Itoki Shoten

What Is Itoki Shoten?

Itoki Shoten (伊藤喜商店, Itōki Shōten) is a former soy sauce merchant's property on Matsubara-dori in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, where a street-front Machiya built around 1926 and a detached residence called Muryoshian (無量子庵, Muryōshi-an) behind it together hold five structures registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on July 8, 2008. The five are the Former Store and Main House on the street, and the Muryoshian Main House, Tea Room and Waiting Arbor, Storehouse, and Well.

The address is Rokurocho, a block of Matsubara-dori just east of Yamato-oji and a short walk from the temple of Rokuharamitsuji. The shop side facing the street is lot 100; Muryoshian, to the rear, is lot 100-1.

The property is privately owned. According to Kyoto City, it was built by the grandfather of the present owner.

A Wholesaler of Tatsuno Soy Sauce

Itoki Shoten dealt in soy sauce from Tatsuno, a brewing town in Hyogo Prefecture known for its light-colored usukuchi style. The association of registered property owners in Kyoto describes the business as both wholesale and retail, and Kyoto City adds that the firm also supplied salt, sake, and miso to ryotei, the formal restaurants of the city. In a neighborhood this close to the teahouse districts, that made it a supplier to professional kitchens rather than a corner shop.

A photograph taken at the framing ceremony survives and fixes the construction of the shop in 1926. The same source names the master carpenter and his deputy who built it. The national database gives all five structures as "around 1926."

Muryoshian began as a detached annex for the Ito family. A Buddhist priest later came to live there and gave it its name; Kyoto City identifies him as a priest of Chion-in who rented the house. It is said to date from the same years as the shop, and it is still let as a private home.

The shop building was later leased out and, in 2007, renovated for use as a French restaurant. The work was designed to be reversible, and the original cupboards and cooking range were kept along the earthen passage that runs through the house. Kyoto City lists Itoki Shoten and Muryoshian as No. 68 among its Historic Townscape Buildings, a local designation made under the national law for maintaining historic character in cities; the city's profile gives the year as 2015.

How the Property Is Laid Out

The plot faces north onto Matsubara-dori. The Former Store and Main House lines the street, and Muryoshian sits in the southern half behind it. Kyoto City notes that Muryoshian is reached through a gate on the west side of the shop, by an outdoor path that never passes through the store. Business and private life had separate routes.

The Muryoshian Main House stands near the center of the southern half with its ridge running east to west. The tea room is attached to its north side, and the waiting arbor stands west of the tea room, facing east. To the south, a covered passage links the main house to the storehouse, and the well lies south of the house toward the east, northeast of the storehouse. The four smaller structures close around the house and give the retreat its setting.

• Former Store and Main House (around 1926, renovated 2007; registration no. 26-0311)
• Muryoshian Main House (around 1926; no. 26-0312)
• Muryoshian Tea Room and Waiting Arbor (around 1926; no. 26-0313)
• Muryoshian Storehouse (around 1926; no. 26-0314)
• Muryoshian Well (around 1926; no. 26-0315)

The registrations rest on two different criteria. The shop, the Muryoshian house, and the tea room were registered as models of design. The storehouse and the well were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. In other words, the first three were judged on their own craftsmanship, the last two on the part they play in the ensemble.

Visiting and Access

Itoki Shoten is private property and the grounds are not open to the public. What a visitor can see is the facade of the Former Store and Main House from Matsubara-dori. Muryoshian is a rented home tucked behind the shop and is hard to glimpse from the street at all.

The French restaurant Kishozakura, which occupied the shop, posted a closure notice in February 2025. We could not confirm how the building is used now (checked September 27, 2026), so do not count on being able to go inside as a diner, as visitors once could.

No signs prohibiting photography were found, but Muryoshian is somebody's home. Keep your camera away from the gate and the windows, and photograph the shop front from the street.

The nearest stations are Kiyomizu-Gojo and Gion-Shijo on the Keihan Main Line, each about a 10-minute walk. Kyoto-Kawaramachi on the Hankyu Kyoto Line is about 12 minutes on foot. By car, the property is about 200 meters east along Matsubara-dori from its intersection with Kawabata-dori; there is no visitor parking.