Old 'machiya' houses in Kyoto given new lease of life by niche loans

Sae Cardonnel and her French husband Sylvain outfitted their machiya with a modern kitchen and heated floors

Sacrilege!

Retrofitted faux 'machiya' or more hotels to accommodate the Chinese tourists. Is this really the choice these days?

My old old girlfriend bought and restored a machiya. She did it with me helping when I could get to Kyoto. I learned a bit about machiya and could see how the place was originally made. She needed to join machiya associations to get the right connections with traditional tradespeople, which was not easy for an outsider from Osaka. Fairly authentic - better than the 昭和era Once it was made she turned it into machiya-stay.

One thing though - she ended up knowing more than the more modern contract tradespeople. Authenticity is the issue with these heritage places. ANd Kyoto is an absolute example of gentrification process happening to these former artisan working class areas.

But my old old girlfriend loved me less than she loved her machiya, and I left. I made the right choice because she bought the machiya next door and turned it into a bar and became even happier. Now I am inkochi and I am happier too.

Your ex sounded fun. Fixing up old places and doing a bit of DIY while learning the history is pretty cool. And wait... She st up a bar next door?

She sounds like a dream!

Retrofitted faux 'machiya' with a few modern day comforts is still better than tearing them down.

The country’s Building Standards Act of 1950 requires that all new wooden structures be built using modern construction methods, which essentially rendered older buildings obsolete, no matter how structurally sound they might be.

If an act stipulated how new structures should be built, how would it make older buildings obsolete? if they were grandfathered past earthquake codes as mentioned in the following paragraph? What does "obsolete" mean for a house anyway?

Old Japanese houses, of which machiya are merely one type, are charming. Vernacular architecture really gives places character and should be supported, not least by any local government aiming at tourists. Regarding the "structurally sound" comment in the article above, traditional Japanese houses are unbraced post and beam and as a rule are not structurally sound in an earthquake. They have big openings and no extra materials (cross braces, brackets, structural sheathing like plywood, etc.) to reinforce the joints and keep the frame square. The other big weakness is that most old houses sit on rocks on the ground with no built or reinforced foundations. Some people seem to think this is an ancient form of earthquake proofing, and it may have worked within the lower expectations people had in the past. Old houses that roll off rocks in earthquakes these days though will be written off and get knocked down.

Regarding the authenticity issue, I say leave that to any machiya run as museums. The rest are houses for living in.

Hopefully most of the remaining ones can be saved.