Here’s a quick dump and run of some of the sights to be had in the back streets and riverside of Kyoto.
More painted privacy screens, serene trainee Geisha and traditional architecture.
Once again we take a detour down into the traditional Gion heart of Kyoto to enjoy the clean, calm architecture on show.
We can see lots of examples of Machiya (町屋/町家) traditional wooden townhouses found throughout Japan but typified in Kyoto.
The city’s key selling point – the Maiko, appears on everything from this little warning cone to posters and to the beautiful wooden “rules” boards.
Here’s a peek into a beautiful zen garden that just oozes calm and serenity.
I love the plain lines and wooden aesthetic of the traditional houses. Apparently most Japanese people buy a house to pull it down and rebuild a new one as they depreciate in value from the minute you start to live in them.
So old houses are becoming a more and more rare sight due to the constant churn of building and subsequent destruction.
The typical Kyoto machiya is a long wooden home with narrow street frontage and often containing one or more small courtyard gardens.
The front of a machiya features wooden lattices, or kōshi (格子), the styles of which were once indicative of the type of shop the machiya held.
Finally here’s the nearest thing I got to a picture of a Maiko – a photo of a poster!!! 🙂
