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of the residence is far brighter than those two rooms. Usually the second floor
is used by children, but whenever a host of guests is present at, say, a memorial
service, it is instantly converted into the guest floor. One of the rooms is a
10-tatami room with a high ceiling. The floor of its tokonoma alcove is covered
with hinoki cypress boards. The room looks very spacious and plain. The wellhole
kitchen area on the frist floor received direct sunlight above the high wall on
the south side from its construction until around the time I was born. It received
plenty of light from two windows, on the east and the west, and three top lights.
Today the kitchen is robbed of southern sunlight by the neighbor's rather tall
house, but it is still the best room in the house of brightness and ventilation.
This space starkly contrasts with the subdued and graceful atmosphere of other
residential rooms, but these differences are what makes life in Kyoto so rich.
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In freezing winter, besides closing the fusuma and shoji
and warming ourselves with a hibachi brazier, we also close the storm doors on
the porch. We of course wear many clothes to keep warm and look forward to spring.
When a few shirowabisuke camellia bloom in the backyard, we slightly open kumo
shoji, a small sliding screen of ranma transom located above the storm door on
the verandah, and enjoy playing with Hina dolls in the warmer weeks after the
doll festival itself. Around the time of fresh green leaves and the Boy's Festival,
the shoji and fusuma are opened to let fresh breezes flow through. As the rainy
season sets in, tatami mats get wet. Room doors are closed. Gloomy days pass.
When flowers fall one after another from the mokkoku, or the evergreen tree Temstroemia
japonica, shoji and fusuma are all changed for yoshido reed sliding doors. With
ajiro carpets spread on the floor, the rooms are ready for summer. |
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On the first of July,gion bayashi, or the elegant music
of the Gion Festival, echoes in the evenivg, setting the atmosphere for Kyoto's
gorgeous traditional festival. The festival began as a prayer for protection from
epidemics and urban disasters and a wish for continued prosperity, and shop owners
enjoy it with customers and passersby as requried. Lattices are removed from the
shop windows, and manmaku curtains with the family's crest are hung. Yoshido are
replaced by bamboo blinds. Folding screens with historic scenes are erected. Refreshing
wild flowers are arranged on exotic rugs. My house looks grand beyond my imagination. |
House fittings
for summer and winter
In kyoto house, especially in machiya, people completely replace fittings such
as sliding doors and partitions each summer and winter. Sliding doors called shoji
and fusuma are set up in winter, and in summer, they are replaced by shoji made
of reed and bamboo blinds. Rattan rugs are placed on the tatami. Reed shoji and
bamboo blinds ensure sufficient ventilation and give a cool impression. Rattan
rugs are cool to the touch.This custom is said to be unique to Kansai.
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The Gion
Festival and machiya
On the eve of the Gion Festival's yamboko jungyo (parade of floats) , machiya
in Yamaboko-cho display their treasured folding screens, rugs and other items
for appreciation by festival visitors and also for airing after the rainy season.
For this purpose, the house's front lattices are so structured that they can be
removed to make the store area an open space. On this special day, the treasures
of machiya are put on view to the public, ensuring a grand occasion. |
Shady patio and sunny backyard respond to each other. Soft
berrzes entering rooms entertain guests. Holy yamaboko festive floats mounted
with decorative halberds pass through streets and gone. After the festival return
the ordinary summer rooms. Rooms that shut out mid summer light wait for fall
to come while cicadas sing. In October, the weather turns cooler, and summer gear
is retumed to the storehouse; winter gear is brought back. When wabisuke camellias
start to bloom, we spend long winter nights around the brazier.
Kyo machiya with their wonderful seasonal changes have now become the minority
in Kyoto. Even though this ancient capital recived no majoy damage during the
last war, people are negligent about repairing their houses and, much worse, pull
them down with the excuse of changing lifestyles. I wonder how Kyoto will look
in the 21st century. |
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All images Copyright. 1997 Kansai International Public Relations
Promotion Office.
All Rights Reserved.
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