Shimabara and the Sumiya

For my architecture course we had a field trip to Shimabara to see a place called Sumiya. Shimabara was a red-light district established in the mid-17th century outside of the precincts of Kyoto, and the Sumiya was its most high-class establishment (called an ageya) where those with enough means could hold lavish banquets with Tayuu (top-rank courtesans) in attendance. The city of Kyoto has, however, enveloped Shimabara in the years since it was built, so what was once a safe distance from any respectable location in the city is now an easy train ride away from Kyoto station. Sumiya is very big. While it was still a functioning ageya it bought up the buildings on either side and behind it until it almost filled the block it was situated on. The first floor, which has a massive kitchen, a beautiful garden and two very large rooms for partying are open to the public, but if one wishes access to the top floor, where the most lavish and famous rooms are located, a reservation is necessary. On the second floor there is one beautiful and unique room following another, starting with a small room sporting a backsplash made by layering silver over crinkled-paper for an unusual texture and sliding doors decorated with paintings of hanging bamboo screens. The next room’s ceiling is covered in hand-painted paper in the shape of fans, with no two alike. This fan motif is echoed in the door pulls, and the sliding doors on the far end open to reveal a little stage for musicians, which could be entered from an outside passageway. The next room’s most interesting feature was the latticework on the paper screens that let in outside light, which had been carved (rather than bent, as is easier and more usual) in a wavy pattern that tricks the eye into seeing moving, 3d waves. The final room is the most famous, and for good reason. The plaster and ceiling are completely black, partially from a century or so of candle smoke, but also, I believe, by design. Into the wood and plaster all over the room is inlaid mother of pearl in intricate patterns. The windows on the far end are almost gothic in shape, and have glass that was hand-made in Holland back in the 18th century. I can’t even begin to imagine how much that cost. Sumiya was actually a popular hangout for the Shinsengumi (the Shogun’s police force in Kyoto at the end of the Edo period), as their headquarters was not far away. In the mother-of-pearl room, there are several sword slashes on one of the posts, the result of one of the samurai getting angry and/or very drunk. The house as a whole is the only example left of an ageya, and is one of the very rare buildings that has survived from the Edo period intact, having never (even once!) burned down. It is a protected cultural property of some sort (there are many levels), and so is kept in very good condition.
-This was the most beautiful single building that I think I’ve been to since being here. I especially liked its eclectic feel, and the way it combines elements from all the native schools of Japanese architecture freely.
-So as not to disturb the customers’ view of the garden, the roofs over the terraces and porches were made without posts, using a sort of leverage system inside the roof itself to support the overhang.