Last year I was invited to view the ongoing work on an exciting machiya revival project in central Kyoto. Overseen by a local architectural company called Good Design Works the plan is to renovate not just one traditional townhouse but an entire unit of houses as a single integrated resort hotel. Machiya are the traditional wooden townhouses of Kyoto. Their dark lattice … [Read more...]
Matcha Tea & Machiya in Kyoto – Two Articles for GuideAdvisor
Whether you are interested in tea ceremony or traditional architecture, two pieces I wrote for GuideAdvisor earlier this year, offer my top tips for for your trip to Kyoto. The first article is on how to find the very best machiya: the traditional wooden townhouses of Kyoto. After decades of neglect and outright destruction, machiya have been undergoing something of a … [Read more...]
Ran Hotei Cafe – Vintage Taishō Romance & Excellent Cake
On Wednesday I took a walk over to the Sanjo-kai Shōtengai shopping arcade and popped into Randy Channell's machiya cafe Ran Hotei. Randy is well known as a master of Japanese tea ceremony, and he does teach a few tea ceremony classes at Ran Hotei. Mainly though he gives classes at a shrine near the Imperial Palace. So if you are not interested in tea ceremony, that's … [Read more...]
Kawai Kanjiro’s House
This is the house of Kawai Kanjiro, a legendary potter and a key figure in the mingei or Japanese folk art movement. His beautiful wooden townhouse has been preserved as a memorial run by his family. The building itself and the garden are wonderful, but you can also see here many of his works: ceramics, sculptures, and woodcarvings. His kilns are preserved at the back of the … [Read more...]
Trattoria Dougetsu by the Ocean
Mewby's birthday was a couple of weeks back and to celebrate I took her to Trattoria 道月 by the Ocean. Though the name is a bit unwieldy, the restaurant itself is very welcoming and friendly, and the food was superb. This is the outside of the building which as you can see is a lovely old (but fully renovated!) machiya townhouse. You can't beat a bit of machiya dining when in … [Read more...]
