Kyoto Machiya Stories —Volume3: The Story of “Kyoto Moyashi House（京都もやし町家）”
This article is an English translation and reprint of a portion of the article “STORIES” from the portal site of the Kyoto Machiya Succession Support Net (MATCH YA), which introduces examples of how Kyo-machiya are being used, with the cooperation of the Kyoto Center for Community Collaboration.
Kyoto Machiya Succession Support Net
The group of experts in the fields of architecture, real estate, and law, as well as financial institutions and government agencies, working together with owners and residents to preserve Kyo-machiya and other traditional buildings.
MATCH YA
The portal site that connects owners and those who wish to inherit or utilize Kyo-machiya in order to ensure their proper preservation and succession.
https://kyoto-machisen.jp/matchya/(※Only available in Japanese)
Volume 3: Ms. Akiko Fukushi (Fonz Co., Ltd., the company running the Kyoto Moyashi House)
Fonz Co., Ltd., based in Karuizawa, is a company that runs restaurants, bakeries, etc. around Japan, including the Tokyo metropolitan area. The Kyoto Moyashi House, a rental space, is the company’s first business in Kyoto intended to be used for food events or as a guesthouse.
Below is an interview with Ms. Akiko Fukushi, the manager of the Kyoto Moyashi House, who has been involved in this project since the facility’s opening in 2015.
1. A question everyone probably wants to ask: What does “moyashi” mean?
“Behind this building is a former factory. When I heard that the factory had produced ‘moyashi’ long ago, I thought the word meant bean sprouts (“moyashi” in Japanese). However, that was not the case. Instead, I was taught that the factory had been cultivating tane-koji (a mold starter), an indispensable ingredient for kome-koji (molded rice), which brings out a rich flavor and a good body in sake, miso (Japanese flavoring made by fermented soy beans) and soy sauce. The mold starter is called “moyashi” in the industry. The factory had three chambers for that purpose. That’s why we named this facility the “Kyoto Moyashi House.”
2. Location
The Kyoto Moyashi House is located within a stone’s throw of Nishi Hongwan-ji Temple, a component of the World Cultural Heritage site. It is within walking distance from Kyoto Station and near Gojo Station on the subway.
Many addresses in Kyoto include the names of both streets from north to south and from east to west. The address of the Kyoto Moyashi House is “Aburanokoji-dori Hanayacho-agaru.” Aburanokoji-dori is a historic street that has been called by that name since the Heian Period (circa the end of the 8th century to the end of the 12th century). A theory explains that the name “Hanayacho-dori” (literally, “Florist Street”) came from many florists located there to sell flowers to be offered to Higashi Hongan-ji and Nishi Hongwan-ji Temples. (The word “agaru” means “northward.”)
The building of the Kyoto Moyashi House is an over-120-year-old Kyo-machiya. Newspaper found in a mud wall during the renovation of the building was dated 1893, providing evidence of the estimated age of the building.
3. Kyo-machiya found by chance
Fonz Co., Ltd., the owner and operator of the Kyoto Moyashi House, is based in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture. As of April 2021, it ran 51 food-related businesses around Japan, mainly in the Tokyo metropolitan area, under the names of Kawakami-an（川上庵）, Suju（酢重）, Sawamura（沢村）, THE CITY BAKERY and so on.
Managed with a prime focus on cuisine, space design and service, those businesses show a strong commitment to creativity.
Ms. Fukushi explains the connection between the Kyoto Moyashi House and Fonz Co., Ltd. as follows:
“President Masashi Koyama found this Kyo-machiya by chance when he was preparing to establish a business in Kyoto. When we considered how to renovate the building, we realized that its use as a restaurant or accommodation facility would require large-scale renovation for accessibility and comfort, making it difficult to maintain the building’s cozy atmosphere unique to an old house. President Koyama seems to have strongly desired to avoid this result. Therefore, we chose to use the building as a rental space in order to enable as many people as possible to experience the charms of a Kyo-machiya. We requested Mr. Shigenori Uoya, an architect from Kyoto, to design the renovation of the building. President Koyama has a very sharp eye for various things and is a perfectionist concerning space design, so I suppose Mr. Uoya had to work very hard on this project.”
The first floor of the main building of the current Kyoto Moyashi House maintains its original layout, with a ground-level corridor stretching from the front of the building to its depth and a series of Japanese-style rooms (partly wood-floored). Suitably for a space for guests, the first floor has a well-designed sofa placed near a wall and fresh flowers are displayed. The second floor has a wood-floored room, a tea room, a bathroom, etc.
Sliding doors separate the corridor from the courtyard located in the middle of the house, but these doors are easy to open widely to let breezes enter the building. The courtyard is a space that allows users to feel close to nature.
The former factory behind the main building had three chambers for moyashi cultivation. One of those chambers still remains as it was, just as proposed by Mr. Uoya, the designer of the renovated building.
In an architecture magazine article, Mr. Uoya commented as follows:
“The design and on-site supervision of a renovated building necessitate making an appropriate judgment on what reinforcement or repair should be made to the existing building. Rather than returning the building to its original condition or exaggerating the contrast between its former and new forms, I kept in mind the need to accept the current condition of the building that was constructed about a century ago and has since undergone repairs many times, and to renovate it in anticipation that it will be handed down to future generations and repaired and renovated again and again in the future.” (Quoted from the February 2017 issue of Shinkenchiku Jutakutokushu)
He followed this principle when he designed the renovation of the Kyoto Moyashi House as well.
The remaining moyashi chamber is now an important place where people can appreciate the long history of the building.
4. Popular as a rental space
Ms. Fukushi says: “One of the most popular uses of the Kyoto Moyashi House as a rental space has been holding wedding parties, even amid the COVID-19 pandemic. All those who used it for their purpose expressed their satisfaction. In addition, the facility can be used for pre-wedding photo shoots, as a photo studio or a pop-up store for high jewelry or kimono fabrics, or as a venue for seminars provided by companies or universities.”
5. Toward the future
“The family line to which President Masashi Koyama belongs has manufactured Shinshu miso in Nagano Prefecture for generations. Its head family is a long-established miso and soy sauce manufacturer in Komoro City with a history of over 340 years. Mr. Koyama has concurrently served as its president since 2021.
Toward the future, we hope to preserve the Kyoto Moyashi House and show it to as many people as possible while pursuing our original objective of making it a machiya open to creative people coming together from around the world to make something new ‘come into bud’ while handing down the traditional Japanese lifestyle to future generations.”
The Kyoto Center for Community Collaboration, established by the City of Kyoto, is calling for donations to the Kyo-machiya Machizukuri Fund, which subsidizes the cost of renovating Kyo-machiya townhouses. Your donation will be directly used for the preservation of Kyo-machiya.
Kyoto Machiya Machizukuri Fund
Kyoto Center for Community Collaboration
More about Kyo-Machiya — Machiya Vision
Kyoto City is also calling for donations in order to hand down Kyoto’s heritage, including Kyo-machiya, to the future.
