Kyo-Machiya : Tracing the development of the traditional town houses of Kyoto through the medieval centuries

The machiya of Kyoto (kyo-machiya) are the most venerable category of Japan's traditional roadside 'burgher houses'. Surviving examples date from the eighteenth century but the development of the type from medieval times can be reconstructed from contemporary illustrations. Machiya were a feature of the capital's streetscape by the twelfth century, as homes of minor officials, servants and artisans. Their origins probably lie in row-houses (conceptually analogous to Buddhist monastic lodgings) erected for lesser officials, craftsmen and labourers in walled compounds in Japan's early capitals. Their emergence onto major streets may reflect Chinese influence. Shops, rare at first, became a common feature of the machiya's street frontage, reflecting Japan's economic development during the medieval period. During the late sixteenth century, again probably under Chinese influence, many acquired upper floors (often jettied) and prominent gable walls. Is the relative synchronicity of the emergence of roadside street-orientated dwellings in Japan, China and Europe coincidence?.