町家：主屋　　　10.8mX7.8m ２階建て、切妻造、平入、桟瓦葺、正面切妻造突出／明治初年

　　　座敷棟　　７mX１１.９m２階建て、切妻造、平入、桟瓦葺/大正４年

　　　茶室　　　４畳半茶室、水屋、一重、入母屋造、桟瓦葺/昭和12年

　　　玄関棟　　一重切妻造、平入、桟瓦葺/明治34年

衣棚通に西面して１２間という巨大な間口を構える千吉西村吉右衞門家の旧宅である。元治の大火後の再建と思われる大塀造の主屋に総二階建て３室続きの座敷棟と茶室が付属する。

元治大火後に建設された当初部分は、南寄りの間口８間分の敷地であった。

正面に表屋を設けずに塀を立て、４間ほど奥に控えて主屋を置き、表の塀と主屋の間に玄関棟を角屋状に突き出した、典型的な大塀造形式をとる。表門南寄りに大戸を吊った門を開き、玄関庭を介して正面に主屋への内玄関、その手前にかって主玄関が配されていた。

玄関棟は、明治34年に改築されたという。３室がならぶ形式だったらしく、衣棚通から、控えの間、上玄関、通常玄関にあてられていた。棟の妻側は表塀と一体化され、出格子の窓が開けられる。

　

主屋は、当初規模で裄行５間半X梁間４間半、切妻、平入、総２階建の建物であったと推定される。南端を通り土間とし、北側を４間取とする。軸部は杉角柱を主体とし、一部にスギ両皮柱を用いる。建物背後にはかつて、現在敷地北西隅に２棟並ぶ土蔵のうち、南側の棟がたてられており、これは大正４年の座敷棟増築時に移築されている。

　

座敷棟は、主屋北側に正面側柱筋を主屋と揃えて奥に長く配される。大正４年の大正天皇即位御大典に際し、貴賓の宿所とするため、隣接地を購入してぞうちくしたもので、トガ普請の上質な書院造である。裄行６間半X梁間３間半、総２階建とする。平面は、１２畳半座敷、５畳仏間、１０畳内向き座敷を1列に並べ、北側を各室の床構えとし、東、南、北の三方を半間幅の廊下ないし縁で囲む。２階も概ね同様の平面をとる。敷地上の都合か、正面側に主座敷を配する。

内側はトガ角柱を主体とし、長押を打った格調高い書院造り、２階を長押を打たずに多数の樹種を用いた数奇屋風の座敷とする。主屋と座敷の間が中廊下状をなす。この座敷棟が増築された大正４年頃より、京都市中の大規模町家の主屋には、座敷脇に巾廊下を通して内向き部分と分節する事例がみられるようになるが、当建物はその先駆的な例の一つといえる。

座敷棟背後には先述の土蔵が移築され、さらにもう１棟が新築されている。ともに切妻造の２階建土蔵である。

主屋と座敷棟の前栽は、両者取り合い部より正面側へ突出する茶室によって二分される。昭和１２年に造築されたもので、裄行３間X梁間１間半の建物に茶室、水屋、便所、納戸が納られる

茶室は南面に躙口、北面に貴人口を設け、南北両側を露地とする。下地窓を多数開け、天井も３種貼り分けるなど、充実した内部空間を見せる。

本建物は、京町家に邸宅系の座敷意匠が導入された初期の例であり、こうした傾向の契機に、大正御大典があったことをうかがわあせる事例として、近代京町家の歴史上、重要な意義を持つ。

 

CHION-SHA  (ちおん舎）

Tsukinuke-cho, Koromodana Sanjo agaru, Nakagyo, Kyoto

 

Traditional machiya wooden townhouse:

Main building: 10.8m × 7.8m. Two-story Kiritsuma gable roof structure with Hirairi entrance (*1) and Sangawarabuki corrugated tiled roof / Meiji 1

Guest house: 7m × 11.9m. Two-story Kiritsuma gable roof structure with Hirairi entrance and Sangawarabuki corrugated tiled roof / Taisho 4

Tea house: A single-story Irimoya hipped roof structure with Sangawarabuki corrugated tiled roof. Consists of a four-and-a-half tatami mat tea room, a small kitchen etc. / Showa 4

 

(*1) Hirairi entrance: A main entrance installed on the side which runs parallel to the roof ridge.

 

Chion-sha was formerly a large townhouse with 23m width entrance facing the east on Koromodana Street, owned by Senkichi Nishimura Kichiemon. 

It consists of a Daihei style (*2) main building, which seems to have been rebuilt after a massive fire in Genji in 1864, and a two-story guest house with three rooms and a tea house.

 

(*2) Daihei style: An architectural style which features a building facing the street, but is separated from the street itself by a wall or a fence.

 

 

When it was rebuilt after a large fire in Genji, there was just a building in the south of the current site 15.2m width. It was a typical Daihei style structure, which included a fence in front and a main building about 7.6m behind the fence. There was also an entrance building between the fence and the main building. A sliding door was installed in the south part of the front gate and in the back of the door, a front garden and a side entrance to the main building were placed. (The main entrance used to be placed in front side of the side entrance.)

 

The entrance building is said to be rebuilt in Meiji 34. It's supposed to have consisted of a guest room, a reception hall and an entrance space arranged vertically from Koromodana Street. The east side wall of the building was integrated with the fence and the projecting lattice window was installed into the fence.

 

The main building used to be a two-story Kiritsuma gable roof structure (10.8m × 7.8m) with a Hirairi entrance at that time. There were dirt floor in the south part of the building and one tatami room with 7.6m width in the north. The cedar square pillars were used as an axis of the building and cedar bark pillars were partly used as well. On the back (west) of the building, a warehouse used to be placed (the south side warehouse of two existing warehouses), which was relocated here when the guest house was built in Taisho 4.

 

The guest house is located north of the main building and is quite long. It was built to accommodate the VIP of the Taisho Emperor's coronation in Taisho 4. The building is appreciated as a high-quality Shoin style structure (*3) using Japanese hemlock. (two-story, 7m × 11.9m) 

On the ground floor, there are a twelve-and-a-half tatami mat guest room, a five tatami mat altar room and ten tatami mat room in a line. All rooms are equipped with a tokonoma alcove in the north side and a 98cm width wooden edge in east, south and north sides surrounding the rooms. The second floor is also similar in design. The main guest room is located in the front (east) side, which is supposed to be due to some condition of the site at that time. The square pillar made of Japanese hemlock mainly supports the building. The ground floor is a dignified Shoin style structure using nageshi architraves and the second floor, on the other hand, is a Sukiya style structure (*4) using many kinds of wood instead of nageshi.

The wide edge in the south side of the rooms is used as a corridor connecting to the main building. This style of the architecture, used to create a corridor on the side of the room to divide the guest rooms and the private rooms, had been seen in large-scale townhouses since around Taisho 4 when this building was built. It could be said that this building was one of the first cases.

The warehouse was relocated on the back of the guest house as mentioned previously and then one new warehouse was built next to the old one. Both are a two-story Kiritsuma roof structure.

 

(*3) Shoin style structure: A style of construction, which includes an alcove and staggered shelves, commonly recognized as the basis for modern Japanese home.

(*4) Sukiya style structure: A style of ceremonial tea house.

 

The front garden of the main building and the guest house are divided into two parts by the tea house located between the two buildings. The tea house was built in Showa 14 (5.8m × 3.9m) and consists of a four-and-a-half tatami mat tea room, a small kitchen, a restroom and a storeroom. The tea room is equipped with the nijiriguchi entrance in the south side and the kininguchi entrance in the north side. The gardens of both north and south side were designed as Roji, a traditional tea garden. The authentic interior design contains many of the shitajimado windows (*5), three kinds of wooden ceilings with traditional Japanese patterns. 

 

(*5) shitajimado windows: A bamboo lattice windows with a wooden frame, with special care taken to keep the base of the bamboo frame visible and natural in appearance.

 

This building is an early example of the architecture that introduced the design of reception rooms to ordinary townhouses. It supposed that the Taisho Emperor's coronation created a trend of such architecture. Chion-sha has important significance in the history of Kyo-machiya (traditional wooden townhouse in Kyoto).

 

 

正面外観　

Facade

 

主屋上手６畳内部

Six tatami mat room in the main building

 

座敷棟　一階内部　西より東をみる

The ground floor in the guest house (seen from the east)

 

座敷棟　一階内部　東より西をみる

The ground floor of the main building (seen from the west)

 

配置図 (1/500)

Building layout (1/500)

 

一階平面図 (1/350)   IF  floor plan (1/350)

 

茶室   Tea room

 

土蔵    Warehouse