I had friends when I was a student who shared a machiya and I envied them very much. I was studying Japanese painting (nihonga) in the art department of Kyōto University of Education at the time.
The kyo-machiya (literally "capital city house") are the traditional dwellings of Kyōto. Their facade is often narrow. They consist of three tatami-covered rooms, arranged in a row from the street to the inner garden at the far end, bordered on one side by a space called a doma, originally made of clay, located at street level and sheltered under a wide roof. With the three rooms separated by movable partitions, a machiya provides a rare depth of space not found in modern houses. Such a space is precious for the distance it allows to paint large paintings. This was a luxury difficult to obtain outside the studio provided by the university.
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