyoto Machiya Craftsmen's Group, which meant that every week I spent time in one or two machiya in various states of restoration. I have removed miles of Meiji-period electrical wiring, crawled under floors to see foundation stones, smashed my head countless times on the low-hanging beams that support roofs, and above all, I have seen the wonderful brocade of variations that make up Kyoto's vernacular architecture.
As the kyomachiya is exclusive to Japan, a great deal of unique vocabulary surrounds the subject. I have chosen to leave words concerning specific parts of Machiya in Japanese, in addition to place names and street names. The rest are translated into the nearest English equivalent. With the exception of the first chapter, have attempted to define these words in the text as I come to them. The dictionary provided later in this work includes all of those words, in addition to other significant vocabulary. Additionally, I have used the terms "machiya" and "kyomachiya" interchangeably. Machiya exist in nearly every city in Japan, and are simply wooden houses in which craftsmen lived and worked. Kyomachiya refers to machiya built exclusively in Kyoto, on which this text solely focuses. Additionally, I have limited the scope of this text to pertain only from the late Edo-period until the end of machiya construction in 1936. Due to several earthquakes and fires, very few of the machiya standing in Kyoto today date from before this period.
