Hello world, In Japan's former capital city, Kyoto, these are the homes that for a time most lived in Kyo-machiyas What does the word "Kyo-machiya" mean? It's a blend of Kyoto and machiya Kyoto, the city, and machiya, meaning townhouse. There are actually a ton of different types of dwellings that fall under the Kyo-machiya categorization. But in general, they have to be build before the 1950s, because of a building standards law that came into place that time and the wooden homes need to be put together without nails. So the question I feel this video needs to answer is what's so special about Kyo-machiyas and why I live in an old Japanese townhouse? Because I mean, if you're like me, you might have heard that old Japanese home are poorly build with no insulation. You can hear your neighbors, they're cold in the winter and tough to maintain. And what about earthquakes? Isn't there a reason for that building standards law? Isn't it is a good thing that these old places are getting replaced by modern buildings? To answer those questions, I visited four different families, as well as stayed in a guest house, and even saw a vacant traditional Kyo-machiya. So this is our house. Yeah, I'm Richard. I'm Masami. And while they lived many years oversees from Africa to the Philippines, they are Canadian and Japanese. Sorry, I'm Bryn and originally from Canada. Since I saw the photos online I just thought yeah this looks absolutely perfect. My name is Cecilia and I'm from Mexico. For a period of maybe two years. She searched and finally find the Kyo-machiya that she wants to renovate. -She'll also be
-Building everything with the use of natural materials. I'm Vincent and I'm French. Hi, I'm Ayu, I'm Indonesian. We wanted to live the Kyoto experience and to be in a traditional house but at the same time we wanted something quite comfortable because we are living with two kids of 3 and 6 years old. The factor that it's a beautifully made wood house I think was one of the key attractions. So these are the Oshiires. It's a traditional sliding partition door. The idea behind that was particularly in the hot summers. That's wind below throughout the house while giving each of the room privacy. These are actually the flowers from the thousand yen note. and which is a trademark of the maker. We also asked him to make these, this is a heron. This is actually my family crest. For this week we keep it a very minimalist, we keep it in a traditional Japanese bedroom sense. So we just have the tatami mats, store the futons everyday in the cupboard. Probably not done the traditional Japanese way. -But that's not simple, right?
-Yeah. We really like about the upstairs here is high to the ceilings. So, you can see these are the original beams form the house. This is supposed to be my pottery studio. But because of the Tatami, it's kind of difficult. Then I can move this one over there So something that {\i1}big things, I can bring to the front.{\i0} So this is the 坪庭 Traditionally in a machiya, this would be in the center of the house, you have a long house and it would be in the center. And the reason they had them. They have an open area would actually let light into the house. This one is actually one of my 盆栽 So this comes form ____ 盆栽 group. I can not play. This one is belong to my grandmother who was from Kyoto, originally. And then, probably this is about 100 years old. Modern homes, they are beautiful, they are functional. But they don't really reflect the culture. Whereas the people living in Machiya, I think really reflex the culture. Yes, so there's three Machiya here. The guys beside me is a guest house and then it's a family next door. And then there are some businesses across the street and some families as well. Just looking at it, it feels like a modern where you can find in any Japanese home. Exactly. -Every once in a while,....
-Oh yeah, that's right, there's a hole. Yeah that's really cool! I like that. So stairs are pretty steep. They are steep, but I don't think that's really unusual for Machiya. And this is the laundry, the temple, they're really nice And this belongs to temple as well. And then this is my daughter's room and.. probably not that clean. This is just looking down to the kitchen from upstairs. Natural beauty Machiya absolutely love. The alternates in Kyoto for me are just so unappealing. really really horrible, kind of cookie-cutter homes and kind of emulate western styles in a way. And they're absolutely devoid of soul. I know what he's talking about, my house. Yep, I bought it 3 years ago and it's completely cookie-cutter. And nope, I wouldn't describe it as beautiful. Although, I do find it very practical for my family's needs. So this is our bathroom. And yeah, as you know, we have Japanese toilet. Please come here. This is my favorite palace. You know, it's a bath time. And in the center we can see the beautiful garden. We love to cook and it's important for us also to have a big kitchen. So we decided to put the kids upstairs. This looks really fun place. We enjoy the fact of being just near the river. Let's go to kamogawa This is the neighbor's wall. -That's the neighbor's wall?
-Yeah. So this is the back of the wall of the authentic wall Okay. And here of course, it needs to be repaired. Okay, and so when you renovate it, you keep the same style? Yes. The walls are composed of a straw and mud mixture, both which used to come from rice fields. That's bamboo, yes. It's the base for putting the first layer of soil. So the first three layers are quite rough and then the last layer would be the finish. and this is what I really like about these old places, you can see the history. Since Cecilia was so passionate about Kyo-machiyas I asked what she most liked about them. Everything. The materials, how it's build, and also the part of the conservation Because it's not just conservation of the architecture, but it's also conservation of the urbanism of Kyoto. Emmm, wood structures, just everything. Okay, so let's have a rundown of a basic Kyo-machiya. First off, they're often called うなぎの寝床 or eel beds. There're two popular theories as to how the name came about. One theory states that as taxes were determined by the width of the building's entrance. The portion of the building that face the street became narrower and the building's length increased. Another theory posits that land plots were divided up into small units to bring as many merchants as possible to help make the city thrive. So the front part is called 店の間 or shop space. It's where crafts man might put together kimonos, like Cecilia's place or sell goods, like Bryn's neighbors place. A really friendly guy by the way. So they often had dual purposes. Long before live were condos were all the rage. Along the whole side of the building would be the 通り庭 which is an earthen floor corridor. This is also where the おくどさん, the kitchen was located. And this is what the traditional cooking equipment looked like. Because it was earthen floors, footwear would be worn in this area. If you looked up, you'd noticed a double height ceiling called the 火袋. This place acted both as a chimney for the smoke form cooking and as a sky light. Behind the shop space, there would be the 居室部, or the living space. That's where you could host guests, or simply eat your meals. At the end of the house would be the 縁側 this is the wooden veranda and to me its very iconically Japanese. That all feature a double set of sliding doors. Based on the weather and the desire amount of the wind or light you wanted, you could open and close them to transform the room. There's even these cute little ones above. And 縁側 will have a little courtyard garden called 坪庭. Many Kyo-machiya are right on the street so gardens up front were rare. So on the back, this is where you could have some greenery and let some light in. In quite a few these house designs I've seen, this is also where you'd have your bath. If you go upstairs, the second floor, you might notice a 箱階段, which literally means box stairs. With the lack of space, it's a practical way of putting in extra storage. At the top is generally where sleeping quarters would be. Tatami rooms with closets where you can storage your futons, which you'd put out at night to sleep in. While a new Kyo-machiya can be built from scratch, due to time, money and skill restraints, it is rarely done. As a result, their numbers are decreasing at a whirring rate. roughly 2 or 3 kyo-machiya is being demolished each day. The current stock around 40000 that means by 2050, there will be very few left. So that one of a very big kinda mission we want to accomplish. To preserve as much as we can. Increasingly, people are coming together to keep these historical buildings as well as being creative with these spaces. For example, the four families I visited purchased or rented their home though Hachise ensuring they are preserved. Other uses for Kyo-machiya, include gust houses, shops and restaurants just to name a few. Hachise is a 64 years old real estate agency, mainly deal with Kyo-machiya. We help foreign customers to buy their own house or a future investment. And also we help... we have monthly rental. A good thing is that while it's quite difficult to get Kyo-machiya build from scratch renovating an exist one is much simpler especially if you not changing the structure. And I find that sometimes the constraints can be a creative boon where people find such fascinating ways of designing around and living within the limitations given. These are a group of Kyo-machiya that have been renovated. There are three houses in this complex and they all have their own unique styling. As traditional as Kyo-machiya may seen they have gone through generations of change. So you shouldn't feel that you can't switch up some elements. While the works are often done by local craftsman and use local materials the results can widely vary. This Tatami room was transformed into a meditation/yoga room with the wall covered in washi or Japanese paper. Here you can see the original wooden beams up top and some added windows below along the stairway. And an example of choice you can make is whether to go with hard wood floors or tatami mats. This one, actually has both in a same room. And sleeping on the floor, you can do that at certain places but western style beds can also be had. One thing I've seen with all places is that they choose to have modern kitchens and bathroom facilities. To get an idea of renovations that can be done, let's start off by taking a look at Richard and Mmasami's house. Another additional that we made is a fitted kitchen. Oven, grill and dishwasher. We have these blinds witch you can bring down if you want to cover the kitchen. So this side of the machiya is really fun, actually the design face. What you want, how you want things hidden, what you want highlight and so on, this is really fun. So this actually turns out to be quite nice place to sit, read a book. I've had the dream to build up my own sports bar in my house so I... one of the first projects I did. And also here we have it at the matchwood the contractor who built the house help we find the natural solid piece for the top. So the first upgrade we requested before moving in was a heated floor. I think that are fully recommend. Speaking of temperature control, this seems like a good time to address common concerns people have about living in a Kyo-machiya. We were a little bit afraid before because we are afraid to be like so cold in the winter and so hot in the summer. Everybody told me not to choose the machiya because it's too cold and too difficult to live in. But ___ the winter is almost over, and we survived. The construction you know, -The heating floor.
-Yeah, the heating floor, it's really warm in the winter There's one aircon here and one aircon upstairs. They're heavily used. Just a quick note, renovating Kyo-machiyas are often upgraded with both isolation as well as heating and cooling equipment such as double pane windows heated floors and aircon units. Usually the machiyas are quite dark. A new window will be here on this walls. There are a couple reasons as to why machiyas on the ground level are dark. One is that they are long and narrow townhouses which means unless they're on a corner lot, there's no windows on the side walls The second is that front windows are usually covered with 格子 which means lattice. They are supposed to still let in light but it's not the same amount that you'd get from a completely clear window. In Cecilia's case, there's no longer a building on the other side of the wall, so she can put a window in as the latest building codes ensure a new house can never be put up right against it again. And talking about building codes, how would Kyo-machiya hold up in an earthquake? The building methods used are the same ones that temples use which is placing wooden posts on rocks that can slide in the event of an earthquake. Instead of trying to make the structure stay put it instead focus on letting it shift. Despite numerous earthquakes, there are temples that lasted over hundreds of years. That being said, due to geography, the city of Kyoto hasn't historically received earthquakes as large as other parts of Japan. I've read some recent small scales studies, showing that earthquake resistance of Kyo-machiyas are greater than previously thought. But hey, I'm no engineer or architect. So, how do you get your self into a Kyo-machiya of your own? If you are purchasing with cash, then there are basically no problem. Even as a foreigner. That's right, if you have the cash, it doesn't matter who you are, you can buy. But if you don't, there are loans available, although you most likely need to be a permanent resident to go this route. My initial thoughts were to be unaffordable but actually price-wise, it was also very surprising how affordable they were compared to properties let's say the Vancouver. Actually that's not too surprising the Vancouver housing market is terribly unaffordable. But I get his point. For a historical building in a world-class City it's not as costly as you would think. In Kyoto with Kyo-machiyas there are many subsidies. For example, if you are renovating the earth walls, you get some subsidies to refurbish them also structure, you can get help from Kyoto city. Now not everyone can buy a one or wants to buy a one, but you can certainly temporarily stay in one. Whether it's as a tourist for a night or two in a guesthouse or perhaps as a visiting professor who needs a fully furnished monthly rental. What I enjoyed most by making this video was seeing how people are connecting to the culture of Tokyo, Through not only the buildings but the crafts man they met the traditional items they purchased from them and the locals they joined with to preserve long-standing tradition. The one activity I got involved with actually though a group in a local 焼き鳥 restaurant, that was the 神輿 It's very heavy. Each shrine is 2 tons and then you carry on two poles So now when I walk around the community, they recognize me, they thank you for being involved for carrying this thing, it's heavy. はい チーズ I cut so many interesting things out of the video, like this little guy on the roof, syoki san, that protects the house from demons Special thanks to Hachise for sponsoring this video they will help get you into a Kyo-machiya, whether it's buying one or only staying a night This is actually one of those special occurrences where having a sponsor made the video much much better as I got access to so many different Kyo-machiyas as well as to the kind people who let me into their homes. Thanks for watching, see you next time, bye! What are traditional houses like where you are from?
