Basic Information
A study of kyomachiya begins with its basic definition, something that is surprisingly hard to come by. People differ on specific points of what actually constitutes a kyomachiya, so for purposes of this work, I will use the following definition, based on one given to me by Kyo Suekawa, an architect and member of The Kyoto Machiya Craftsmen's Group, whose opinion I greatly respect:
A long and narrow wooden house built within Kyoto prior to 1936 by skilled carpenters (Suekawa email).
There are more complicated definitions in existence, which specify maximum and minimum dimensions a house must satisfy in order to qualify as a kyomachiya, but I find it to be splitting hairs. As the number of variations I have seen among kyomachiya is virtually endless, such a narrow definition would not be adequate.
Using such a specific year to end the reign of machiya might seem strange at first, however in 1936, just prior to the start of war, the Japanese government prohibited the building of new private houses, and following the war, prevented the resumption of traditional construction methods due to concerns about fire and earthquakes (Suekawa email).
Machiya have evolved through the cycle of fires and earthquakes in Kyoto. An enormous fire in 1788, known as the Temmei conflagration, was responsible for destroying over 183,000 houses over the course of two days. In 1864, again a fire devastated the city. Known as the Ganji conflagration, it is responsible for fact that most machiya standing today date from the Meiji period (Lofgren 112). In 1830, a major earthquake struck Kyoto, leveling nearly all of the kura (225). Few are left standing today. The devastation caused by the alternating fires and earthquakes served in some sense to advance the state of the machiya. The rebuilding allowed dramatic changes to be made to the structures, making them far more livable than before the disasters.
From the outside, machiya generally have a similar appearance. They are all quite narrow, and it is often said that they are built in the "bed of eels" style, meaning that a great number of long and skinny houses lined a road. In years past, people were taxed based on the amount of street frontage their building occupied, thus the slim machiya style emerged as a way around burdensome taxation.
Since a machiya will usually have one or more common elements, I will detail the most popular here starting with the outside. A mushiko mado is one of the most obvious features one first sees in a machiya. It loosely translates as "insect cage window", which is relatively analogous to its appearance. A typical mushiko mado runs along the front of the structure's second story, and is comprised of a series of thick plastered boards spaced in such a way that they allow the occupants inside to see outside of the house while keeping the interior private from the street (kyomachiya.net). It has the added purpose of protecting against intruders due the fact that there is no means of entry, and is highly resistant to fire due to its plaster construction. It is highly evolved to suit the machiya due to its multiple functions. Unfortunately, it is typically one of the first features of a machiya to disappear in renovations, though I have also seen it updated with glass panels recessed behind it providing a refuge from the weather for the occupants inside while retaining a traditional outward appearance.
Windows on the first floor are usually protected from damage and intruders outside via a wooden lattice known as a koushi. The slats are arranged in such a way as to let the maximum amount of light inside while retaining a measure of protection on the outside and providing privacy for those inside. There are a variety of different designs, and often the styles are specific to a certain type of shop. A common variation on first floor windows is to have a picture window extending outward beyond the front facade of the structure. Known as a degoushi, it too is covered with koushi latticework, and often has white translucent paper screens known as shoji behind it letting light inside but providing complete privacy for the inside.
A common sight on the first story rooftop of a machiya is the Shoki-san, a small carved stone figure in order to ward off bad luck and guard against disease and bad spirits. One book dedicated exclusively to shoki-san relates the following (likely apocryphal) tale of their origin:
A Chinese legend has it that when a T'ang Dynasty emperor was sick, he had a fever dream in which he was attacked by demons, and the shoki appeared and ate them. When the emperor woke up he was cured, so he instructed artists to paint the shoki figures as he remembered them (Shoki, 2).
Japan has a long history of adopting continental Asian culture, and the shoki-san are no exception. Their variety is virtually infinite, with each representing a fierce, hollow-eyed warrior perched atop a rooftop.
Another obvious element outside is the inuyarai, a cheese wedge-shaped bamboo fence that protects the lower part of the facade from damage by passing people or animals (JAANUS). Apocryphal stories abound as to another purpose, namely preventing animals from urinating on the facade. This is likely due in no small part to the name, as inuyarai literally translates as "dog fence". I find it to be preposterous and see no evidence that a bamboo fence would prevent such an act, but have mentioned it here due to the amount of sources that claim it to be the case.
From first shops in the fledgling imperial capital one thousand years ago, machiya have evolved to the point where most follow the same general layout, with the shop area in the rooms closest to the street and living quarters towards the rear. Rooms are multi purpose, as in most traditional Japanese structures, with sliding partitions between areas rather than true walls, and a great deal of open space during the day when bedding is put away. From the late Edo-period onward, the floor of most rooms is comprised of tatami, thick woven straw mats of a standard size. The standard size of tatami mats and their ubiquity means that rooms are designed to fit the mats rather than the other way around.
Inside the machiya, most rooms are raised above the ground. Typically an earthen or stone floored pathway, known as a toriniwa, runs from the front of the house to the back, and the rooms are arranged to follow the line it makes. The raising of rooms affords a degree of protection from the humid summers in Kyoto, which would otherwise destroy a wooden structure should precautions not be taken. Thee raised rooms allows the movement of air under the house, which in turn keeps mold from forming and wood from rotting. Typically above the toriniwa the ceiling gives way into a large open area called the hibukuro, the purpose of which is to allow smoke from traditional cooking stoves to safely exit the structure.
The rooms closest to the street almost always serve to provide space for a shop, known as a mise. Depending on the type of store, the mise can be comprised of a raised room covered with tatami mats, such as in a kimono merchant's shop, or can be an earthen or stone floor as in the case of a rice or barley merchant's shop.
Near the mise is a space for receiving guests, known as the genkan. In order to enter, one must take off one's shoes and step upwards into the room. The step provides a strong physical division between the outside, and thus unclean outside world, with the pure and clean inside of the house. As the mise is considered public space, the step up into the genkan provides both a physical and spiritual division between the public and private spaces of the house. There are strong religious origins to the word genkan, and it is interconnected in a larger sense with the ritual purity in the indigenous Shinto religion (A Japanese Touch for Your Home, 22).
Through the genkan, one might encounter the tsuboniwa, a small garden within the confines of the house. While providing beauty and allowing more light to penetrate the interior confines of the house, it serves the additional purpose of solving water drainage problems from the convergence of several rooftops above (Lofgren, 184). Not all machiya have such gardens, though through anecdotal evidence, I would say that a high percentage contain a tsuboniwa.
Towards the rear of most machiya is a room called the zashiki, which served the function of receiving the most important guests or customers. During other times it was an area exclusively reserved for the head of the household (Lofgren 176). A zashiki often faces a garden designed solely for viewing from that room. Guests to the household never enter the garden, and it is designed in a very deliberate way to provide the strongest viewing from inside the zashiki.
Outside the house, and usually to the rear sometimes sits one or more storehouses known as kura. Traditionally they were found only in the houses of the wealthy, and are strongly-built and extremely thick-walled structures designed to resist fire. Kura are typically two stories in height and have only a handful of windows, thus minimizing the possible entry points for a fire. The windows and door are usually left open to provide ventilation, otherwise the moisture from Kyoto's humid air would quickly destroy it. In the event of an emergency, valuables would be stored away inside, and a mixture of mud would be worked into the cracks between the doors and windows to completely seal the building off from smoke. Kura construction can take a considerable amount of time, on the order of several years in certain cases. This is due in large part to the thick plaster covering on the outside walls, which is applied in tens of layers, each taking weeks to dry. It ranges from eighteen inches to nearly two feet in thickness.
Works Cited
Hattori, Masami. Shoki: Household Guardians in Kyoto. Self-published, 1996.
JAANUS - Terminology of Japanese Architecture and Art History. 15 November 2005. http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/.
Kyomachiya. 15 November 2005. http://www.kyomachiya.net.
Lofgren, Karin. Machiya: Architecture and History of the Kyoto Town House. Stockholm: School of Architecture, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2003.
Suekawa, Kyo. "RE: A Few Answers." Email to author. 8 February 2006.
