Gion Shinbashi, Kyoto

Gion Shinbashi is a teahouse district in Gion, Kyoto. It was selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings on 4 September 1976. At 1.4 hectares it is small, covering about 160 meters east to west and 100 meters north to south. It is the part of the six Gion towns centered on Shinbashi-dori. Where Sannenzaka spreads along the road linking temples and shrines, this district took shape as a place of entertainment and the performing arts.

The town grew up around the temples and shrines gathered east of the Kamo River, the Gion shrine among them, and around the river itself. By the medieval period it was already a place where popular culture and performing arts flourished. The turning point came in the early Edo period: once embankments were built along the Kamo, the city spread east of the river and Gion grew as a place of entertainment. This district opened as a teahouse quarter after that, in 1712 (Shotoku 2), when the six inner Gion towns were developed following the earlier six outer towns. Its links with theater and the performing arts made it still busier from the end of the Edo period into the Meiji era.

According to the National Council of Traditional Building Preservation Districts, the buildings facing the street were built right after the great fire of 1865 (Genji 2). They have two stories and gabled roofs of pantiles, with the entrance on the side parallel to the ridge (hirairi). What you see from outside is the lattice on the ground floor and, upstairs, the veranda projecting in front of the tatami room with a sudare screen hanging from it. Look first at the relation between the first-floor lattice and the second-floor room, and at the shadows of the projecting veranda and the screen under the eaves. The individual buildings share a form, and the fact that the whole street was built in the same period gives it a quiet unity.

In the history of preservation, after Kyoto enacted its cityscape ordinance in 1972, it designated the Gion Shinbashi area (1.4 hectares, about 100 houses) as a special conservation and restoration district in 1974. It became a national district in 1976. In recent years, as visitors increased, the community has recognized problems with litter and visitor manners. As residents decreased, livelihoods changed and local ties weakened, the Gion Shinbashi Townscape Council was formed by residents and business operators and was certified on 26 May 2017. Its townscape plan was certified by the city on 1 August 2018, and anyone planning construction in the district must now consult the council before filing the required procedures.

To combine it with its surroundings, Sannenzaka, selected on the same day, has the contrasting character of a temple-and-shrine town along the pilgrimage road. Changing what you look for makes the difference clear: slopes and steps at Sannenzaka, the aligned rows of townhouses at Gion Shinbashi. This quarter is also a place where people live today, so take care where you stop and how you take photographs in the lanes.