Caption:The Yasuimoku Komuten Company, specialists in the renovation, restoration and construction of authentic traditional Japanese structures, employ master carpenters to dismantle the house and prepare it for reassembly inside Boston Children’s Museum.
Kyoto townhouse | Prior to 1870 | Museum | Open year round | Boston, Massachusetts
Address
308 Congress Street Boston, Massachusetts 02210
General Location
Type: Kyoto townhouse
Construction Date: Prior to 1870
Located at Boston Children's Museum, a Museum which is Open year round.
Originally constructed in Kyoto in 1830.
Disassembled and reconstructed in Boston Children's Museum in 1980.
Originally constructed in Kyoto in 1830.
Disassembled and reconstructed in Boston Children's Museum in 1980.
Cultural or historic information
Machiya is a style of residential and commercial townhouse. A Kyo no Machiya is a unique form of machiya found only in Kyoto. In the Nishijin area, the silk-weaving district of Kyoto, the front part of the house is used for weaving or selling silk. The back part of the house is where the family lives. Machiya means “townhouse,” but they aren’t exactly similar to what Americans call a townhouse. Machiya always have a shop or some sort of commercial business in the front room. Machiya have a history of being adapted for new uses as new enterprises are undertaken by the residents, so it is entirely fitting that one was adapted for its new use as an educational exhibit in Boston Children’s Museum.
Construction Information
This is a traditional silk merchants home, originally built in Kyoto, Japan and moved to the Museum in 1980. It is 100% traditionally fabricated and constructed.
In 1980 this 150 year old townhouse from Kyoto's Nishijin district was packed in crates and shipped to Boston, where it was reconstructed by five Japanese carpenters (miyadaiku) from Yasui Moku Komuten.
A documentary film by Rachel Strickland and Richard Leacock, Rebuilding An Old Japanese House https://vimeo.com/27353538 shares a first-hand observation of traditional tools and woodworking techniques, as it chronicles the assembly process.
Caption: