01 — The house
Six metres wide.
Twenty-eight deep.
Kyoto's townhouses are called unagi no nedoko — an eel's bed. Narrow to the street, impossibly long behind it. Frontage was taxed, so the city built backwards.
This one was raised in 1884 in Nishijin, the weavers' quarter, and restored in 2023: the earthen toriniwa passage kept, the structural cedar exposed, the courtyard reopened after fifty years under a roof. Underfloor heating, new services, and a hinoki bath at the back.
Freehold. Vacant possession. Registered as a designated historic townscape building — which carries a restoration grant and restricts external alteration.
02 — Gallery
Room by room.
03 — Plan
One axis,
front to back.
The toriniwa runs the full depth on the west side — an earthen corridor that was once the kitchen, the workshop and the only way through. Every room opens off it to the east.
The courtyard sits at the centre of the plan, fourteen metres in. It is what makes the rear rooms habitable.
Ground floor shown. The upper storey carries two further rooms and the storehouse, reached by the box stair at 19 m.
04 — Specification
The detail.
- Address
- Nishijin, Kamigyō-ku, Kyoto
- Tenure
- Freehold
- Land
- 168 m² (50.8 tsubo)
- Floor area
- 142 m², two storeys
- Frontage
- 6.0 m
- Depth
- 28.0 m
- Built
- 1884 (Meiji 17)
- Restored
- 2023
- Structure
- Traditional timber frame
- Roof
- Kawara tile, relaid 2023
- Heating
- Underfloor, heat pump
- Bath
- Hinoki soaking tub
- Parking
- None; bicycle store in the doma
- Designation
- Historic townscape building
Guide price ¥298,000,000
05 — The quarter
Nishijin.
Kyoto's weaving district for five hundred years. Quiet, low, almost entirely residential — the looms are mostly gone but the street pattern and the houses are not.
- 4 min Senbon-Imadegawa
- 9 min Kitano Tenmangū
- 12 min Nishijin Textile Center
- 18 min Kinkaku-ji
- 24 min Kyoto Station by bus
06 — Viewing
Come and walk it
for yourself.
Viewings Tuesday to Saturday. We ask for a day's notice — the house is shown with the screens open and the lamps lit.