Kyoto machiya
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.
-Wikipedia
Kyoto Machiya Resource
Nick Coutts an undergraduate student in Kyoto made this English language website that summarizes the history of Kyoto machiya, current challenges to their preservation and has some photos of some of Kyoto’s most well known and well preserved machiya. Also, there is a dictionary of machiya related terms that is quite useful.
http://www.kyotomachiya.com/
Sugimoto Residence Kyoto Machiya
This gigantic and elegant Kyoto machiya is a popular sightseeing destination in the central Kyoto. If you can only see one machiya during your visit to Kyoto, this would be my recommendation. Check out this floor plan!
http://www.gyoutai.com/eng/kyoto/sugimoto/
Microbrewery in Kyoto Machiya: Hiroino Kinenkan and Kyoto Machiya Beer
Beer, or bi-ru in Japanese is a very popular drink. It is far more common than Japanese sake now. Kyoto Machiya Beer (京都町家麦酒) was started by a sake brewery with about 250 years of history and makes very good craft beer. Craft beer is not so common in Japan and Kyoto Machiya Beer is the only brewery that brews beer in the city. Kyoto Machiya Beer is located in a beautiful Kyoto machiya in center of the city. The building is called Hiroino Kinenkan (堀野記念館), or Horino Memorial Museum and commemorates the history of the sake brewery.
website (Japanese language) http://www.kinshimasamune.com/beer.html
tel and fax: 075-223-2072
Iori: Stay in a Beautifully Restored Kyoto Machiya
Check out this forum for more.
http://www.kyoto-machiya.com
Wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiya
